The rantings of a mad man

Well i now have a new blog people. To start off while i get things going i am going to allow you to read my research on the Sydney Opera House.

 

One of today’s great pieces of architecture is the Sydney Opera House. At first glance one sees this astounding building standing in its entire splendour on a mighty plinth. The shells that form this structure mimic the sails of the ships that pass it by. But underneath this beautiful piece of sculpture lies a past of controversy, murder and politics. This past is one of massive interest as it has allowed for future generations to utilize methods of prefabrication to their limits and has allowed engineers to become inspired.

 

In the 1950’s Sydney was a bustling place. It was enjoying the Korean War boom and Australia was retrieving the highest prices for wool. The city was expanding fast and the population was approaching two million. The birth of the opera house idea started in 1947. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) boasted their conductor Eugene Goossens who was also the joint director of the New South Wales Conservatorium.

 

Goossens was in the process of promoting the SSO and was rubbing off on the citizens of Sydney Town Hall and Goossens was not a happy man. He wanted a better home for his orchestra. Thus he started campaigning for an opera house.

 

On October 6, 1948 he told a Sydney audience about his idea to build an opera house on Bennelong Point. In the days to follow the Minister for Local Government, Mr J.J. Cahill, said that the master plan for Sydney had made for no provisions of an opera house to be built on Bennelong Point but that it did allow for cultural centres to be built. In spite of his knowledge of the master plan Cahill had the idea of an opera house at Bennelong Point take root in his mind.

 

In 1952 Cahill became Premier of New South Wales (NSW) and this was the start of all the problems the opera house was destined to face. After more campaigning by Goossens, Cahill made a formal announcement on November 8, 1954 that an opera house was to be built. Finally the project could start to gain momentum and the journey of close to twenty years was underway.

 

The tasks were set; firstly a site had to be decided on and then an architect needed to be chosen. A committee was established of which the members were: Eugene Goossens; Professor Henry Ingham Ashworth, dean of the Faculty of Architecture at Sydney University; Charles (later Sir Charles) Moses, general manager of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Roy Handy, the Town Clerk of Sydney, and Mr. Stanley Haviland, the under-secretary of the Department of Local Government.

 

This committee was assigned the task of sourcing a suitable site. After much resistance by the Minister of Transport, magnificent Bennelong Point was chosen. It juts out into Sydney harbour, Australia. An understanding of the history of Bennelong Point helps in realising its significance.

 

On January 25, 1788 Sydney was colonised in an attempt to lessen the pressures on the prisons in Britain. The Governor of this new colony, Arthur Phillip, befriended a courageous Aboriginal man, Bennelong, who was taught English thus giving him the important role of interpreter. This role would become the pivot between black and white communities around Sydney Cove. Bennelong built his hut on a point and it was named Bennelong Point. Bennelong Point was to then undergo many personality changes as it became home to a military fort, Fort Macquarie, and a tram station which wanted to be a fort.

The committee in charge of sourcing a site kept falling back on this incredible Point. This was due to its rich history and importance to not just Sydney but also Australia as a whole. Another major advantage of the Bennelong site was that it was pivotal and formed a sort of focal point to its context. This with it spilling out into the shipping channels of the harbour, Sydney cove staring from the west, Farm cove peeking in the east, the city and Botanical gardens peering directly at it  and Sydney Harbour bridge standing over it. With all this attention it had five views which needed considering as apposed to the usual one or two of city buildings. There was no choice; this had to be the site of the new opera house.

 

When Cahill stated: “Sydney’s Opera House will be the first in Australia and it is probably many years since a similar project was undertaken in the world.” (Smith, 50) it became apparent that the building would have to be monumental.

 

Monumentality

This led the committee in opening the project to an international competition and a final 233 submissions were to be sifted through. The programme seemed to be brief and only called for a strict adherence to two halls; one to seat 3500 and the other to seat 1200. On January 29, 1957 and ten years after the idea had come forth Premier Cahill opened the envelope at 3:29PM and announced that the winner was a Joern Utzon (a 38 year old Dane). Sketches accompanying Utzon’s entry and a specially created perspective by the Sydney University (as Utzon had not submitted a perspective drawing) were shown. The idea was very conceptual and it was apparent that a lot of work was going to be done before the building could start.  

Prices rising (to a staggering $99.5 million) alongside the postponement of completion days, the use of a state lottery (which would lead to the death of an 8-year-old child) and a public donation account to finance the project, the state contributing an initial $200000 being a labour party government, Utzon’s resignation due to him feeling undermined as an architect (followed by a panel of architects being employed under the leadership of state architect, Peter Hall) were all just some of the many controversies the Sydney Opera House would have to face. Most of these were due to politics and the stubbornness of the government to change the name to a more socially accepted one; such as Sydney Entertainment House.

 

The construction process started on March 2, 1959 and consisted of four main stages: the podium, shells, glass walls and interior.

 

The podium was awarded to Civil and Civic Contractors Pty Ltd. It took four years to complete at a final cost of $5.1 million. Due to the project constantly being rushed the podium was being built while solutions to the construction of the shells were still being devised. Allowing for 900 rooms it is a monolith which is built of reinforced concrete poured in situ – 125000 tons of it with 6000 tons of reinforcing steel.

 

It is 95m wide and its maximum north-south length is 182m with its highest point 16m above ground level. Due to all the previous buildings that occupied the site it was necessary to have 550 concrete piers, each 900mm in diameter and some up to 12m below the Harbour’s surface.

