Anson Smart

Photographer

The Strand Arcade has housed Sydney's most considered retail since 1892. Its upper gallery, with ornate ironwork balustrades and polished timber floors, carries a sense of ceremony. It is an appropriate address for SIR.'s sixth Australian store and its third in Sydney.

The concept draws from the solar, a private upper-storey chamber found within medieval English and French manor houses. Smaller than the great hall below, it was reserved for the household and its closest circle. Its sense of privacy became the organising idea for the store.

Its narrow footprint and 4.5-metre ceiling establish a pronounced verticality, where height becomes the dominant spatial condition. The interior lowers the attention back toward the body and the objects within. Ornamental brown, deep red and aged silver are drawn from the arcade itself, expressed through ribbed tile, concrete, smoked glass and silver detailing.

The result feels accumulated rather than resolved. Vintage furniture and objects carry signs of life that no new piece can replicate. Fur-lined walls are made from the fabric of a SIR. supplier, ceramics are selected from local artists, the leather-wrapped hangers are made from garment off-cuts. These curated quirks reveal themselves gradually, rewarding exploration with something unexpected.

SIR. The Strand — Sydney, Australia — 2026

A Solar Above the Arcade.

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