opera house ++ sydney australia

s y d n e y ... opera house

Sydney Opera House, Australia ---- POINT: The sails of the Opera House arc over the foreshores of Sydney Harbour like the wild, passionate armsweeps of an orchestral conductor. If you could turn music into architecture, wouldn't it come out looking something like this: a noisy compression of space erupting into a silent infinity of time. Waves not lines, like the crests of the Australian cockatoo's, red sails in the sunset. No walls only rooves, and the outside is the more important than the inside. (December 24, 2009).

The Opera House is situated on Bennelong Point, which reaches out into the harbour. The skyline of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the blue water of the harbour and the Sydney Opera House, viewed from a ferry or from the air, is dramatic and unforgettable.

Ironic, perhaps, that this Australian icon - the Opera House with a roof evocative of a ship at full sail - was designed by renowned Danish architect - Jorn Utzon.

In the late 1950s the NSW Government established an appeal fund to finance the construction of the Sydney Opera House, and conducted a competition for its design.

Utzon's design was chosen. The irony was that his design was, arguably, 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.

An extraordinary site on Sydney Harbour at Bennelong Point, an ambitious state Premier (Joseph J Cahill), a visiting American architect (Eero Saarinen) and a young Dane�s billowy sketches (Joern Utzon) were the key factors which generated one of the world�s most important modern buildings. Designed at the vast scale of the harbour itself, its low edges contain enough visual appeal for human interest. More remarkable is that the scheme makes no reference to history or to classical architectural forms. The roof is more important than the walls, consequently the language of walls - columns, divisions, windows and pediments - has been effectively dispensed with. As a public building, it conceals its usage in its lack of historical associations, and restores the concept of the �monument� as being acceptable in social terms.



	s y d n e y ... opera house Sydney Opera House, Australia ---- POINT: The sails of the Opera House arc over the foreshores of Sydney Harbour like the wild, passionate armsweeps of an orchestral conductor. If you could turn music into architecture, wouldn't it come out looking something like this: a noisy compression of space erupting into a silent infinity of time. Waves not lines, like the crests of the Australian cockatoo's, red sails in the sunset. No walls only rooves, and the outside is the more important than the inside. (December 24, 2009). The Opera House is situated on Bennelong Point, which reaches out into the harbour. The skyline of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the blue water of the harbour and the Sydney Opera House, viewed from a ferry or from the air, is dramatic and unforgettable. Ironic, perhaps, that this Australian icon - the Opera House with a roof evocative of a ship at full sail - was designed by renowned Danish architect - Jorn Utzon. In the late 1950s the NSW Government established an appeal fund to finance the construction of the Sydney Opera House, and conducted a competition for its design. Utzon's design was chosen. The irony was that his design was, arguably, 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. An extraordinary site on Sydney Harbour at Bennelong Point, an ambitious state Premier (Joseph J Cahill), a visiting American architect (Eero Saarinen) and a young Dane�s billowy sketches (Joern Utzon) were the key factors which generated one of the world�s most important modern buildings. Designed at the vast scale of the harbour itself, its low edges contain enough visual appeal for human interest. More remarkable is that the scheme makes no reference to history or to classical architectural forms. The roof is more important than the walls, consequently the language of walls - columns, divisions, windows and pediments - has been effectively dispensed with. As a public building, it conceals its usage in its lack of historical associations, and restores the concept of the �monument� as being acceptable in social terms.
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