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 exceptional 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