Sydney Opera House Roof Construction
The sydney opera house is a modern expressionist design with a series of large precast concrete shells each composed of sections of a sphere forming the roofs of the structure set on a monumental podium.
Sydney opera house roof construction. Your covid safe visit to the sydney opera house. They were made in sweden. The history of the sydney opera house australia is a history of technological breakthroughs and re thinking of traditional work practices. Caroline grandjean thomsen from the building team joins us to tell us about the architect jørn utzon the competition to design the opera house and how important creativity was in the process.
Sydney opera house was opened by queen elizabeth ii on 20th october 1973. The sydney opera house is a multipurpose performing arts facility located on port jackson in sydney new south wales australia. Seven a380s could sit wing to wing on the site. With its white sailed roof set on the backdrop of sydney harbour the sydney opera house is arguably one of the most iconic structures of the 20th century.
The building was closing in on the original estimate of time for the opera house project as a whole. Yet sydneysiders began to comprehend the incredible feat of design and engineering underway in the name of culture. The sydney opera house is situated on bennelong. Between 1958 and 1962 the roof design for the sydney opera house evolved through various iterations as utzon and his team pursued parabolic ellipsoid and finally spherical.
Designed by danish architect jørn utzon but completed by an australian architectural team headed up by peter hall the building was formally opened on 20 october 1973 after a gestation beginning with. Even then it would require substantial modification to withstand the final designs for the roof. It was designed by danish architect jørn utzon the winner of an international competition sponsored by the new south wales government for the complex s design. The sydney opera house is a multi venue performing arts centre at sydney harbour in sydney new south wales australia it is one of the 20th century s most famous and distinctive buildings.
He used pre fabricated components often made on site with an incremental organic assembly of. It took 16 years of design and construction to realise this architectural monument and with its final cost over 10 times the initial budget the project was never far from the eye of the. Utzon utilised what he called additive architecture. Its unique use of a series of gleaming white sail shaped shells as its roof structure makes it one of the most photographed buildings in the world.
As construction of the podium began in sydney jørn utzon and his team of architects back in hallebaek explored how to build the opera house s shell shaped roof. Sydney opera house was added to unesco s world heritage list in 2007 there are more than 1 million roof tiles covering approximately 1 62 hectares sitting over the structure. The building covers 1 8 hectares 4 4 acres of land and is 183 m 600 ft long and 120 m 394 ft wide at its widest point.