Heide Museum of Modern Art

Heide II

In 1963 John and Sunday Reed, owners of the Heide property, commissioned the building of a new home, which was to become known as Heide II. The Reeds asked Victorian architect David McGlashan, of architectural firm McGlashan and Everist, to design the house, which is now viewed as an exhibition space at Heide Museum of Modern Art.

The Reeds’ brief to McGlashan specified that Heide be invested with a sense of romance and agelessness; to have the mysteriousness of a ruin but function as ‘a gallery to be lived in’. McGlashan’s interpretation of this brief was to create a modernist house that is now recognised as one of Victoria’s most influential buildings of the last 50 years.

Heide II exterior
Photographer: unknown c.1980s
Heide Museum of Modern Art archives
© Heide Museum of Modern Art

Heide II’s unique design features a series of L-shaped interlocking walls that form a sequence of internal and external rooms. To provide a neutral background for the Reeds’ vast, private collection of art, McGlashan used only five materials throughout the house: Mount Gambier limestone, terrazzo, treated pine, glass and leather. Heide II is a reflection of the Reeds’ pioneering vision for contemporary art and design, a precursor to their vision of establishing an art museum.

On completion, Heide II was acclaimed by leading architects and awarded the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Bronze Medal for the Best Building in all categories erected in Victoria.

Heide II exterior
Photographer: unknown c.1980s
Heide Museum of Modern Art archives
© Heide Museum of Modern Art

Heide II living room facing east 1968
Photographer: Wolfgang Sievers
Heide Museum of Modern Art Collection
Gift of the artist 1992
© Wolfgang Sievers

Currently showing in Heide II is Order and dissent: works from the Heide Collection until 1 March 2009.