Site Overview
site name:
Heide 2
other names:
Reed House
architect(s):
McGlashan & Everist
date of completion:
1965
address:
7 Templestowe Rd, Bulleen, VIC
protection status:
– Victorian Heritage Register (H1494)
– National Trust of Australia Heritage Register Victoria (B4374)
– DOCOMOMO Australia
awards:
Bronze Medal 1968
Description
Heide II was designed for the noted art patrons and collectors John and Sunday Reed on their estate on the banks of the Yarra at Bulleen. The house was built in Mt Gambier limestone, timber and glass, and massed as a series of L-shaped masonry walls interlocking to form a sequence of internal and external rooms of space, a sophisticated De-Stijl composition in plan and volume. The large multi-level house contains a large bedroom suite, a sunken sitting area with a massive fireplace, an open height living/dining area, a gallery space and a self-contained studio/bedroom wing for their adopted son, Sweeney Reed. Each space has its own external court, all of which interconnect to form a maze of outdoor rooms.
In 1980, the Reeds sold Heide II to the State Government of Victoria. The house was converted into an art gallery and opened as a public museum, Heide Museum of Modern Art, in 1981. Various additions have been made to the gallery and sculpture garden, including major building additions in 1993 by Andrew Andersons, and in 1999-2006, including restoration of both Heide I and II, by O’Connor + Houle in association with Bryce Raworth.
Text adapted from an entry by Philip Goad in Australia Modern: Architecture, Landscape and Design 1925-1975, Hannah Lewi and Philip Goad (2019, Thames and Hudson).