RHO, Jason M

For over a century the bread toaster has served a single purpose, and served it well. But it only takes one shape of bread, and it asks for a dedicated appliance on the counter to do it. The brief for RHO was a toaster that gives a fresh experience of making and having toast, and it ended up somewhere else entirely: a flexible, pre-creased heating mat you can bend, fold and twist, that still does the job of a toaster, and also fries, cooks and heats everything from rotis and chapatis to quesadillas, tortillas, omelettes and pancakes.

It was a user-centered project from the start. Research looked at two very different audiences, children (who love variety and get bored fast) and bachelors (fast lives, shifting homes, amateur cooks), and at where existing toasters let people down: timing, safety, bread sizes and cleaning. The panels below walk that arc from research to the resolved product.

Research: market scan of existing toasters, the two target audiences (children and bachelors), and the problem areas, timing, safety, bread sizes and cleaning.

The proposal: a device capable of bending, folding and twisting that still serves the purpose of a toaster.

Technology: a teardown of an existing toaster (heating coils on mica plates, a temperature circuit tied to the pop-up), and the alternative, Carbo e-Therm, a spray-on resistance coating that heats when a current passes through it and survives bending and folding.

Mock-ups in high-density paper, tuning the fold geometry to a range of food sizes and to how easily it could be operated.

The product: bend, roll or fold the mat around whatever you're cooking.

Components: grid-pattern and triangle-panel heating, magnets that hold a fold, a plug-in power connector and removable cord, and a remote dial with on/off, a temperature knob and a grid/panel toggle.

Dimensions: a 370 × 290 mm mat, 3 mm thin, with a palm-sized control dial.

RHO: a toaster that doesn't only toast, but fries, cooks, heats and leaves room for culinary creativity.

The full story on one sheet: the layered construction, the fold configurations for liquids and flatbreads, and the remote interface.

Designed at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. See the full project on Behance →