Meyer-Hayoz is an industrial design and engineering firm based in Winterthur, Switzerland. They've created this designey Tomorrow laundry drying rack for Stewi, a Swiss manufacturer of laundry drying products:

"Our cooperation with Stewi is characterised by the guiding idea of imparting new impulses to a traditional enterprise by means of design," writes Meyer-Hayoz.

There's also a companion valet and hamper.

"The elegant, contemporary appearance of the products are aimed at appealing to customers also in upmarket homes and in this way to new target groups."

"The binding design element and the identifying feature of the series is the patented joint by which the products can be folded together very flat."

All three products have powder-coated aluminum frames. The rack is CHF 279 (USD $309); the valet, CHF 139 (USD $154); and the hamper is CHF 199 (USD $221).

My kneejerk reaction was, Holy cow, people who can afford to drop $684 on the set actually do their own laundry?

My second reaction was, as an American, envy. Switzerland is a country where people appreciate design refinement and have the earning power to afford it. The American product landscape for domestic basics, at least as evinced by the Walmarts near most of us, are such junk. I doubt any of Stewi's products will be left out for the trash collectors in a year or two.