If you’re a design-loving local reader, you’ve probably heard about Sydney’s iconic Sirius Building in recent weeks. Designed by Tao Gofers for the NSW Housing Department in 1978/79, this Brutalist edifice is one of Sydney’s most distinctive buildings.
A recent decision by the NSW Government has left Sirius without a heritage listing. The intention is to sell the site, and demolish the building for a new private housing development. Thankfully, there are a bunch of people campaigning very hard to try and avert this imminent cultural catastrophe.
In today’s enlightening story, our architecture columnist Stuart Harrison explains the significance of Sirius, and why it’s worth protecting.
Entrance foyer. Laminated timber animal artwork designed by architect Penny Rosier. Photo – Barton Taylor.
Sirius’ distinctive interiors include this timber panelled entrance foyer, adorned with laminated timber animals designed by architect Penny Rosier as part of the original plans, loosely based on prehistoric cave paintings. Photo – Barton Taylor.
Buildings like this tell us how to design well. They are living textbooks, reminding us that good design is for all.
THE ROCKS is a part of one of the two main ridges that define central Sydney. It’s an amazing spot – elevated, and close to the city centre and Harbour Bridge. It’s here that nearly 40 years ago a social housing project grew out of the ridge to create an outcrop of fine Brutalism, that until recently has been home for low income and aged residents.
Sirius is not only a great example of Brutalist Architecture – the raw concrete style of late Modernism – it’s also a perfect example of diversity in housing. This is evident in both who lives here, and the types of dwellings within. There’s a mix of them – two, three and four bedroom dwellings, with balconies, roof gardens, social space – basically all of the things a contemporary housing project needs.
Let’s talk about the history of the building. In the ’70s the government wanted to build a series of residential towers at The Rocks. Protests, green bans and deals done, three options were put forward by the NSW Housing Department’s then architect, Tao Gofers. The one selected by powerful locals was the one now built – a skilful hybrid of traditional forms – Victorian terraces, and the more recent towers of Sydney.
So this great piece of singular design is an intelligent compromise between standard solutions and the over-development of the site – it came into being through negotiation. Tao Gofers, still very much alive, designed a varying building form using a standard module. The rounded ‘boxes’ that make up the building recall the Metabolist experiments of the ’70s (think Capsule Tower Tokyo and Habitat 67 Montreal) – though in Sirius’ case, the apartments each consist of several boxes – it’s more like a Tetris behind the façade.
The building changes from a low three storey to a more tower-like 10 storeys at its highest point. This varying form allows view corridors to be preserved, typically to the Harbour Bridge, but also allows views through the building. The staggered form creates the well-defined edges and profile, and it’s this articulation of form that gives the project its identity, connected through wonderful ‘brute’ concrete.
Sirius uses its roof brilliantly – as roof gardens with coloured vents (these form a colour spectrum across the building). The roof gardens provide private outdoor space, essential for families in urban environments. Communal garden areas and terraces are made with rounded brickwork landscaped areas that soften the building at is base. It’s this attention to the human experience that makes this project, well, human.
Sirius is also cleverly organised – the ‘ins and outs’ provide not only variation to the streetscape, but bring light in to deeper sections of the plan – more surface area creates better amenity. Many dwellings have light access from opposite sides, and this is made possible by the use of isolated sets of stairs and lifts – this also means there are no long nasty corridors that take people to their front doors.
We need to talk politics for a moment. With only five residents left (others have been encouraged to leave) in the 79 dwellings of Sirius, the building is under direct threat of demolition. A recent decision by the NSW Government has left the building without a heritage listing, to maximise its resale value. The intention is to sell the site and demolish Sirius for a new private housing development. Not good!
By housing a diverse range of people in central locales, cities are less likely to become wealthy enclaves and lifeless monocultures. In these situations (and this is happening in cities around the world) workers and others have to travel from outside the city to do their jobs – it’s not an efficient or equitable way for the city to be. Saving Sirius would help stop this trend, and would protect a vital piece of Sydney’s architectural heritage.
So what is heritage? A building of 40 years age, that is an exemplar of a certain style, that represents protest and struggle at the time (and now) fulfils all the requirements of a piece of cultural and architectural heritage.
Buildings like this tell us how to design well. They are living textbooks, reminding us that good design is for all.
Visit Save Our Sirius to learn more and support the campaign to have Sirius protected from demolition.
The inside is just fabulous. I’m sure there are more extraordinary details inside and only time will tell that the decision to keep Sirius will be heralded by all.
Thanks TDF for featuring this building. As a Sydney-sider we have to love, hate, then love our buildings.
What a fabulous building and piece of history with so much personality. It can’t be allowed to be do oilseed. It should be treasured and looked after. What a gem.
