New galleries adjacent to Melbourne’s Lyon Housemuseum, called the Lyon Housemuseum Galleries, are set to open this month.

Open six days a week, the new space will offer a platform for a significant footfall increase at the museum, whose main building is only open by appointment for two or three days a month.

Corbett Lyon, the architect behind the main Housemuseum, has also designed the new galleries, which feature large exhibition spaces specifically built to house large-scale artworks and installations.

"We're extremely excited by plans for the new public galleries and this potential to foster experimentation, ideas and conversations across disciplines between artists, architects, designers and members of the public to enrich and add to our cultural life," said Lyon.

The expansion will allow the museum to put on a programme of changing exhibitions, alongside events on architecture, design and art, and will double Housemuseum’s total footfall. The new galleries debut with work from more than a dozen Australian artists, who have created new works for the inaugural exhibition.

The project has cost AU$14.8m (US$10.4m, €9.2m, £7.9m) to build and will open this month – several months later than planned – with the venture operating on a non-profit basis and run by the couple’s Lyon Foundation charity.