Corbett Lyon likes to do things differently.
"This is a very experimental building," the architect says as we wander through his Housemuseum in Kew, regarded as a world-first blend of residential home and contemporary art museum, housing 350 works by 50 Australian artists.
"Some people thought this was heretic," he says of the windows controversially inserted at the top of the white cube room filled with art by Constanze Zikos. "But when they get upstairs and see the room through the windows, they get it."
The windows do afford a unique, striking birds-eye view of the art within. And they're a hint as to why Lyon has just unveiled an Olympic swimming pool-sized artwork on the base of the yet-to-be built museum next door – painted blue, black, pink and mint green by Melbourne artist Reko Rennie – only to have it built over in a week's time.
"It's going to be be covered by a polished concrete floor, except for a small piece," says Lyon. Rennie has named the 20 metre by 33 metre work Visible Invisible.
"So, going to visit the museum, you'll just see this window in the floor with a bit of colour in it," says Lyon. "It'll be a bit of mystery, if you like."
Rennie's piece, part of which will be visible once the gallery is completed in mid 2018, is the first work to grace the new premises. Lyon acquired the site in 2012 with plans to build a public art museum to complement his original Housemuseum, attended by 1000 visitors annually since it opened in 2009.
The new museum, funded by a $14.5 million donation from Lyon and his wife, Yueji, will be owned and operated by a separate public entity, the Lyon Foundation, and an independent board of directors. While the Housemuseum is only open to the public a few days per month, the new museum, including a cafe and gift shop, will be open six days a week.
Despite strong opposition from some in the community concerned about traffic and disturbance to a residential area (they were also put out by the fact that the original Housemuseum was built and opened without a planning permit) the Lyons' plans for the new museum were approved by Boroondara Council in 2012.
"The general view within the municipality – and the city – now is that this is adding a really significant, new cultural place for Melbourne," he said.
It's hard to argue with that view when you step inside the original Housemuseum, a hybrid that sees the Lyons share their living room with Patricia Piccinini's Truck Babies and pass Howard Arkley's Fabricated Rooms, which featured at the 1999 Venice Biennale, every night on their way to bed.
The Lyons' daughters, both architects, live in "apartments" upstairs and Lyon hopes they will eventually assume governance of the museums.
The first exhibition in the new Housemuseum galleries, slated for June/July 2018, will feature an international artist. Corbett is shy to reveal names but promises someone "very innovative and very adventurous".