Should have said cannot be demolished (damn predictive text)
Can Sirius be converted to luxury apartments or a hotel? If so, how many apartments? Is the government projection of sale price based on a much larger development? Is there a city master plan that limits building size in this area, the Rocks and neighbourhood?
Brutalist architecture gets no respect in this country. Fantastic to see the lobby images. Save Sirius.
What an awesome iconic building and high-five for everyone trying to save it!
Thank you TDF for publishing this post. It is such an important issue.
This is a perfect case study of how unthinking development and gentrification can diminish our culture and our livability rather than improve it.
Sirius is a great example of the kind of residential buildings that we should be creating, however the site is so valuable that many people can only see the potential for creating more money.
Those with the power to do so don’t recognise “Heritage Values” in anything built after about 1915 and certainly don’t appreciate or understand Brutalism.
Development and gentrification are displacing cultural life from inner city areas by prioritising development and dollars over livability and culture. People who have lived in these areas for generations are collateral damage. There is an idea that they don’t “deserve” to live in these areas any more unless they can afford it. (I have a reference but can’t find it quickly). With thoughtful design and decision making, it doesn’t have to be like this.
At first many people didn’t understand the Sydney Opera House, or Federation Square in Melbourne, but over time have come to realise how valuable these places are. It is also important to recognise the difference between something that is simply a building and something that contributes to our livability and culture.
Sirius is a wonderful place and a rare building and we need to fight to keep it.
Better not be Sirius! I LOVE this building every day driving across the Harbour Bridge. So iconic from every single angle. x
Absolutely horrified. I love that building.
When do we say stop!!!! This is a complete waste of of resources and peoples homes.
We watch in horror the news of these sorts of homes being bombed in the Middle East.
We think of all that history etc then think it is a good idea here!!!!! Go figure.
What a great story. I work a lot in the property market and often aid the many super towers and ugly apartment buildings that plague the inner city. I hope the Sirius building is saved. I would love to see it turned into a hotel, I would love to stay here.
Great article about this wonderful building and its proposed demise. Thank you.
Saving this building – might just represent an important turning point in Sydney’s future urban, social and economic fabric. By embracing its diversity Sydney may just become that great world city that it could be!
thank you so much for posting these images, have always loved this building from the outside (different from every angle – you can’t say that about too many contemporary buildings in the city) and to get a peek of the wonderful interiors confirms my belief that removing it is an outright act of cultural vandalism. Save Sirius
An excellent demonstration of well designed public housing – so ahead of its time.
So sad to read about this proposed demolition. ; (
Boutique hotel is an awesome idea – Call out to some enlightened groovy developers !?
Thanks Lucy for shining some light on this building. As a kid I thought this building to be extremely ugly but as I matured and became a fan of brutalist architecture I changed my mind and started to love it. Like most the love is two fold, both the architecture and what it represents. It harks back to the Rocks origins and the ‘fair go’ culture that’s been fostered in this country. What does it say about us on a cultural and community level and the direction we are going if it is pulled down?
Sydney has a shameful history of razing significant architecture ironically many came down around the time The Sirius Building was built such as The Royal Arcade and The Metropole Hotel not to mention the mass destruction of domestic architecture during this time. Lets hope Sydney does not return to those dark times and recognises the importance of The Sirius Building before it is too late.
This is a great discussion that The Design Files and Stuart Harrison have brought to our attention. This building respects the site and through views to the Opera House and the experience of its occupants in a way that buildings constructed purely for profit never do. Stuart’s argument is beautifully explained. It is time to stop pulling down our good modernist buildings. And the fact that the tenants were no doubt low income is another cogent reason for retaining this building instead of pushing them out to the fringes of Sydney.
This was bulit for the poor people in a position only the rich can afford. One can bet a lot of pay off’s from developers have crossed the palms of many in power. This building should never have lost it’s protection listing. Criminal! Sydney you should be ashamed!
At Design Consigned we’re certainly all about, and supportive of, preserving significant design from the past. Such a durable construction should be kept as is regardless, or it could be adapted for many uses in the future if required. What a cool hotel it would make.
Bravo Stuart excellent article, the more on board the better!
We over at MA have been driven to some pretty outrageous action over Sirius of late – anything to save it we say!
https://medium.com/@modernistaustralia/an-open-letter-to-andre-balazs-hotelier-prospect-d5a748c0a0c6#.hhy6wjril
I’ve always been fascinated by that building. The interior looks incredible! Does anyone know anything about the ‘One Way Jesus’ sign that used to be boarded all over one of the windows? I’ve been curious about that since I was about 10 years old!
Was this the building featured in the movie Playing Beattie Bow?
