The top 25 entries of the Electrolux Design Lab 2010 competition are out. Participants were asked to focus on "The 2nd Space Age" by designing a home environment for the year 2050 when 74% of the world's population is expected to live in urban areas. Entries addressed the areas of food prep and storage, as well as laundry and dish washing. The expected compact dishwashers and washing machines are thrown in the mix, some requisite anthropomorphism elicits smiles, and a few provoking materials keep things interesting. You can see all the entires here. Check out Berty Bhuruth's "Instinct Vacuum Cleaner" (aka "the Sheep-like Cleaner") that dutifully cleans while you surf the web; Yuriy Dmitriev's Bio Robot Refrigerator from Russia that literally tackles "Cool, Green, Food Preservation" by proposing to chill your edibles with bright chartreuse luminescent biopolymer gel (Pictured above. Also cryptically defined as looking "like boot process products"-?); and several entries even do away with the need for physical food altogether by bringing the Jetson-ian regime to life with food replacement systems.

It's always a treat to imagine what might come next in our domestic spaces, but we got to wondering what would happen if Electrolux considered more than just small spaces for the future. With growing urbanization, that human touch in design would help us all feel better about living in our single-bed-studio-apartments. Imagine teaming some of these entries up with the poetic likes of designer Michael Harboun, whose Living Kitchen incorporates Claytronics technology to create a truly responsive environment. Or throwing Joan Healy's Sound-Activated Dancing Pork Chop in there to get form, function and, well...a new way to think about "grinding meat." It might make you chuckle, but let's not forget that the future can't be all work and no play.

Living Kitchen

Dancing Pork Chop

Meat Market from Joan Healy on Vimeo.