vacation quest australia sydney opera house

Until November 1958, Utzon didn’t send Arup new drawings, which were again incomplete and lack of detail, for the engineers to finish necessary designs to start phase 1 in early 1959. However, they accepted his proposal to divide the works into three phases (podium, roofs, and interiors) by foreseeing that designing all of these elements would be delayed in time. The authorities ignored Arup’s indication not to start building before having a basic structural design finalized, which was impossible to achieve in that period. When the book was released, Utzon communicated to the local administrators that construction works could begin after the required 18 months, convenient as coinciding with an electoral cycle. His team spent six months developing a first incomplete collection of drawings for the proposal, compiled in the so-called Red Book. However, the initial deadline soon proved inadequate, among other reasons, due to the lack of definition in Utzon’s proposal for the contest. Utzon’s youth (38 years old) and its lack of built projects were counterbalanced with Ove Arup’s experience, an engineer 62 years old. The local administration hired the engineering company Ove Arup & Partners from the beginning of the project as structural consultants. The project started in mid-1957, and designers had 18 months to complete the building drawings before the 36 months for the construction. His poetic vision of architecture coincided enormously with Utzon’s, and it is said that, as he arrived some days late to the meeting, he had to “convince” the other members of the jury, that seemed to have previously rejected the proposal due to deficiencies. The jury was made up of four renowned architects, where Eero Saarinen stands out. The jury’s unanimously selected Utzon’s proposal as the “most original and creative solution” in January 1957. About 230 of them were received from more than 32 countries, making the call an unexpected success for its organizers. The contest was announced in December 1955, and proposals could be submitted until December 1956. The purpose was to provide the city with a suitable place for large theater productions as well as an appropriate venue for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The idea of building an opera house in Sydney began in the last years of the 1940s and was promoted by the local government of New South Wales. Historical overviewĮero Saarinen watercolor of Utzon’s proposal for the Sydney Opera House, dated 1957 All of this caused a total accumulated delay from the initial estimates of around a decade and an extra 1300% cost paid through a successful lottery system. It is also important to note that there were no personal computers at the time, and therefore no computer programs in the field of graphic representation and structural analysis. The main problem was that in Utzon’s proposal, the roofs’ geometry was not defined but just specified as free-form sculptural shells. The success of the building contrasts with the difficulties faced during its construction and the complicated process of its roof design. You never get tired of observing a gothic cathedral … ”

If you think of a gothic cathedral, you will be close to what I was expecting. In other words, the rooms speak for themselves, the size of each is shown in its roof. In the words of Utzon himself, he sought to create a “sculpture that covers all the necessary uses. The building’s iconic expression comes mainly from its roofs’ expressive power, whose forms were conceived by the Danish architect Jørn Utzon, winner of the competition announced at the end of 1955. It is currently the most visited arts and entertainment center globally, with nearly 11 million visitors and more than one million annual attendees to its performances. It is the most modern building to receive this recognition. The building, located on the Bennelong Point peninsula in the heart of Sydney’s Harbor, was officially inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II on October 20th, 1973, and declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2007. It is not only a symbol of the city and Australia, but it’s also considered by critics as a “World Monument” at the level of Gizeh’s pyramid, the Taj Mahal, or the Eiffel Tower. The Sydney Opera House is one of the most recognizable architectural pieces worldwide.

Vacation quest australia sydney opera house