The Sydney Opera House is a performing arts centre located on Bennelong Point in Sydney, New South Whales Australia. The Sydney Opera House is a masterpiece and an iconic building of the 20th century and has created itself as the Australian Symbol in many countries. The Sydney Opera House is one of the most famous architecture jobs of all time. It made in an expressionist design, with a series of “shell like” buildings, each composed of sections of a hemisphere of the same radius, forming the roofs of the structure, set on a monumental podium.
The total area of the building is 18211 metres squared. The entire structure is supported 588 concrete piers, sunk deep into Sydney Harbour. The roof of the building is covered in over 1 million ‘subtle chevron’ pattern tiles from Sweden. Overall, the building hosts 6 different venues. The two largest theatres, the Opera Theatre and Concert Hall reside in the two larger ‘shells’ of the building. The three smaller sized theatres, the Drama Theatre, Playhouse and Studio are located on the western side of the building with the Utzon room on the eastern side.
The forecourt, which is used for most community event and large scale outside performances, is located outside the building towards the back. The concert hall is the largest with 2678 seats and is home of the Sydney Symphony. The famous Guillaume at Bennelong restaurant is situated in the outer shells of the building. The reason the Sydney Opera House was constructed is that the Director of NSW State Conservatorium of Music, Eugene Goossens wanted a large local venue for theatrical products as the Town Hall was no longer big enough.
In 1954, NSW Premier, Joseph Cahill finally agreed to call for designs. The design competition was a success with over 200 entries submitted from 32 different countries. The winner of the ?5000 was Jorn Utzon from Denmark. Jorn Utzons design was constructed in 3 different stages. The principle that Jorn Utzons used came from a kid’s wooden collapsible toy. These toys are made of individual segments which are held together by a cord, when you press the button on the bottom, it slackens the cord and the toy collapses, when you let go of the button, the cords tightens up and the toy keeps its shape.
The building will be made out of segments, and just like the Childs toy, when the segments are pulled together by steel rope; it tightens up and doesn’t fall. This is called ‘Post Tensioning” On 2nd March 1959, stage 1 of the building had started; The Podium. The Government had pushed for the building process to start early and because of this, in 1961 work was running 47 weeks behind due to weather and storm water. Stage 1 was finally completed in February 1963. The total cost for this stage was $5. 5Million. Stage 2 of the construction started in 1963; the Roof.
The design team took 6 years from 1957 to 1963, to figure out an economically acceptable way to create the shells for the roof. In 1961 the design team found a solution. The solution was to create the shells out of sections from a sphere, which could be made from a common sphere mould. The shells are held up by ‘ribs’ and panels inside the building. This stage cost approximately $12. 5Million. The third and final stage started in 1966; the Interior. The interior of the Sydney Opera House was the most expensive part of the construction, costing over $55 Million.
In 1965 there was a change of government and the new Robert Askin government declared the project under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Works which led to the resignation of Jorn Utzon in 1966. Utzon resigned before the completion of the second stage and from then on, Peter Hall, became largely responsible for the Interior design. After Utzons resignation, the Sydney Opera House Executive Committee made many changes to the original design including changes to the original rooms, the construction of glass walls and a completely new style of hallways and corridors. The interior alone cost a massive total of $56. Million, not including the cost of stage equipment and lighting. Finally, after 14 years of construction, the Sydney Opera House was formally completed at a cost of $102 Million which was more than 13 times the original cost estimate of $7Million and about 10 years late. The Sydney Opera House is an enormously iconic building and sculpture which captures the eyes of many architects to this day. Its outstanding design has enrolled it into a World Heritage Site in 2005. The sculpture at the time of construction was thought to be a daring and impossible design but after years of close planning, it became a possible concept.
The building is of outstanding universal value for achievements and structural engineering brilliance. It is one of Australia’s main icons, along with the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Australian War Memorial, but the opera house shows its significance as an architectural object of great beauty which inspires many young architects. The Sydney Opera House has housed many events in its 37 years of service. In current figures, the opera house conducts 3000 events each year. Overall the Sydney Opera House was an evolutionary idea that has inspired many people. It is still one of Australia’s and the architectural world’s biggest icons.
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