Prizewinning Swedish package design

The Swedish research institute Innventia and design studio Tomorrow Machine have been awarded The Dieline Sustainable Packaging Award 2013 for the “Sustainable Expanding Bowl”. The result of this unique collaboration between materials scientists and designers are an expanding and self-opening food packaging in a new mechano-active cellulose based material that would lead to significant reductions in transport costs. The award was presented on 23 June in connection with the Dieline Package Design Conference 2013 in San Francisco. The award-winning package has already met worldwide interest on design and material blogs. Photos and videos show the initially compact package grow as the hot water is added, and finally open up ready for the meal. The ingenious construction has been designed by Anna Glansén and Hanna Billqvist at the design studio Tomorrow Machine, in a unique collaboration with materials scientists at Innventia. The starting point for the designers was the features of the material itself, a cardboard with active properties that respond to heat and moisture. Thanks to the expanding function, the package size is minimized which will avoid transporting air in the package. Normally, this type of food packaging consists of as much as two-thirds air.