Architectural Designs

Jørn Utzon 1918 2008 Sydney Opera House

Summary: Jørn Utzon 1918 2008 Jørn Utzon in front of the Sydney Opera House in 1965 Photograph Newspix Rex Features Man of the sea Utzon s Sydney Opera House Photograph CorbisWalking on the roof on the Sydney Opera House lit up by a full moon on my first trip to Australia remains one　 of my cherished Utzon moments It was wonderful to think if dreamily that the great sail like roofs all around me framing kaleidoscopic views of the harbourside city might be pieced together by some giant hand to form a perfect sphere Here was geometric ingenuity technical wizardry and sheer architectural sorcery the poetics of space Both Gaudi and Le Corbusier would have applauded Dumbfounded I was unable to make even that simple universal gesture A second was visiting the church Utzon designed at Bagsvaerd in his native Denmark Nothing had prepared me for the way the roof over the nave of this apparently machine like 1970s suburban building soared up as if suddenly in the guise of billowing clouds blown in fresh from the sea A third was visiting this fundamentally shy and reclusive if charming and highly intelligent man at one　 of the homes he built for himself facing the sea on the island of Mallorca This was the Can Lis a brilliantly simply house built in the form of a cluster of independent rooms in local sandstone and concrete around courtyards and with seemingly every window framing views of the glistening Mediterranean Utzon loved the sea As a boy dyslexic and no great shakes at school no one　 in the family could have imagined him becoming one　 of the world s greatest architects What he could do well from an early age was to sail It was assumed he told me that he would join the navy He was accepted though at Copenhagen s Academy of Arts and studying under such brilliant teachers as Steen Eiler Rasmussen author London the Unique City and Erik Gunnar Asplund architect of the chastely magnificent Stockholm Library Utzon set off on travels that took him to the United States where he met and worked briefly with Frank Lloyd Wright through Mexico and Europe In Finland he worked with Alvar Aalto the architect who did so much to bring a quiet warmth subtle curves and a sense of nature to modern architecture In Australia and while he was working on the design of the Sydney Opera House he loved to take a yacht out across the harbour and on to the sea The seas waves the wings beaks and profile of gulls the shape and structure of yachts were all to play a role sometimes subliminal at others overt in the forms of his powerful yet all too few buildings The fascinating thing about Utzon s architecture is that it could be flamboyant as with Opera House or almost plainly simple as with the admirable low cost housing schemes he designed in Denmark A master of reinventing and reinterpreting local vernacular design he told me in fond terms of his very first building a simple timber cabin on the sea wall at Alsgarde in Denmark He helped the family carpenter build it and although he said the cabin was of no importance to his later career it clearly was Of all his buildings though it is the church at Bagsvaerd that shows how brilliantly he could play two architectural games at onc　e the seemingly ordinary and the clearly extraordinary With its strict geometric forms clad in white prefabricated concrete panels and white glazed tiles and topped with an aluminium roof the church might almost have been put together from components found in a builders yard The plain white nave and sanctuary though are a wonder of soaring concrete Clouds Waves Prayer rising Nothing could be further from a builders yard Jorn Utzon was one　 of the great 20th century architects His tragedy is well known He was unable to play the political games necessary in Australia to complete the Sydney Opera House according to his original designs He even refused to take good advice offered to him by the project s engineers Ove Arup and Partners So he lived the last decades of his life reclusively or at least out of the public limelight and too far from mainstream architectural concerns for his or anyone else s good It is a deep shame that there are so few Utzon buildings And yet the man I met in Mallorca was a delight He was nothing like the difficult stand offish stubborn architect I had expected He did not court the media far from it even when it might have rallied far more than it ever did to support him He was truly engaging highly cultured and drew beautifully He was a family man at his best at home with those he cared for and close friends but mostly at home when his piercing eyes had a view of the sea for it was the sea that allowed the mind of this great architect to wonder so extensively and with such imagination Utzon displays a diagram of a detail of Sydney Opera House in the mid 60s Utzon s design won an international competition but he was pushed off the project in 1966 after wrangling with the state governmentAn aerial view reveals construction work on the Sydney Opera House during the 1960s Photograph Getty Queen Elizabeth II officially opens the Sydney Opera House on October 20 1973The sails of the Sydney Opera House are set against the sky I made the Opera House for the people of Sydney and they are much like myself said Utzon They are sporty happy healthy people who like exciting things Boats in the Sydney harbour pass in front of the Sydney Opera House on a foggy morning Photograph Tim Wimborne Reuters The refurbishment of the Sydney Opera House s concert hall in 2005 Photograph Sydney Opera House Another of Utzon s creations the national assembly building in Kuwait City 1972 1984 Photograph Yann Arthus Bertrand Corbis Despite his other achievements Utzon house in Hellebaek Kingo Houses in Helsinore and Can Lis in Mallorca Sydney Opera House will remain synonymous with the architect s namePhotograph Ian Waldie Getty Images written by jonathan