For this 5th year of the Electrolux Design Lab competition they are seeking submissions for household appliances that are environmentally
sound, commercially-viable and enable people to better live in harmony with the environment. The goal is to get the applicants to go above and beyond simple energy and water efficiency and suggest ways to foster sustainable behavior and product usage.

Electrolux Design Lab, over the previous years, has attracted thousands of applicants from over 80 countries and some of those concepts submitted are now actually in the early stages of development. The grand prize is 5,000 Euros and a six-month internship at one of Electrolux´s design centers. This year the gala dinner and award ceremony will take place at the end of November in Paris!

Ultra contemporary Czech Design will be presented
for the first time in several New York venues.

“This very different exhibition will provide an interactive atmosphere in
which Americans can experience Czech contemporary art in various formats.”

New -York, NY (May 19, 2007)—–“Meet Contemporary Czech Design”
exhibition opens on May 19th, 2007 and will run through September 12, 2007 in different locations throughout Manhattan.

This is an opportunity to exchange ideas with these creative individuals. It is also a chance to talk to these outstanding designers and to discover that the Czech Republic excels in more than “beer and models.” Admission to most events is free.

The exhibition covers six areas: furniture, glass, jewelry, product design, graphic design and decorative accessories. Approximately 400 items will be on display.

Please visit, www.czechcenter.com for detailed information on the artists and locations where they present their work.

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via CORE77:
The Czech Center New York launched it’s exhibition series “Meet Contemporary Czech Design” this weekend which will run through till September 12, 2007 in different locations throughout Manhattan. The opening party tonight featured furniture from SYMBIOdesign & Jerry Koza and the fashion-design-style magazine Blok. The design studio Qubus left quite an impression with their baby doll head candle holders “little Joseph” at this years ICFF.

Upcoming events will cover the lastest work from Czech designers in furniture, glass, jewelry, product design, graphic design and decorative accessories.

“Intercity: Berlin – Praha” is the title of Josef Vomácka’s German-Czech exhibition concept, which focuses on a different artistic discipline each year, over a period of 10 years. The exhibitions are presented in Prague first, followed by Berlin. In this third year, the exhibition focuses on design.

Eight designers from Prague and eight of their Berlin counterparts will board the Intercity, which is curated by DMY initiator Joerg Suermann on the German side, and by Designblok curators Jirí Macek and Jana Zielinski on the Czech side. Following the initial presentation at the Designblok Prague – the Czech Republic’s foremost design festival – in October 2006, the retrospective will be presented by the DMY within the framework of the Designmai 2007 at Stilwerk, Berlin.

The Berlin designer crew: Bless, Fuchs+Funke, Metrofarm, Osko+Deichmann, Susanne Philippson, Andrea Pössnicker, Florinda Schnitzel, Jan Philipp Wittrin

The Prague designer crew: Jan Capek, Radana & Pavel Ivancic, Jerry Koza, Daria Podboj, René Sulc, Zdenek Vacek, Maxim Velcovsky, Hana Zárubová

Exhibition set: Radim Babák, Ondrej Tobola

Preceding the official start of the DMY – Designmai Youngsters 5th edition, the special exhibition “Intercity: Berlin – Praha” organised in cooperation with the Designmai opens on May 3, 2007.

Duration of the exhibition: May 4 – 26, 2007, Mon-Sun 10 a.m.-10 p.m.

I have found couple of design reports at various blogs and design news sites and here they are together. We start with CORE 77 with their daily coverages from Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Now we jump to Flickr where you can find photo sets from Berlin. Another set by salomon74. Also at the DMY-BERLIN you can find more pictures, here and here. If you will find more sources please post it to the comments.

Next designer or designer studio/group who has been exhibiting at Salone Satelite in Milan 2007 is MishMash Project from Moscow, Russia. Short description of project is under picture.

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BAMBOO LAMP
The floor torch consists of 3 mildly radiant segments connected with flexible joints on a round base. With help of stiff and flexible connections one can bend the torch to create a variety of shining curves.

Details at: http://mishmash.ru/bambooeng.htm

Unfortunately we couldn’t visit Belgrade design week 2007 but we have found little report on dezeen.com.
And here are additional information about design week from icone magazine, frame magazine, Italian-design-centre.co.yu and see some photos at flickr. If you know about some other articles or photo reports please post it in comments.

Art Academy of Latvia has been exhibited at Salone Satelite 07. They showed project made by its students and tutors with name minimum / maximum. Idea was “minimal use of means, maximal result. So new designers had a problem to solve. This problem solving was based on everyday life in Western culture which can easily be described today in one word – RUSH!!! “. Lets see their works and stand at the fairground in Milan.

Kaspars Jursons Chiks

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Maximally space saving and easy transformable seat what gives a solution of relaxational problems when there’s nothing to sit on.

Janis Valdmanis Yoke

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The Yoke facilitates carrying of bottles. Don’t forget that man has to drink 2 liters of water every day.

Gundega Zake Godspeed

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The Godspeed is a new kind of prayer bench which is easy to use in different positions.
Parallel to its main function, it could also be used as a bench at home, school, clubs, sport hall etc.

Indra Merca Easy Cup

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A collapsible cup for people in a hurry. It is easy transformable into a business card.

Stand at the fairground Salone Satelite 07

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Means of saving energy, materials and recourses are becoming more and more important. We don’t have enough space in the city as well as in our houses and apartments but the number of our needs is increasing. Consumer society is swimming in goodies and stuff. That is main idea of the stand – keep our daily needs by refusing unreasonable use of space, materials and resources. – just like V. Caps (inventor of Minox) did in the 30’s when he refused the huge photo camera which could be used only by professionals. Today designers are not only creators of things. They also share responsibility of overproduction and harm to the environment caused by industries. Today’s designer offers his help.

Other designer who has been exhibiting at Salone Satelite 07 is Jasna Mujkic from Bosnia and Herzegovina with her arm chair project: FIELD. Here is the photo of design at the fairground and authors description.

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Authors own words:
The idea for a Field armchair is mostly generated by my experience of having a baby. When mother is holding a baby in her lap, her body can adapt to any position that will respond to baby’s needs, sitting, reclining, sleeping. That is a kind of flexibility that we could hardly find anywhere else. My basic idea was to give a small amount of that flexibility to an armchair, so I changed some fixed points and gave them quality of movement.

A small, light armchair has the ability to transform into an easy chair. It is an upholstered metal frame with locking joints. The new thing is lightness and possibility of transformations to suit our needs. The space is not occupied by an object; it is more likely enriched through transformations.

Inez Kochanowicz has visited exhibition in Warszawa – Poland. She wrote about it couple weeks ago – My World. The New Subjectivity in Design and now she brought some pictures from there.

Link to Photo report.

We continue on showcase of designers works at Salone Satelite 2007 from eastern and central Europe a today are here designs from Linda Lakstina Lakstigala from Riga – Latvia. So lets see.

Fiorito - a table for partys which is posible to divide into zones where to serve fingerfood and snacks when entertaining. The elements not used for zoning the table you can use as buffet plates with wine glass holder. So you have the freedom needed to easily mingle at partys.

Mobilis - variable shelf unit system. Designed for unlimited variations in your interior. All variations are posible due to the simple axial conections from the principles of bionics.