It’s one of the most recognisable 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 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 Cahill launched an international design competition for a dedicated opera house.
After reviewing 233 entries from architects in 32 countries, the judges declared Danish
architect, Jørn Utzon as the winner of the competition in 1957 - despite his entry comprising
largely of diagrammatic drawings and simple sketches.
Following his win, Utzon proceeded to refine the building plans.
However, in order to capitalise on strong public support for the project at that time, and to ensure its funding,
the New South Wales government pushed for works to begin early, in 1959, before the scheme’s
design had been finalised.
With an initial budget of AUD $7M, and an expected completion date of January 1963,
the push to begin construction without a finalised design and before solving crucial structural
design challenges caused the project to be delivered 10 years behind schedule and more
than 14 times over budget.
It’s final cost was AUD $102M - which is equivalent to AUD $927M today.
The construction of Sydney Opera House was planned in three distinct stages. The first
would consist of the structure’s 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 delays significant delays and work was more than
47 weeks behind schedule - partly 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 finalised, the columns proved too weak to support it
- resulting in all of them being taken out and replaced.
Construction of the sail-like structure that gives the opera house its iconic shape made
up the bulk of the project’s second phase.
While the shells of Utzon’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 an 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 project team to understand the complex forces that the roof shells 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 rumoured
that Utzon 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 mould.
In total, more than 2,400 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’s structure was finished with more than a million white and
cream tiles, giving it the appearance we see today.
As works progressed, Utzon 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 project and tensions around
its delivery steadily began to grow.
Following several threats of resignation, Utzon finally left the project in February
1966, with more than AUD $100,000 owed to him in unpaid fees.
Despite public outrage and protests in Sydney demanding that he be reinstated as lead architect,
Utzon left Australia, never to return or see the project completed.
Departing before the internal fit-out began, several changes to Utzon’s 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 it’s renaming as
the “Joan Sutherland Hall” some years later.
Utzon's original acoustic and seating proposals for the major hall were considered insufficient
and led to a re-design 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
II on 20 October 1973 in a televised event that featured fireworks and a performance
of Beethoven’s, Symphony No. 9.
Utzon was not present at the opening, nor mentioned during the ceremony - and it wasn’t
until the 1990’s that the Sydney Opera House Trust appointed him as a design consultant
for future works on the building.
Utzon was awarded architecture’s highest honour - the Pritzker Prize - in 2003 and
works to rectify the building’s interior have been ongoing since 2004.
Works on the Joan Sutherland Theatre began in 2017 and the concert hall will undergo
renovation between 2020-2021.
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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