23/04/2021
Our collaboration with Heide Museum of Modern Art, Open Work and Lovell Chen on the Heide Doll’s House has been completed and is now open to the public.
In 1934, founders of Heide, John and Sunday Reed purchased this property which had formerly been a dairy farm. This structure, which came to be known as the “Doll’s House”, was used by the Reed’s as a dairy shed while they managed their farm and artist’s colony.
Over the last 70 years, the Doll’s House had fallen into disrepair and for the past 10 years, Heide put plans into action on how to best restore the building and rejuvenate the surrounding gardens.
The restoration was not a straightforward process. Due to the Heritage Overlay on the building, the shell could not be removed and needed to be propped up by supports while all components of the build had to be reproduced on-site using traditional carpentry techniques. Where possible, materials were either reused or substituted like-for-like.
Now completed, the Doll’s House acts as an exhibition space with sculptures by Aleks Danko which playfully reference the name of the building. In addition to the sculptures, a to-scale photograph of the dilapidated structure has been hung to show what state the building was in prior to restoration.
Photography: Clytie Meredith
Video: Lucie Jamieson
