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KEVIN MCCLOUD: This is an extraordinary building
that had a remarkable birth.
The competition with the Sydney Opera House took place
in the late 1950s and the building took 14 years
to construct.
I have to say I've seen some long projects
but this probably takes the cake.
"Wow!"
What Utzon magically did was so avant garde
and so unlike anything else on the planet
that would come to be an icon —
an emblem for the country.
So this magnificent building, the Sydney Opera House,
is undergoing a $273 million renovation
for the 10.9 million people that visit it every year.
It is an eloquent essay about culture
and in its 45-year history it has also become a symbol
of a relationship between people and place.
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It's not quite Derbyshire though is it?
Australians have inhabited this House for nearly half a century
but in recent years the House has felt in dire need of a bit
of Renewal and did also require some accessibility upgrades —
a challenge that the Chief Exec Louise Herron knows all about.
LOUISE HERRON: The Opera House has been an operating performing arts centre
for forty-five years but it has for thousands
of years been a place of storytelling and celebration
and gathering for the Gadigal people who lived here for tens
of thousands of years before us.
And it's that spirit and magical energy that we try
to capture all day, every day in what we do.
The Opera House is in a Decade of Renewal which was launched
at our 40th anniversary in 2013.
So we're exactly halfway through that Decade
of Renewal at the moment.
What we need to do in these works is to fix a couple
of crucial issues that we have
and that is fixing the acoustics, accessibility,
safety, and ensuring that the equipment is actually the
equipment of the moment because a lot
of it has passed its use-by date.
[ Doorbell Rings ]
>> Hey.
>> Howdy-do, Kevin. Louise Herron.
>> Good to meet you, Louise. How are you?
>> Very nice to meet you.
Welcome to the Opera House.
>> Thank you very much.
>> Dame Joan Sutherland —
>> Yeah, yeah.
>> — is the person "La Stupenda"
after whom this hall is named.
>> Where was she from in Australia?
Do you know if she was —
>> She was a Sydney person.
>> Oh okay.
>> Yeah. [Laughter]
>> Then you got name a theatre after her.
>> So one of the things that you can see about the Opera House is
that it was built at a time
when accessibility wasn't really anything
that people bore in mind.
>> So what have you done for accessibility then?
>> So we couldn't cut through the stairs
because they're too narrow and we looked at some old drawings
and we found that actually there was this ingenious passageway
that could be made through the carcass
of the Joan Sutherland Theatre.
>> So this was plant rooms down here?
>> This was plant rooms and this is all finished
with this beautiful brush box and —
>> It's seamless.
Of course buildings like this are experiences
and Utzon designed this as a set of experiences for people,
for everybody to enjoy.
>> That's the thing for everybody to enjoy. >> Everybody!
>> But now everybody can enjoy it.
>> Can — yeah.
>> Yeah, exactly.
>> Nice. Nicely turned.
So if I'm in my wheelchair I come through the steps.
Now how do you get up there?
>> Well you don't need to, Kevin.
>> Oh you've got a lift!
>> You just take the lift and see this beautiful bronze finish?
As with all Opera House materials, bronze and concrete.
>> This is all new.
>> This is all brand new and how does it happen?
Well let me show you.
>> Now how do you get —
that concrete beams sort of terminates just here.
It floats.
>> It does.
>> Wow.
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It sort of looks as though it's always been here which is kind
of — it's a challenge your face isn't it?
Because I imagine all kinds of architects and critics
who are going to say "Oh you can't touch the granite..."
"You can't" — you know, "you can't cut into things" but it looks
like it was meant to be.
That's remarkable.
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The difficulty of what they're doing here, of course,
is revisiting the structure.
Working with the engineering of an existing building
which itself was highly complex when it was put together.
Imagine the challenges of trying to stitch in new work
when you add new structure, when you position complex pieces
of building together and rely on the forces of gravity
to help it all stand up as I've done
so with this exquisite model.
This is my Opera House by the way.
This is how I'd design it.
It's good, isn't it?
LOU ROSICKY: It's incredible working in a building
like the Sydney Opera House.
Coming up against Utzon and Hall's differing design intents.
Working at the House is incredibly challenging.
The place operates 24/7 almost every day of the year.
Patrons on-site, performance back of house as well,
and to get the building works coordinated
around their activities is always a challenge.
>> The glorious thing about architecture
that already exists is that you can experience it.
You can visit it.
It's not just something to look at but something to enjoy
as a physical, tangible experience
and perhaps the greatest space of all,
the one that I'm most excited about, is the Concert Hall.
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>> The Concert Hall is the biggest and most ambitious
of the projects within the Renewal works.
We need to work very closely with our Resident Companies.
We need to think of the millions of people that are going
to enjoy the Concert Hall in the future and have we made it
as adaptable and as perfect for every situation
as we possibly can have.
>> The Concert Hall Renewal is going to be a challenge
on a whole other level.
We'll be focussing on improving the acoustics in the room,
improving accessibility, and also a theatre services upgrade.
We're rebuilding the entire inner structure of the Hall.
At the moment we do have the doughnuts over stage,
the clear perspex rings.
We're moving to these.
There's a lot of names that have heard for them.
Petals. I've heard today it's called the potato chip.
[Laughing]
Their main purpose is to capture the sound
of the orchestra over the stage and then get it
out into the auditorium into the Boxes and the Choir Stall.
We're really excited about that.
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>> So when do you you hope to finish and be in?
>> This current set of Renewal works is going
to be finished in 2022.
>> Well and you think you can do that?
You think you can —
>> We've learnt a lot from doing the Joan Sutherland Theatre.
We have so many experts.
We've done our planning down to six minute intervals.
I'm pretty confident.
What I love dreaming about is
that at the 50th anniversary we have really upgraded this whole
part of the Opera House.
This building is a masterpiece of human creative genius.
I just love the Opera House.
It's a jewel.
We have to do everything we can to treasure it.
>> The interventions that are being made here,
the physical interventions to make the place more accessible,
easier to get around, easier to use
but of course what they also represent is something else.
A change in attitude about the emotional,
the spiritual accessibility of architecture like this
that can allow anybody to come in and use it, see it,
experience it, and enjoy things like this.
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[Whispers] Completely fabulous.
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I drink to this.
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