From commercial beginnings to fast, quiet heat pump dryers, ASKO’s laundry designs reach far higher than domestic expectations.
The current hero is a heat pump dryer that pushes against the category’s reputation for slowness. “The challenge with heat pumps is readily apparent. It’s very energy efficient, but slow. We have managed to make it one of the fastest in the business,” says Pernilla Döse, industrial designer and design manager at ASKO Appliances.
Balancing the trifecta of speed, energy efficiency and acoustic comfort is the ultimate triumph. “It’s not hard to make it fast if it doesn’t have to be energy efficient. Similarly, it is not hard to make it quiet if it’s not fast, because you have the noise from the air. But we have optimised all three elements really, really well, in a very nice balance,” says Döse.
Durability is anchored in careful attention to materiality, and therefore costlier componentry. “To increase the lifespan of a tumble dryer, you need to protect the heat exchanger from dust and lint,” Döse explains. “We do that by having three mesh or lint filters at the three vulnerable locations. This of course costs money, but we have included them from a durability point of view.” Moreover, by creating a simple filter system that is easy to use, the likelihood of regular cleaning in significantly increased.
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For architects and interior designers, the ASKO proposition is not just about performance, but also about how these machines sit within broader material and spatial narratives.
In Europe and Asia, it is increasingly common for both washing machines and dryers to be incorporated into kitchens, a trend that is starting to be seen in Australia, particularly in the pied-a-terre and small house typologies. As such, both are offered in three colourways designed to work with contemporary kitchens as well as laundries: a classic white with a slightly blue cast “to keep it hygienic, fresh,” a graphite black that aligns with ASKO’s ovens, and a softly metallic mid-grey.
“Because it is not pitch black,” Döse says of the graphite finish, “it will blend nicely, I feel, with wooden panels of various sorts.”
