Miito: Reimagining the Way We Heat Water

In the product design documentary, Objectified, Jonathan Ive reflects on the role of a designer:

The big definition of who you are as a designer, it’s the way that you look at the world… you’re constantly looking at something and thinking, ‘Why is it like that? Why is it like that, and not like this?’

Designers are always asking questions about how we interact with products, and how we can create a better solution.

Nils Chudy, a Design Academy Eindhoven graduate, questioned the use of an electric tea kettle. He realized that most tea kettle users drink 50% or less of the water they just heated. This leads to a high amount of energy wasted on boiling water. “In the past years nothing much has happened with kettles, except they have more power and therefore waste more energy.

We believe it is time to rethink the way we do things,” he said in an interview with Dezeen. Chudy and his fellow designer, Jasmina Grase, found a solution to this unnecessary energy consumption and created Miito.

Miito is an electromagnetic product that directly heats the water in the vessel being used, like a mug, or small teapot. It includes an induction plate/ base and a metal rod. To use, simply place the filled vessel on the plate, and submerge the rod into the liquid.

The rod heats up due to the now-created electromagnetic field, and heats the surrounding liquid. The rod’s silicone end protects users from the heat and visually indicates where they’re intended to hold it.

Chudy and Grase’s invention has also recently earned its spot in the top twenty for the James Dyson Award, and was just shown at Dutch Design Week 2014 in Eindhoven.

Too often we define a sustainable product by its materials, but Miito broadens that perspective. It’s a sustainable product because it reduces the amount of energy and water that is wasted by our current habits.

Miito is not currently on the market, but I believe it won’t be long before it is.

Design Academy Eindhoven · diseño industrial · energía · internet de las cosas IoT