A month ago, Dyson and Airbnb teamed up to run a competition — something between a guessing game and a treasure hunt, or a real-life version of GeoGuessr. The prize was a weekend’s stay in an unlisted, one-of-a-kind Airbnb listing — which turned out to be a pop-up apartment on the roof of Tonic House in Melbourne, stacked full of Dyson gadgets and inventor James Dyson’s design icons.
After a fortnight’s clue-hunting, 30,000 participants (including what seemed like the entire OzBargain community) stumbled on the correct answer, the rooftop bar at Tonic House in Melbourne’s Flinders Lane. Waiting for the winners was a pretty damn impressive structure and a unique experience. The entire prize pack was worth nearly $50,000, and included a spa treatment, a $1000 gift card and return flights to Melbourne.
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The Dyson Hidden House itself was a geodesic dome — designed and refined in the late 1940s by architect and designer Buckminster Fuller (and also itself half of a molecule of buckminsterfullerene), for which he received US Patent No. 2682335 — with a single door for access. The winners had the entire rooftop of Tonic House to themselves for the weekend, along with a personal butler.
Inside the Hidden House, every inclusion was chosen as a nod to Dyson founder and long-time inventor James Dyson’s interests and inspirations — everything from the Husky bar fridge to the Eames lounge chair and ottoman. Even the rug was a design from Deidre Dyson. The room was packed with Dyson technology, too — two Air Multiplier fans, and a V6 Absolute vacuum — 15 of which were the prize for daily competition winners in the search for the house.
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The pop-up apartment was furnished with a few more iconic design inspirations of Dyson’s, too — including a classic Mini Cooper, a British Airways Concorde. If you’re wondering how you can get your own geodesic dome tent, too, it’s apparently entirely possible, although they’re not cheap. An Australian company will even tell you how to build your own geodesic home.
Dyson’s new CSYS LED lighting lamps, on their way to Australia next year, were also in attendance. The Hidden House was the start of what should be an ongoing partnership between Dyson and Airbnb, with the former holding regular workshops and meet-and-greets with Australia’s most prolific Airbnb hosts, and giving away vacuums for both hosts and their guests to try.
Questions, comments, tips? You can find me on Twitter at @csimps0n.