Why is the sydney opera house significant
Sydney Opera House: Building an Icon
it's one of the most recognizable
buildings in the world positioned on the
water's edge and overlooking the famous
harbour Sydney Opera House is an iconic
structure that is synonymous with
Australia though it now appears to float
effortlessly on the water this landmark
building
took some extreme engineering and over a
decade of construction works to become a
reality
this is the story of how Sydney Opera
House was built
in 1955 when the New South Wales
Conservatorium of music outgrew their
home at Sydney Town Hall premier Joseph
Carr Hill launched an international
design competition for a dedicated Opera
House
after reviewing 233 entries from
architects in 32 countries the judges
declared Danish architect John Hudson as
the winner of the competition in 1957
despite his entry comprising largely of
diagrammatic drawings and simple
sketches
[Music]
following his win hudson proceeded to
refine the building plans however in
order to capitalize on strong public
support for the project at that time and
to ensure its funding the New South
Wales government pushed her work to
begin early in 1959 before the scheme's
design had been finalized
with an initial budget of seven million
Australian dollars and an expected
completion date of January 1963 the push
to begin construction without a
finalized design and before solving
crucial structural design challenges
caused the project to be delivered ten
years behind schedule and more than 14
times over budgets its final cost was a
hundred and two million Australian
dollars which is equivalent to nine
hundred and twenty seven million
Australian dollars today the
construction of Sydney Opera House was
planned in three distinct stages the
first would consist of the structures
podium the second would see formation of
the iconic outer shells and the final
stage would focus on internal fit-out of
the concert halls and other open spaces
in March 1959 construction began on some
588 concrete piers to support the 1.8
hectare building
by 1961 the project was already facing
significant delays and work was more
than 47 weeks behind schedule partly due
to inclement weather but mostly due to
the lack of completed proposals to give
just one example of the impact this had
the support columns for the building's
roof were installed before the roof
itself had been designed when the full
extent of the roof structure was
determined and finalized the columns
proved too weak to support it resulting
in all of them being taken out and
replaced
[Music]
construction of the sail-like structure
that gives the Opera House its iconic
shape made up the bulk of the project
second phase
while all the shelves of Hudson's design
were a key part of his winning
submission no one at the time knew of a
cost-effective way to construct these
large non repetitive forms in effort to
find an economical solution the roof was
redesigned at least 12 times the project
was one of the first to use computers to
run structural analysis on the designs
allowing the product team to understand
the complex forces that the roof shelves
would be subjected to eventually a
solution was reached that would see the
curved roof shells cast as sections of a
single sphere while the individual
responsible for this breakthrough
remains unconfirmed it is rumored that
Utz and himself came up with the
solution while peeling an orange by
treating each shell as sections of one
sphere arches of varying lengths were
able to be cast in a common mold in
total more than 2400 precast ribs and
4,000 roof panels were manufactured this
way in an on-site factory avoiding the
need to cast the shells in situ and the
high formwork costs this would have
entailed once installed the roof
structure was finished with more than a
million white and cream tiles giving it
the appearance we see today
[Applause]
as works progressed but soon relocated
his office to Sydney in 1963 however
when the government changed just two
years later the project was placed under
the jurisdiction of the Ministry of
Public Works the new government had long
been outspoken critics of the projects
and tensions around its delivery
steadily began to grow following several
threats of resignation but soon finally
left the project in February 1966 with
more than a hundred thousand Australian
dollars owed to him in unpaid fees
despite public outrage and protests in
Sydney demanding that he be reinstated
as lead architect Hudson left Australia
never to return or see his project
completed departing before the internal
fit-out began several changes to us
since initial designs were undertaken
the multi-purpose major hall which was
to host both concerts and opera became
solely a concert venue while opera and
ballet productions were planned to take
place in the minor hall which became
known as the Opera Theatre until its
renaming as the Joan Sutherland hall
some years later Hudson's original
acoustic and seating proposals for the
major hall were considered insufficient
and led to a redesign which still caused
acoustic problems for performers and
orchestras on completion
after 14 years of construction Sydney
Opera House was officially opened by
Queen Elizabeth the second on the 20th
of October 1973 in a televised event
that featured fireworks and a
performance of Beethoven's Symphony
number nine
[Applause]
goodsoon was not present at the opening
nor mentioned during the ceremony and it
wasn't until the 1990s that the Sydney
Opera House trust appointed him as a
design consultant for future works on
the building Hudson was awarded
architectures highest honor the Pritzker
Prize in 2003 and works to rectify the
building's interior have been ongoing
since 2004 works on the Joan Sutherland
theater began in 2017 and the concert
hall will undergo renovation between
2020 and 2021 despite these ongoing
works and the years of engineering
professional and logistical challenges
to bring the structure into existence
Sydney Opera House is now synonymous
with the city that surrounds it and has
become an enduring symbol of the
Australian nation
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