The Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is situated on Bennelong Point, Sydney. It is close to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and is one of the great icons of Australia.

The Opera House looks like a ship at full sail.

The saga of the Opera House actually began in 1957, when, at the age of 38, Jorn Utzon was still a relatively unknown architect with a practice in Denmark near where Shakespeare had located Hamlet's castle. Jorn Utzon (1918-2008) had just entered an anonymous competition for an opera house to be built in Australia on a point of land jutting into Sydney harbor. Out of some 230 entries from over thirty countries, Utzon's concept was selected.

Utzon's design was chosen. The problem was that his design was beyond the capabilities of engineering of the time. Utzon spent a couple of years reworking the design and it was 1961 before he had solved the problem of how to build the distinguishing feature - the 'sails' of the roof.

after three years of intensive
search for a basic geometry for
the shell complex i arrived in
october 1961 at the spherical
solution shown here

i call this my "key to the shells"
because it solves all the problems
of construction by opening up for
mass production, precision in
manufacture and simple erection
and with this geometrical system
i attain full harmony between
all the shapes in this fantastic complex.

jorn utzon

The completion of the project was neither fast nor easy. At a certain point, the NSW Government was tempted to call a halt due to the costs. Jorn Utzon actually resigned from the project and was not involved as the Opera House building was finally completed in 1973.