glanceysource guardian uk Jørn Utzon 1918 2008 Jørn Utzon in front of the Sydney Opera House in 1965 Photograph Newspix Rex Features Man of the sea Utzon s Sydney Opera House Photograph CorbisWalking on the roof on the Sydney Opera House lit up by a full moon on my first trip to Australia remains one　 of my cherished Utzon moments It was wonderful to think if dreamily that the great sail like roofs all around me framing kaleidoscopic views of the harbourside city might be pieced together by some giant hand to form a perfect sphere Here was geometric ingenuity technical wizardry and sheer architectural sorcery the poetics of space Both Gaudi and Le Corbusier would have applauded Dumbfounded I was unable to make even that simple universal gesture A second was visiting the church Utzon designed at Bagsvaerd in his native Denmark Nothing had prepared me for the way the roof over the nave of this apparently machine like 1970s suburban building soared up as if suddenly in the guise of billowing clouds blown in fresh from the sea A third was visiting this fundamentally shy and reclusive if charming and highly intelligent man at one　 of the homes he built for himself facing the sea on the island of Mallorca This was the Can Lis a brilliantly simply house built in the form of a cluster of independent rooms in local sandstone and concrete around courtyards and with seemingly every window framing views of the glistening Mediterranean Utzon loved the sea As a boy dyslexic and no great shakes at school no one　 in the family could have imagined him becoming one　 of the world s greatest architects What he could do well from an early age was to sail It was assumed he told me that he would join the navy He was accepted though at Copenhagen s Academy of Arts and studying under such brilliant teachers as Steen Eiler Rasmussen author London the Unique City and Erik Gunnar Asplund architect of the chastely magnificent Stockholm Library Utzon set off on travels that took him to the United States where he met and worked briefly with Frank Lloyd Wright through Mexico and Europe In Finland he worked with Alvar Aalto the architect who did so much to bring a quiet warmth subtle curves and a sense of nature to modern architecture In Australia and while he was working on the design of the Sydney Opera House he loved to take a yacht out across the harbour and on to the sea The seas waves the wings beaks and profile of gulls the shape and structure of yachts were all to play a role sometimes subliminal at others overt in the forms of his powerful yet all too few buildings The fascinating thing about Utzon s architecture is that it could be flamboyant as with Opera House or almost plainly simple as with the admirable low cost housing schemes he designed in Denmark A master of reinventing and reinterpreting local vernacular design he told me in fond terms of his very first building a simple timber cabin on the sea wall at Alsgarde in Denmark He helped the family carpenter build it and although he said the cabin was of no importance to his later career it clearly was Of all his buildings though it is the church at Bagsvaerd that shows how brilliantly he could play two architectural games at onc　e the seemingly ordinary and the clearly extraordinary With its strict geometric forms clad in white prefabricated concrete panels and white glazed tiles and topped with an aluminium roof the church might almost have been put together from components found in a builders yard The plain white nave and sanctuary though are a wonder of soaring concrete Clouds Waves Prayer rising Nothing could be further from a builders yard Jorn Utzon was one　 of the great 20th century architects His tragedy is well known He was unable to play the political games necessary in Australia to complete the Sydney Opera House according to his original designs He even refused to take good advice offered to him by the project s engineers Ove Arup and Partners So he lived the last decades of his life reclusively or at least out of the public limelight and too far from mainstream architectural concerns for his or anyone else s good It is a deep shame that there are so few Utzon buildings And yet the man I met in Mallorca was a delight He was nothing like the difficult stand offish stubborn architect I had expected He did not court the media far from it even when it might have rallied far more than it ever did to support him He was truly engaging highly cultured and drew beautifully He was a family man at his best at home with those he cared for and close friends but mostly at home when his piercing eyes had a view of the sea for it was the sea that allowed the mind of this great architect to wonder so extensively and with such imagination Utzon displays a diagram of a detail of Sydney Opera House in the mid 60s Utzon s design won an international competition but he was pushed off the project in 1966 after wrangling with the state governmentAn aerial view reveals construction work on the Sydney Opera House during the 1960s Photograph Getty Queen Elizabeth II officially opens the Sydney Opera House on October 20 1973The sails of the Sydney Opera House are set against the sky I made the Opera House for the people of Sydney and they are much like myself said Utzon They are sporty happy healthy people who like exciting things Boats in the Sydney harbour pass in front of the Sydney Opera House on a foggy morning Photograph Tim Wimborne Reuters The refurbishment of the Sydney Opera House s concert hall in 2005 Photograph Sydney Opera House Another of Utzon s creations the national assembly building in Kuwait City 1972 1984 Photograph Yann Arthus Bertrand Corbis Despite his other achievements Utzon house in Hellebaek Kingo Houses in Helsinore and Can Lis in Mallorca Sydney Opera House will remain synonymous with the architect s namePhotograph Ian Waldie Getty Images written by jonathan glanceysource guardian uk

Image Dimensions: 460 x 276