page_title: Sirius building
section_title: Design
hierarchical_section_title: Sirius building / Design
caption_attribution_description: English: http://saveoursirius.org/
context_page_description: The Sirius building is an apartment complex in The Rocks district of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Designed for the Housing Commission of New South Wales in 1978–1979 by commission architect Tao Gofers, the building is a prominent example of Brutalist architecture in Australia. It also has striking repetitive geometries in reaction to the Japanese metabolist architecture movement. Notable for being the only high rise development in The Rocks, Sirius housed 79 apartments with one, two, three or four bedrooms, generally with single storey apartments to two and three storey walk ups. The complex was built to rehouse displaced public tenants after a controversial redevelopment of the Rocks during the 1960s and 70s.
  From 2015, the Sirius building was at the centre of controversy over plans to remove the residents, sell off the building and possibly redevelop the site, with opponents of the plans seeking to secure its protection as a heritage building. Following the NSW Government's decision to refuse heritage listing in 2017, against the advice of the Heritage Council of New South Wales, the building was put up for sale.
context_section_description: The complex was built to rehouse public tenants who had been displaced after a controversial redevelopment of the historic Rocks suburb during the 1960s and 70s. The building housed many of the original residents who fought for their right to remain in the area during the famous Green bans, whose purpose was not to retain heritage buildings but rather to retain the working class community in The Rocks. Many of the buildings remain, but the majority of the residents were moved into the Sirius apartments in the so-called 'people's plan'. The terraces and town houses they used to call home are owned by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA), who receive rent from the tenants living in the building.
  Sirius is among the few quality examples of the Brutalism style in Australia, demonstrating the style's objective of ethical design based on social concerns, as well as its focus on the truthful expression of materials, function and structure. Designed by Housing Commission architect, Tao Gofers, Sirius was based on Gofer's other major project for the Housing Commission: The Laurels, a public housing development in southern Sydney's Sans Souci. Like that development, Gofers’ original plan was to finish the building in a white colour to match the nearby Sydney Opera House, but due to budget constraints, the building was finished unpainted. 
  Anecdotally, unit 74 of the Sirius building became somewhat of an unofficial Sydney landmark; its sign displaying ‘One Way! Jesus’ clearly visible to Harbour Bridge commuters. The sign was in place for around 10 years, although the owner of the sign, Owen McAloon, and his motivations to spread a Christian message remained generally unknown.
  The Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) in Frankfurt has included Sirius in #SOSBrutalism, a growing database that currently contains over 700 Brutalist buildings. Importantly, #SOSBrutalism is a platform for a large campaign ‘to save our beloved concrete monsters’. The buildings in the database marked red are in particular jeopardy. There are few Australian entries in the project, but Sirius is at the top of the list of the world's endangered Brutalist buildings.
caption: Sirius Sydney. Exterior from shared courtyard
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