On our trip last year to Australia, my wife and I got to spend a couple of days in Sydney. We loved walking the city and got to see many of its gardens, museums and even walked the bridge that goes across the harbor. We also hopped on a city bus to Bondi Beach to watch the surfers and have lunch in one of the beachfront cafes. Sydney is a beautiful city and is probably most famous for its iconic opera house because of its unique architecture and its prominent place on the Sydney Harbor. The ship on the right side of the photo below was how we arrived in Sydney. This was part of a cruise that started in Auckland, New Zealand and ultimately ended in Melbourne, Australia.
We took a tour that explained the architecture and gave the rather unfortunate story of the architect that originally designed the opera house. It is no surprise that when great art (including architecture) is funded by government, the artist is sometimes up against politics and bureaucracy.
Jorn Utzon was a young Danish architect in 1957 when his concept for the opera house won the design contest for a new opera house in Sydney. His concept for the new opera house featured these organic looking curved roof segments as the primary design feature for the building. This was quite different from the very linear and geometric designs of other prominent architects of that time like Frank Lloyd Wright and Lugwig Mies van der Rohe. As you see in the pictures from the view across the harbor, the roof segments give the impression of the wind filled sails of a large ship.
Those curved segments make up the unique roof that made the Sydney Opera House a UNESCO heritage site for outstanding architecture. Over a million glazed ceramic roof tiles make up the roof. Up close the geometric patterns of the tiles on the roof are quite beautiful.
So back to the sad story of Jorn Utzon. He started building the opera house as its lead architect in 1959 and the design was so complex that it was very expensive and took a lot of time to figure out how to build and support those massive concrete roof structures. As you can see in the photos below, the structural steel frame that Utzon designed to hold up the roof were equally complex and in my opinion very beautiful as well.
When the project got to the the design drawings for the interior spaces, Utzon wanted to use massive laminated plywood beams instead of steel. The government official refused to give him funding for the prototype Utzon needed to build to test the concept before finalizing the interior plans. With the project at an impasse, Utzon resigned, saying he was forced out. The government official hired another architect to finish the interior spaces of the opera house. The public was not happy with Utzon’s “firing” and there were protests to try to pressure the government to bring him back.
The Sydney Opera House was finally completed in 1973 and Utzon never returned to Sydney to see it in person. It’s too bad because it is hard to appreciate this building through pictures. I’ve been touring famous architecture for most of my adult life and in person it is very easy to understand why UNESCO designated this building as one of the most outstanding places on the planet.
The main auditorium in the opera was undergoing renovations while we were there and they were not allowing photography when we got to briefly walk inside. It was quite nice but the real beauty of this building is most evident when viewed from the outside.
My wife and I did get to see a musical in one of the Opera House’s smaller theatres that evening and while I have no photos, it is a spectacular place at night as well. Too bad the show wasn’t as good as the theatre.
