Several young designers and engineers featured in this year’s Made in Brunel showcase have focussed upon innovative and practical designs for the home, including a fruit bowl which alerts the user when food is starting to go off, a funky non-spill cup concept and a travel smoke alarm for the modern family that can send and receive texts.
The exhibition, which showcases the innovations of young designers and engineers from Brunel University’s School of Design and Engineering, opens at The Bargehouse on London's South Bank from Thursday 13 - Sunday 16 June 2013.
Orb is a new, funky cup concept by Ollie Brown, designed to reduce the amount of spillage created if knocked on a table, or when being carried around. Orb helps tackle drink spillages that can occur in a variety of places, and has the potential to help a range of people. Orb could be used within all-inclusive hotels, bars or even just around the home.
Jagjit Chodha has designed an eye-catching Fruit Bowl to Reduce Avoidable Food Waste in the Home. Statistics show that 440,000 tonnes of fruit is wasted each year from our homes in the UK. The solution is a sensor system contained within fruit bowl to notify the user when the fruit is beginning to rot, reminding the user to eat the fruit and thus reducing food waste. The system detects ethylene levels that are released during the ripening process and when levels increase this acts as the trigger.
In the UK alone, 10.3 million households put four or more wash loads on per week, with 37% of people considering laundry to be the worst household chore. Steve Turner has developed Tumble, a product that provides an alternative way of transporting laundry, by using hands and feet to roll laundry around the home.
Inclusion is a major theme of this year’s showcase. Following extensive research, Kouros Golestaneh has produced an inclusive tray design that utilises the lower torso for stability. The project reduces demands on the user, allowing them greater independence. Incorporating aesthetics into the form will encourage the average user to also purchase the tray, reducing the stigmatisation often associated with a ‘specialist product’.
Families who regularly travel to obscure locations where accommodation is less likely to have high safety standards will be interested in Paul Scopes’ travel smoke alarm design Echo. Echo uses a docking station so that it can be mounted for home use or portable to meet these new travel requirements. Echo also contains GSM technology linked to its smoke sensors, allowing it to send and receive SMS messages to the users mobile phone. This not only allows them to see when the alarm has been triggered, but also to adjust the alarm’s settings and reduce nuisance alarms.
This year’s show focuses on stories of the design and engineering students and how their own personalities and experiences have shaped their innovative products.
Many of the young designers and engineers are set to become industry names of the future and a number of the designs have been developed in collaboration and at the request of leading brands including Coca-Cola, Puma and Rolls-Royce.
Around 300 innovations are expected to catch the eye of consumers, producers and service providers. Previous Made in Brunel exhibitors have landed top jobs at the likes of Jaguar Cars, Porsche Design, Dyson, Burberry and Lastminute.com.
The three day exhibition will include workshops, design forums and talks from leading figures in the design and engineering industry.
For more information about Made in Brunel 2013 please go to the Made in Brunel website, or follow the show on Twitter @madeinbrunel13.