I always admire this building too when I go past it. In a sea of mediocre high rise buildings in a beautiful location it looks interesting and has personality with its rounded corners and roof top gardens. If there are only 5 residents remaining and it has reached its use by date as public housing why can’t the remainder of the spaces somehow be sold privately rather than knock the building down and redeveloping to be sold privately? I realise knocking it down they could build more units and make more money but this building has as much legitimacy as Georgian terraces or any other highly valued and sought after period type of architecture especially in this location. I suspect there would be many who would pay above premium to be in such an iconic building in such a location. Otherwise I like the idea of an amazing boutique hotel if it were viable. This government is going to lose the next election. Their rapacity and greed for overdevelopment knows no bounds.
I’ve read The Design Files for five years now and this is my absolute favourite article that you’ve ever published. I felt compelled to comment – I just HAD to. You’ve done an incredible job of capturing it through the lens and the article is beautifully written and has answered so many questions I’ve had over the years about this cubist-like building I’ve been intrigued by every time I’ve travelled over the bridge (sometimes twice a day) during the last decade. Up until today I didn’t even know what it was called.
My husband and I moved to Sydney 12 years ago and ever since we first saw the Sirius it’s held a kind of ongoing fascination for us. We’ve often wondered aloud what its back story was: who lived there and what it looked like inside, (we were so thrilled see some of that here), who grew the little gardens on the roofs, and who had put up the SOS lights,… We’ve also been so sad to see it empty out of human life over the past few years – Even from the outside it’s been glaringly obvious – Back a decade ago I seem to remember an array of coloured signs and curtains in the windows.
Regardless of anyone’s opinion on brutalist architecture, the Sirius is iconic to Sydney and unique in its style and placement. I’d be surprised to meet a Sydneysider who didn’t know it existed. Its look and history just seem to be part of the identify of Sydney CBD. I have worked for years in some of the modern buildings in Sydney and have more attachment to this structure I’ve watched from the bridge over all these years, than any of those I spent whole years of my life in.
I strongly agree that it should be saved and listed as a heritage building. In the Inner West there are brick sewage ventilation pipes which are heritage listed… I believe the AMP building at Circular Quay is heritage listed as a significant post war building… why not the Sirius?
The only reason I can see is that not to do so is in the best interests of the Government from a financial perspective. I’m revolted to read about the plans to demolish it… both from the perspectives of preserving historical architecture and also the impact it has on the people who live both in the building and in the Rocks/Miller Point community.
These days we find it inconceivalbe that at one point the QVB building and the Rocks were to be bulldozed. Who could imagine Sydney without them? We are undeniably indebted to those people who protested to save them. Let’s hope that we can do the same for our future generations.
What a beautiful example of brutalist architecture let’s not lose it to another cookie cutter apartment block . Keep fighting the good fight!!!! A city with history has no soul.
I am not a Sydney reident and was not aware of this intriquing building until your article. I feel strongly that inner city living should be accessible to people with all levels of income and social needs. Sirius apoears to be a beautiful, robust and creative example of accomodating these issues. I hope the government finds a way for history, social justice and selective progress to live together.
Yep! Not surprised Sydney may loose an architectural gem,has the tones of Brisbane when heritage buildings were demolished by the then government of Joh Bjelke – Petersen allowing the ” Dean Brothers ” to smash several structures of historical interest,in the early hours of the morning
We can’t do much with crooked politicians & grubby money hungry developers.
OR CAN WE !?
To the NSW Government…
Keep you hands off our Sirius building you troglodyte barbarians.
What doth it profit a city that increases it productivity but loseth its soul?
Great piece and photos. Having lived in Sydney I’ve seen this building so many times however not the inside, such beautiful details. Let’s save Sirius.
The current govt remind me of the rainbow lorikeets at the Gallery of NSW cafe terrace…
It’s a great building and I hope it stays. I am so sick of this government emptying the inner city of public housing tenants. Many are long term residents, even across generations. They form part of a living history that tells a story of when housing in the Rocks was for maritime workers and when we all cared enough about public housing to collectively decide we COULD have it in one of the most (potentially) exclusive parts of Sydney. Now no-one cares about these people. I wonder how long The Greenway building (public housing on the north side of the harbour) will last? It makes me so cranky.
Sirius has always been an intriguing ,interesting building; a modern delight as one drives off the southern end of our great Harbour Bridge. I appreciate it’s architecture as a beautiful piece of abstract art; a perfect foil to the superb sails of the Opera House and strangely, a softening of what one thinks of as ‘Brutalist’, because of the curved edge collection of squares making the sum of it’s mass, often dripping with personal touches of trailing plants and crowned by delightful small roof terraces. And it looks solid, safe and strong as opposed to just another tall rectangle,devoid of personality and soul-destroying.
Serius, strikes me as a building of character, an important building in architectural terms and a grand and rare housing for those government largely continues to ignore. It must be given Heritage listing and preserved for it’s uniqueness if nothing else.
Stunning building inside and out! Great to see it still standing.