Tao Gofers architectural drawings, specifications, photographs and scrapbooks of Sirius building, Sydney, and Sans Souci housing development, 1974-2017

fonds

1974-2017

Architectural and Technical Drawings, Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Photographs, Clippings

9580483

0.7 metres of textual material (1 box and 1 outsize box), includes photographs
271 architectural drawings - diazotype, paper vellum, photocopies
247 slides
2 transparencies

Tao (Theodorus) Gofers migrated as a boy to Canada, with his Dutch family. He studied Architecture at the University of British Columbia and moved to Australia with his wife in 1973. Both The Laurels at Sans Souci and the Sirius building at the Rocks were designed by Gofers while employed as an architect at the Housing Commission of New South Wales. The Sirius building, completed in 1980, has been the subject of much controversy and debate, with the state government announcing in 2015 that it was to be sold and the money raised used on alternative housing. The Land and Environment Court later ruled that the government must reconsider whether to list the building on the State Heritage Register.

Reference:
Library correspondence file

Architectural drawings, specifications, photographs and slides relating to two buildings designed by the architect Tao Gofers in Sydney in the 1970s. The first, a public housing development named “The Laurels” at Sans Souci, a southern Sydney suburb, comprised five blocks of concrete-walled walk-up flats stacked in a modular arrangement.

This was a forerunner to the Sirius building, located in Cumberland Street in the Rocks area of Sydney, which was designed to house the public housing tenants displaced by redevelopment works in the area. Gofers’ design for Sirius provided 79 units, ranging from 1 to 4 bedrooms, some split level, and some specifically for the elderly. The design’s stepped roof aimed to mimic the roof heights of the surrounding area, and its use of concrete walling and modular forms to reduce the cost of building. The stepped roof design also provided for a range of roof spaces for tenants to share gardens.

The collection is arranged into 3 series:
SERIES 1: Tao Gofers specifications, photographs and scrapbooks of Sirius building and Sans Souci housing development, ca. 1975-2017
SERIES 2: Tao Gofers architectural drawings of Sirius building and Sans Souci housing development, 1974-1977
SERIES 3: Tao Gofers slides and transparencies of Sirius building and Sans Souci housing development, ca. 1974-1979

Copyright status:: In copyright - This collection has multiple rights owners
Rights and Restrictions Information:: No reproduction without prior written approval of copyright holder
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holder