Jørn Utzon won the international competition for Sydney Opera House in 1957. His design placed a group of rising roof forms above a broad platform at Bennelong Point. The building opened in October 1973 after a long and difficult construction process. Its relationship with the harbor gives the architecture a changing outline from the water, the shore and the surrounding city.
The roofs required an important geometric discovery. By developing the shells from a common sphere, Utzon made it possible to relate their different profiles to a shared system of manufacture and construction. The resulting forms can look freely sculpted, yet their repetition and connection depend on a disciplined underlying geometry. Light across the tiled surfaces makes that geometry continually visible.
Utzon left the project before completion. Peter Hall and his partners carried the building through its final stages, including major interior work. The finished Opera House therefore records both an original architectural vision and the contributions of a large collaborative team. Its performance spaces and public approaches make it a working cultural building as well as a widely recognized image.
Le Corbusier Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp
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