Hasta La Ideas

This week on Dezeen, Dyson crafted 44 engineering challenges for children during the coronavirus lockdown and Frank Lloyd Wright residences opened their doors for virtual tours.

The James Dyson Foundation devised 22 science tasks and 22 engineering activities for kids to try out while isolating at home during the coronavirus pandemic, after schools in many countries were closed.

Challenges include making an egg fit into a bottle without breaking it, making a balloon-powered car and constructing a bridge from spaghetti.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation also encouraged people to stay at home by opening the doors of 12 of its properties, including Fallingwater, Hollyhock House and Taliesin West, to virtual tours.

Launched on 2 April, the tours were posted to the foundation’s websites, Facebook and Instagram accounts and will continue every Thursday for six weeks to provide access to the residences while in-person tours are postponed.

Architects and brands, including Foster + Partners, Nike, and Apple,  joined the fight against Covid-19 by producing face shields this week.

Foster + Partners created a laser-cut face shield that can be disassembled and sanitised so that it can be reused, while Apple’s piece of personal protective equipment is made of three pieces – the face shield, forehead strap and silicone strap.

Others that used  their skills to create face shields, included graduates from the Rhode Island School of Design and researchers at the University of Cambridge and the University of Queensland.

Dezeen announced the names of some of its cultural partners who will be contributing to Virtual Design Festival, which launches on 15 April.

Collaborators include designer Ron Arad, artist Lucy McRae, Serpentine Galleries, Dutch Design Week and trend forecaster Li Edelkoort.

Dezeen also teamed up with Samsung to launch a global competition that tasks designers with creating household objects that can be made by repurposing cardboard packaging.

The Samsung Out of the Box Competition is open for entries until 29 May 2020. The contest is free to enter for anyone over the age of 18 and features prize money totalling $20,000.

Home offices and accessories were also in focus this week. We rounded up 10 essential items to help you set up your remote working environment, as well as eight examples of stylish home office set-ups.

Furniture pieces include a makeshift desk fashioned from a shelf, a storage container by Hay and a Wastberg lamp that doubles up as a Macbook charger.

Other projects that Dezeen readers enjoyed this week were the Mai bag by Nendo made from a single sheet of laser-cut leather, a 25-square-metre micro-apartment in Italy, and a trefoil-shaped house by architecture studio Eldridge London.

The post This week, Dyson kept kids entertained and Frank Lloyd Wright gave virtual tours during lockdown appeared first on Dezeen.