Its a real shame they want all the residents out of the Sirius Apartment complex before the end of 2014. Cease the eviction process Now.
This block of apartments, smack in the middle of The Rocks, Sydney’s oldest precinct, is a bold and ex...ceptional experiment in low-income public housing.
It rises spectacularly from the crowded, shoulder-to-shoulder density of stone cottages, pubs, warehouses and bond stores, flanked to one side by the Harbour Bridge - so near you could almost reach out and touch it – while on the other, spread before it like a tableau, are the splendours of Sydney Harbour, Circular Quay, the Opera House and the city skyline.
Built to relocate public housing tenants, it was an experiment in making a fundamentally better housing model for the masses. The requirement was for a building to accommodate up to 200 people, in 79 apartments of one, two, three and four bedrooms, ranging from single storey and split-level units in a main tower to two and three storey walk-ups at street level. The result was a concrete mountain, strikingly modern, spread along the street, stepped and terraced for twelve storeys, reminiscent of a Native American pueblo.
Construction was as ingenious as it was simple, combining board-marked, off-form reinforced concrete walls, concrete slab floors and ceilings and factory produced acid-etched picture windows, hoisted by crane and slotted into place, producing the complex’s distinct stacked building block appearance.
All units benefit from a combination of roof gardens - one tenant’s roof is another’s garden – street level courtyards and balconies. A communal garden on the eighth floor is landscaped with shrubs and trees in large, vibrant purple fibreglass planters. The hanging gardens cascade down the sides of the building, softening the austerity of the raw concrete and stepped form.
The main foyer is remarkable for a slatted waving timber ceiling and three dimensional wood sculptures designed by Tao Gofers, based on cave art figures. Photograph: John Gollings Sirius. The Rocks, Sydney Tao Gofers Architect 1978
This block of apartments, smack in the middle of The Rocks, Sydney’s oldest precinct, is a bold and ex...ceptional experiment in low-income public housing.
It rises spectacularly from the crowded, shoulder-to-shoulder density of stone cottages, pubs, warehouses and bond stores, flanked to one side by the Harbour Bridge - so near you could almost reach out and touch it – while on the other, spread before it like a tableau, are the splendours of Sydney Harbour, Circular Quay, the Opera House and the city skyline.
Built to relocate public housing tenants, it was an experiment in making a fundamentally better housing model for the masses. The requirement was for a building to accommodate up to 200 people, in 79 apartments of one, two, three and four bedrooms, ranging from single storey and split-level units in a main tower to two and three storey walk-ups at street level. The result was a concrete mountain, strikingly modern, spread along the street, stepped and terraced for twelve storeys, reminiscent of a Native American pueblo.
Construction was as ingenious as it was simple, combining board-marked, off-form reinforced concrete walls, concrete slab floors and ceilings and factory produced acid-etched picture windows, hoisted by crane and slotted into place, producing the complex’s distinct stacked building block appearance.
All units benefit from a combination of roof gardens - one tenant’s roof is another’s garden – street level courtyards and balconies. A communal garden on the eighth floor is landscaped with shrubs and trees in large, vibrant purple fibreglass planters. The hanging gardens cascade down the sides of the building, softening the austerity of the raw concrete and stepped form.
The main foyer is remarkable for a slatted waving timber ceiling and three dimensional wood sculptures designed by Tao Gofers, based on cave art figures. Photograph: John Gollings Sirius. The Rocks, Sydney Tao Gofers Architect 1978
