But Saarinen’s prestige carried the day and Utzon’s design was declared the winner.Ĭonstruction didn’t actually begin until 1958. Utzon failed to provide the engineering drawings that would tell people how to build his vision. The design was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. He took one look at Utzon’s design and declared it his favorite. Later when Saarinen arrived in Sydney, he asked to review all the submissions, including the ones that had been rejected. The other three architects took one look at Utzon’s submission and immediately rejected it. One of the panel was famed American architect Eero Saarinen, who was unable to be present when the selection committee first met. The Sydney government assembled a panel of 4 internationally renowned architects to choose the final design. The son of a naval architect in Copenhagen, Utzon was able to conceptualize how his creation would look on the shore of Sydney harbor by imagining it set near Copenhagen overlooking the strait that separates Denmark from Sweden. It was simply a series of sketches scratched out by Danish architect Jørn Utzon. Some looked like concrete blocks reminiscent of Soviet style architecture. A request for proposed designs went out to architects around the world. The story of the Sydney Opera House began in 1948 when the head of the Sydney Opera called for a new home for the city’s opera company. Little did the people of Sydney suspect that a new opera house adjacent to the harbor would become the symbol of that new identity not only to the citizens of Australia but to the world. When the war ended, Australia was forced to confront the fact that it was not an English country at all but rather a part of Asia. It was shocked when the British elected to leave the country largely undefended, demanding that Australian troops be sent to fight to preserve other parts of the empire. Until World War II, Australia thought of itself as part of the British Empire.
Its soaring roofs are meant to evoke the sails of the ships that brought many of Australia’s original settlers to the Land Down Under. The Sydney Opera House on the shores of Sydney Harbor in Australia is a third.
The British Parliament building with its Big Ben clock tower is one. There are only a few buildings that define an entire nation. Originally published on Green Building Elements.
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