nomination by the Government of Australia - Sydney Opera House

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Part 3. Justifi cation for inscription
3.C (iii) Iconic masterpieces
The Sydney Opera House is ‘widely
considered to be the most notable monument
of the twentieth century’ (Pritzker juror Ada
Louise Huxtable).
The Sydney Opera House is one of the most enduring
images of the 20th century and a world renowned
monument that traverses time and place. It has
outstanding universal appeal to the architectural and
engineering community and to the general public. The
Sydney Opera House sits admirably in the company
of world-famous iconic buildings of the modern era
and other periods such as Antonio Gaudi’s Sagrada
Familia in Barcelona (Spain 1926), Le Corbusier’s Villa
Savoye in Poissy (France 1929), Frank Lloyd Wright’s
‘Fallingwater’ at Bear Run, Pennsylvania (United States
1936), John Nash’s Royal Pavilion in Brighton (England
1815 –1823), Schönbrunn Summer Palace (Austria
1680 –1740), Blenheim Palace near Oxford (England
1705–1722) and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminal in
Mumbai (India 1878–1888). All of these buildings are
exceptional achievements of human creative genius
and of outstanding universal value. The Sydney Opera
House enjoys the same global reputation and success
as these buildings for its unique architectural character
and for being revered by people the world over.
The Sydney Opera House has been used as a
prototype for a number of other buildings around the
world from Gabon to the United Kingdom, Papua
New Guinea to the United States and Hong Kong to
Spain (Tombesi 2005). The infl uence of the Sydney
Opera House on modern architecture has extended
well beyond arts centres. Attempts to reproduce a
‘Sydney Opera House effect’ can be seen in different
types of buildings including convention centres,
religious structures, educational spaces and large-scale
infrastructure (Tombesi 2005).
3.44
The great poetic and technological achievement of
Jørn Utzon and collaborative teams of architects,
engineers and the construction industry
The Sydney Opera House is unquestionably the great
poetic statement and technological achievement of
Jørn Utzon and his collective team. This has been
affi rmed by architectural historians, architects and
awards and is demonstrated by the comparative
analysis above.
Adrian Carter, Director of the Utzon Institute in Aalborg,
Denmark situates the Sydney Opera House as a
legacy of Gunnar Asplund and the progressive values
of the early Nordic Modern Movement in architecture.
Romaldo Giurgola has likewise described the signifi cant
impact on Utzon of the ‘balanced, disciplined
juxtaposition of Asplund, the imaginative gestures of
Aalto, and the organic structures of Frank Lloyd Wright’.
But Giurgola also found that Utzon’s own work ‘matured
in an absolutely singular way, with poetical statement
strengthened by a professional skill and a spontaneous
dedication to those infi nite manifestations of human life
that make architecture’ (Giurgola 1980: 407).
The Sydney Opera House is by any measure one
of the great architectural achievements of the 20th
century. Comparison with other outstanding examples
of modern architecture confi rms the importance and
singularity of Utzon’s achievement along with those
many others involved in its creation. The Sydney Opera
House is indeed a rare and unique achievement as a
piece of ‘architecture that touches people … [Utzon’s]
work will live as long as architecture is valued, and his
ultimate legacy is ethical, not formal: a way of working,
not a repertoire of form’ (Weston 2002: 407).
Figure 3.44 Frank Lloyd Wright’s ‘Fallingwater’, Bear Run,
Pennsylvania, 1936. Fallingwater pre-empted Utzon’s
achievement of the conjuncture between architecture and
landscape, albeit on a domestic scale.