The INDE.Awards are the leading architecture and design awards across the Indo-Pacific region, celebrating projects that define the built environment’s future. In the 2025 edition, the awards recognise designs that challenge convention and demonstrate how architecture can serve both heritage and progress.

Among this year’s distinguished winners, BVN’s Sirius Redevelopment has been awarded The Building category prize, presented in partnership with Karndean Commercial. This accolade acknowledges built works that exemplify excellence in design thinking, sustainability and cultural relevance.

Originally completed in 1981, Sirius is a defining example of Sydney’s Brutalist architecture and social housing history. The redevelopment, led by JDH Capital and designed by BVN, preserves the essence of the building while reinventing it for contemporary living.

The project’s guiding mantra — Retain, Restore, Reimagine — captures its balanced approach. The existing structure was retained to minimise embodied carbon and maintain the iconic dual-aspect apartments with Sydney Harbour views. The original concrete form has been restored, while new copper cladding distinguishes the modern additions, ensuring the evolution of Sirius is visible and honest.

The redevelopment delivers 75 apartments, four commercial and three retail strata lots, expanded communal amenities and upgraded landscaping. Lightweight prefabricated balcony modules replace the original precast reveals, improving livability, acoustics and energy performance. Roof terraces now feature gardens and solar panels that enhance both sustainability and visual connection to the skyline.

On a civic level, the redevelopment reconnects Sirius with its context in The Rocks. Improved pedestrian pathways and public domain upgrades strengthen engagement with the surrounding urban fabric. The project re-establishes Sirius as a contributor to community life, rather than a closed monument of the past.

As The Building Winner at the INDE.Awards 2025, BVN’s Sirius Redevelopment demonstrates how architecture can bridge heritage and innovation. It stands as a thoughtful model for urban renewal, one that preserves cultural memory while creating a vibrant and sustainable future for the city.

Photographer
Bryn Donkersloot