 

The concrete slabs are covered with a veneer of pink reconstituted granite slabs which were quarried at Tarana, 177km away. The open staircase measuring a length of 95m is said to be the largest in the world.

 

This platform is also the roof to the vehicle concourse which is 86m long, 45m wide and has a clearance of 4,5m. The struggle was to create a space which rewired no internal supports so a plan was devised to crate a system with a 177mm thick corrugated slab design which was constructed as 50 adjacent folded beam units each 1,8m thick and 1,2m deep. This system allows for a span of 48m without and support.

 

Utzon’s scheme of making every curved part of the shell conform to a circle 75m in diameter made the shells possible and construction on them lasted three years. The tallest shell rises 67m above sea level. The entire rib structure of the shells are pre-cast (2194 4.5m segments) and were made to form a Y-shape. The brilliance behind the construction is that because of the spherical structure only four moulds were required however more were employed to speed up the process. Computer forecasts allowed each piece to be glued together with an ultra strong resin and for them to still align perfectly at the peak (all 280 ribs).

 

Outside the roof over one million white (one highly glossed and the other plain white) ceramic tiles were used to cover the entire system. The tiles were designed specifically by a Swedish company, Hoganas AB. Utzon was personally involved in the design of the tiles and prefabrication was again used.

 

On site the tiles were laid face down in a mould and concrete was poured over them to form a giant “lid” (some 4220: 10×2m). These were then hoisted into place and were bolted onto the rib structure using specially designed phosphour-bronze bolts and aluminium-bronze brackets.

 

The building has 150m² of glass. To stay true to Utzon’s vision of lightness a unique frame would have had to be devised. A consortium of glass companies (Vetro, Astor, Sandys and O’Brien (VASOB)) was formed to deal with the scale of the glass construction. More than 200 working drawings and 30000 dimensions were given to these companies.

 

A special laminated glass was chosen and the colour was to be tinted topaz as to reduce glare. A frame of steel mullions to which were attached bronze glazing bars was used and the glass was imported at a cost of $16 per 90mm². About 2000 panes of glass were fitted in 700 different sizes.

A special machine was design to place the glass and each glass pane was suctioned and positioned into place where a silicon rubber sealant would keep it in place. Computers made the extremely difficult task of dividing each section possible and in the end the largest error was a mere 6.3mm.

 

Upon entering the building one realises just how great the building is. The Concert Hall (seating 2700) and the Opera Theatre (seating 1550) both have been designed to perfection. They have concealed and silent air conditioning systems and boasts lighting capable of many shades and intensities. The acoustics have been perfected with each having the ideal reverberation time and special acoustic systems above the stage allow for instantaneous feedback of sound to the performers. A rich wood interior is present and the seats are marvellously made from white birch plywood and red leather.

The Concert Hall has a purple carpeted harbourside foyer which gracefully shows the spectacle of the harbour. Inside the Hall ones eye is absorbed by the centre point of the ceiling and is shown Utzon’s vision of a gothic-cathedral-type architecture. Inside the Opera Theatre one is encountered by a dark sombre interior designed to create no distractions so that all ones attention can be focused on the performers.

 

A further look into the Opera House shows drama theatres, music rooms, reception and exhibition halls as well as all the standard rooms such as rehearsal and recording rooms. The Opera House is fully equipped with offices and a library as well as two restaurants appealing to different markets. Each performer can from their room call for room service, make phone calls, speak with backstage and lighting staff in the theatres and enjoy the benefits of a CCTV system to name but a few of the technological devices employed.. Other features of the Opera House is a five language translation system, a magnificent concert organ, murals by admired artists and staff that are eager to serve.

 

The building is praised by performers, customers and the world in general. It has put Australia on the map and has Sunday concerts costing only $1. If the building falls short it is only in the way that it will never make a profit and has to survive on the government’s subsidies.

 

When reading the exert that Curtis makes in his book Modern Architecture since 1900 (Curtis, 467-469) we notice that he finds the Sydney Opera House a piece of art and as shown before it certainly is. Every part of the building has been carefully considered and has been designed for. Curtis also finds it saddening in a way that the amazing design conjured up in Utzon’s head had to be completed by those other than Utzon himself and although Utzon resigned he was turned down when asked to be taken back onto the project so that the problems of interior planning could be solved. Clearly he knew what needed to be done but was not allowed to do it.

 

Curtis seems to have an apathetic tone when speaking about this building but still praises it and it is apparent that this is what the building deserves. The building had a painful pregnancy, was filled with controversy, murder and scandal but its birth on October 20 1973 (14 years, seven months and 18 days after construction began) had a birth filled with celebration and has since stood proud in honour of Sydney. It has become a monument for Australia and has caused so much pleasure that one feels the painful journey to its creation was well worth it. When Utzon said he and his team would provide Sydney with the perfect Opera House regardless of cost we realise that he did indeed fulfil his promise. (Smith,92)
References:

 

Smith, V., 1981. The Sydney Opera House. 4^th Impression. NSW: RPLA Pty Limited

 

Baume, M., 1967. The Sydney Opera House affair. Melbourne: Nelson

 http://www.new7wonders.com/index.php?id=367 [cited 24 July 2007] http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/sydneyoperahouse/ [cited on 24 July 2007] http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Sydney_Opera.html [cited on 31 July] 

Curtis, William J.R., 1996. Modern Architecture since 1900. 3^rd edition. London: Phaidon