Lyon House Museum

The Lyon House/Museum was founded after architect John Lyon visited a retrospective exhibition of Australian artist Albert Tucker at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). He decided to take his modest savings and invest in a work for himself. Gallery owner, Georges Mora instead encouraged him to invest in works by artists who were his peers. The result is now a stunning collection of contemporary works including pieces by Howard Arkley, Patricia Piccinini, Callum Morton, Brook Andrew and Daniel von Sturmer.

The building itself is a rare hybrid, a residence designed in part as public space, with a use of 'viewing' rarely associated with 'dwelling'. The scale and starkness of the interior would make for a strange Sunday morning paper read, we would love to see more on how the interface of actually living in such a space is achieved. It is exciting to see a house designed for an individual to such an extent and not to the market or society norms. Does John Lyon actually live and breathe art and the building therefore is a perfect fit for purpose for him as an individual?

The museum is his house and is open by appointment for school visits. The Housemuseum project is also up for a 2010 Victorian Premier’s Design Award. If we get to Melbourne it would be great to see.

More images and information available on http://lyonhousemuseum.com.au/