Εlectrolux future of professional laundry

Electrolux challenges students to innovate the future of professional laundry

How can professional launderettes and drycleaners look in the future? That was the mission of 26 students at a recent hackathon hosted by The Research Hub by Electrolux Professional at the HSB Living Lab in Sweden. Electrolux arranged a 24-hour sprint to prototype new ways to use washing machines in a laundry. 26 student participants from six different countries participated in a recent so called “Designathon”. The HSB Living Lab hosted the event at Chalmers University in Gothenburg, Sweden. This is part of a 10-year research project, in collaboration between academia, industry and local government.

“As the interaction between users and equipment is becoming central to current and future product development, we also wanted to see how users of tomorrow would like to interact with our machines, with fresh eyes and open minds,” says Silvana Johansson, Head of Category Business Unit Laundry.

“The proposals suggested ways of interaction with a focus on ergonomics, usability and sustainability,” says Johansson. The jury selected three winners based on the environmental and customer value of their idea; the creativity and ease of implementation of the idea; and the level of concretization of the prototype.