LEGO SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, User Manual, Page: 13 / 84

On graduating in 1942, he worked in Sweden until the
end of World War II. He was influenced by Gunnar asplund
and later alvar aalto, with whom he worked in Finland for
a short period after the war. In 1949 he received a grant
that enabled him and his wife Lis to travel extensively in
uSa and Mexico, coming into contact with some of the
most influential architects of his day, including members
of Frank Lloyd Wright’s school at Taliesin, Mies van der
rohe, ray and Charles eames and richard neutra. He
was also in paris meeting with Le Corbusier and the
sculptor Henri Laurens, whose influence taught him much
about form.
a major project took him to Morocco; unfortunately
the project was not realized, but he used the opportunity
to walk along the atlas mountain range, where he was
very inspired by the indigenous adobe architecture.
He returned to Copenhagen in 1950 to open his own
architectural practice.
In 1956, after wining a number of smaller architectural
competitions, utzon submitted his vision for Sydney Opera
House to the new South Wales Government. He was
as surprised as anyone when he actually won the competition.
His competition entry was a schematic design, clearly
explaining the concept for the building. The sketches and
‘geometrically undefined’ curves of course needed to be
developed for the building to be built. This is quite normal
for competition projects. utzon himself was sure it could
be built and in the pioneering spirit present in Sydney at
the time, construction went ahead.
It was utzon’s life and travels that had shaped his
ideas for Sydney Opera House. Though he had never
visited the site, he used his maritime background to
study naval charts of Sydney harbour. His early exposure
to shipbuilding provided the inspiration for the Sydney
Opera House ‘sails’ and would also help him solve the
challenges of their construction. From his travels to
Mexico, he had the idea of placing his building on a wide
horizontal platform.
after he was forced from the project by a new client
in 1966, utzon continued to push modern architecture
[ I like to be on the edge
of the possible. ]
Jørn utzon
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