nomination by the Government of Australia - Sydney Opera House

10.A BIOGRAPHIES OF JØRN UTZON AND OVE ARUP
Jørn Utzon (1918 – )
Jørn Oberg Utzon (Figure 10.1) was born in Copenhagen in 1918. He was raised and
educated in Aalborg, an industrial city in Jutland on Denmark’s north-east coast. His naval
architect father, Aage Utzon, was chief engineer of the Aalborg shipyard and acquired
an international reputation as a designer of yachts. As a school student Jørn visited the
shipyard to study new designs and help his father draw up plans and make models of
yachts. The Utzon family often sailed the Limfjorden Sound at Aalborg. Aage was also
interested in all areas of design. In 1930 Aage visited the Stockholm Exhibition, designed
by Swedish architect Gunnar Asplund, which was organised to introduce functionalism to
the public. The new, simple white architecture and the demands for light and space made
a considerable impression on Aage. He introduced these concepts and the new lifestyle
to the Utzon household.
In 1937 Jørn Utzon enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture of the Royal Academy of Arts in
Copenhagen; he graduated with the gold medal for architecture in 1942. His professors
included Kaj Fisker, renowned for his large-scale housing, and Steen Eiler Rasmussen
who specialised in town planning and was a prolifi c writer on architecture.
Utzon was infl uenced by the work of Gunnar Asplund and Alvar Aalto during his early
career in Stockholm, Sweden. He worked briefl y for Hakon Ahlberg, a recognised leader
of the architecture profession in Sweden and author of Gunnar Asplund’s work. Between
1942–1945 Utzon was an assistant architect for Professor Paul Hedquist who continued
Asplund’s practice after his death. Utzon collaborated with Tobias Faber in several
architectural competitions and received an honourable mention for the Ny Ålborghal
project, which included a concert hall, theatre and meeting halls. In 1942 Utzon married
Lis Fenger, a Danish commercial artist, and they had two sons, Jan (born 1944) and Kim
(born 1957), and a daughter Lin (born 1946).
In 1945 Utzon received the Minor Gold Medal of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts,
Copenhagen, an annual competition for architects under 35 years of age. The award
was for an Academy of Music project. In 1946 he worked briefl y with architect Alvar Aalto
in Helsinki, Finland, before returning to Copenhagen. He entered various competitions
for projects in Denmark and Sweden, winning honourable mentions and places. These
included fi rst and second prizes for the Architectural Association’s one-family houses and
town-planning competitions. In 1947 Utzon began a long collaboration with Norwegian
architect Arne Korsmo on competition projects, mainly in Oslo and south-west Sweden.
These included town and development planning, offi ce buildings and housing projects.
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