The Sydney Opera House: When Landmark Design Represents a Harbour, a City, and a Country

Sydney Opera House. Sydney, Australia.

A masterpiece of 2oth century architecture, the Sydney Opera House is universally recognizable and has inspired countless architects and engineers. The architectural marvel with its 3 groups of interlocking shimmering sails sits on Bennelong Point, welcoming visitors to Sydney Harbour. Its seen as a pioneer in modern expressionist design, structural concrete design and engineering along with early use of CAD. It's even a pioneer in sustainability with its use of sea water for heating and cooling. Therefore, it shouldn't come as much surprise to learn its construction was clouded in controversy. Although the Opera House was opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1973, its origins date back to 1957 when Danish Architect Jørn Utzon won an international design competition. Schedule and cost overruns led to conflicts with the client, with Utzon leaving the project before completion. Utzon left Australia in 1966 and never saw his completed masterpiece in person. Despite this, his achievement has garnered world-wide acclaim with him winning the 2003 Pritzker Prize Laureate Award having "designed what has arguably become the most famous building in the world". Additionally, the Opera House became a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007. The innovative design and construction was possible due to a tight collaboration with Ove Arup and his structural engineering firm. Arup was widely regarded as the industry's eminent concrete designer. Most trace the construction delays and overruns to the client pressing for construction to begin before the construction drawings were completed. Arup worked with Utzon to refine his design of precast concrete shells supported by precast concrete ribs- which were expensive due to all roof forms being sized individually with no repetition. The solution was to form all shells as sections of a sphere. This allowed arches of varying lengths to be cast from a common mold with a 75.2 m radius. The structure is supported on 588 concrete piers sunk up to 25 m under sea level. The highest roof point is 67 m above sea level or the equivalent of a 22 story building. From a distance, the sails appear uniformly white, however, its actually a subtle chevron pattern of glossy white and matte cream. The stoneware tiles were produced by Höganäs AB. In, "The Saga of the Sydney Opera House," Peter Murray calls it "a high point of architectural/engineering collaboration." The design and construction of the precast shells and ribs were completed by Hornibrook Group Pty Ltd offsite. They manufactured 2400 precast ribs and 4000 roof panels. This eliminated the need for expensive framework construction. This also meant the roof tiles could be prefabricated in sheets on the ground versus stuck on individually at height. In 1965 NSW had a change in government, with new leadership vocal opponents of the project. Tensions between the design team and the client led to Utzon's resignation in 1966. Peter Hall took over as architect and was largely responsible for the Opera House's interior design. Major changes were made to Utzon's design to address concerns with acoustics and space planning. Today the Opera House is home to Opera Australia, the Australian Ballet, and the Sydney Symphony. The building welcomes 8.2 million visitors a year, houses 7 performance spaces, and hosts 2500+ performances/events a year. The famous sails transform into canvases for digital light shows during "Vivid Sydney"- a festival of light and music held in May/June. The Badu Gili exhibition illuminates one of the sails daily at sunset with works of Aboriginal Art. Despite its rough start, the Opera House is embedded in the identity of Sydney and Australia, and opened the door to immensely complex geometry in architecture and engineering. The International Council Report on Monuments and Sites to the World Heritage Committee has stated, "The Sydney Opera House stands by itself as one of the indisputable masterpieces of human creativity, not only in the 20th century, but in the history of humankind."