IT’S A DORNEY!

Carol Drew has called the Esmond Dorney-designed “Jarvis House” at Bellerive home for 40 years. Sharing many of those years with husband Ray and children David and Emily-Jayne, Carol has improved and extended a home that was unique in design but modest in scale.

Designed and built for the Jarvis family, Carol and Ray took on the task of restoring and expanding the house to accommodate their growing family. When they moved in, the house wasn’t exactly a Dorney dream.

“The house was very, very dark,” Carol says. “The dust was as thick as your fingers. The ceiling was burgundy, the wallpaper was dark. Nobody thought I would survive in it. People thought, what we’d bought, was a bit of a joke.” She says the house may not have survived if they had not taken a chance on it. “We were up against developers at the auction, and they were going to knock it down,” she says.

Luckily, Jarvis House remained a family home, albeit with issues. They encountered a suite of problems behind the striking facade, mostly relating to the use of plasterboard instead of masonite. “They [the Jarvises] went to probably the most expensive architect in Hobart and finished it off cheaply.”

Today, it looks a far cry from Carol’s description of how she and Ray found it, while retaining signature Dorney features including expansive glazing and its striking curved ceiling. Embarking on a two year labour of love, Carol and Ray extended the rear of the house by 2m, added a master bedroom and study and removed later additions to the original floor plan. “We did everything ourselves, with help from a builder. We got the kitchen done first and we built out the back to make a garage and teenagers retreat.”

Living in the house, the “Dorney effect” took hold, shaping the way the family lived, entertained and connected with the outdoors. “We had formal dinner parties at our previous house, but I wouldn’t dream of having a formal dinner party here. Here it’s a barbecue, easy come, easy go. I think living in a Dorney, you kind of go with the flow.”

Esmond Dorney lived in Hobart from 1948 until his death in 1991. He is considered

Tasmania’s foremost modernist architect since World War II. Starting in architecture in Melbourne, Dorney designed buildings around Hobart and is known for “Dorney House” at Fort Nelson and heritage-listed Long House, in Sandy Bay, locally known as the “Butterfly House”.

Carol showed a strong interest in architecture from a young age. After designing her first house at 10, she pursued a career in architecture, which proved difficult for an ambitious young woman. “When I was 16, I wanted to study architecture so I approached a well known builder in Hobart, because I felt that to be a good architect, I needed to know about construction,” she says. “He said to me that I would distract the fellas and that I’d probably fall off a ladder. I was just dismissed.”

Carol’s second shot yielded a similar response when working as a government road designer, a clear pathway to an architecture cadetship. “After six months they said there’s not much use in training a female because they’ll just get married and leave, which you had to do in those days, or they’ll have babies. So I was dismissed again for being a female. How things have changed.”

Carol relished the chance to open the doors of Jarvis House to visitors for the annual Open House Hobart architecture festival. It initiated a bond between her and Esmond Dorney’s architect son Paddy; a passionate proponent of his late father’s work. “Paddy has become a real friend,” Carol says. “We both have a connection with this house, and he appreciates that I’ve respected his dad’s work.”

Meanwhile, Jarvis House continues to be a labour of love and is a place filled of memories, and now grandchildren. Carol doesn’t know what its future holds, explaining that it will probably not remain in the family and will eventually be sold to the highest bidder, hopefully one who appreciates the Dorney design as much as she does.

Carol will open her doors during the Open House Hobart weekend on November 9 and 10. Other Dorney buildings open for Open House include Australia’s first modernist church, the St Pius X Catholic Church in Taroona, and Dorney House at Fort Nelson. More than 80 buildings of all shapes, sizes and architectural styles will be opened as part of this year’s open house program.

The Open House Hobart program can be found at https://openhousehobart.org