Jorn utzon house1/26/2024 ![]() The house that Utzon built himself in Mallorca overlooking the sea, in which he spent many years, was a domestically scaled summation of Utzon's architectural ideas. All three have a sculptural purity that makes them compelling works of architecture. Both of them, like Sydney, seemed to stand outside the mainstream of 20th-century modernism. There were other buildings, at least two of which - the Bagsværd church in Denmark (1968-76), and the Kuwait National Assembly (designed from 1971 onwards, completed 1983 and rebuilt 1993) - must be counted masterpieces. Utzon did ultimately manage to survive the trauma of Sydney. It was not an easy task, and recently Utzon's grandson Jeppe, also an architect, has questioned whether it is possible at this stage to fully realise the original vision. A decision was taken to remodel the interiors of the Opera House much in the manner that Utzon had intended in an attempt to deal with the acoustic problems and the difficulties caused by a lack of space behind the scenes Jan took part in the planning process. When Utzon was in his 80s, there was something of a reconciliation with Australia. For the building's 25th birthday that year, Utzon's daughter, Lin, went to Sydney and joined the state premier in launching the Utzon Foundation, a trust to award a £37,000 biennial prize for outstanding achievement in the arts - but Utzon did not attend.Īs he told the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1978, when he was awarded the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, an honour he did collect in person: "If you like an architect's work, you give him something to build, not a medal." Sydney tried to make amends by awarding him the freedom of the city in 1998, but the lord mayor had to take the keys to Denmark to present them. When Utzon was asked to take part in designing a resort in Queensland, he agreed to take on the commission, but sent his two architect sons, Jan and Kim, to deal with the client instead. When the Royal Australian Institute of Architects awarded him its gold medal in 1973, Utzon accepted, but stayed away from the ceremony. When the Queen opened the Opera House in 1973, Utzon was invited, but was unavoidably elsewhere. Thereafter, Utzon maintained a dignified silence about his treatment by Sydney. ![]() And it left Utzon humiliatingly out of pocket, the victim of a punitive double taxation regime that saw him paying over almost all his earnings to a combination of the Australian and the Danish tax authorities. What did for him in the end was a change of party in the New South Wales state government that coincided with disagreements - ostensibly about the cost and character of the proposed plywood-beamed interior - fought out in the claustrophobically small world of Sydney government. The worst of these came long after Utzon had left Australia. It was not a question of cost overruns that allowed the politicians to oust Utzon. Utzon left Australia permanently, and was replaced by a panel of local architects who went on to complete the building - one of whom had actually signed a petition that circulated in the New South Wales government architect's office refusing to work on the project if Utzon went.įor an architect there can be no fate worse than seeing a project that should have been the crowning achievement of his career taken away from him by what he saw as a cabal of uncomprehending philistines. He thought his resignation was a threat he would never be expected to have to act on. Utzon lost the political game, and was finessed into resigning without ever fully understanding that he was taking an irrevocable step. The fact that Arup refused to walk away from the project when Utzon resigned triggered a bitter and lasting break between them. ![]() For a particularly troubled period, Utzon failed even to respond to Arup and seemed unable to offer a clear way ahead. They suggest that Arup repeatedly offered Utzon workable technical solutions, but because they did not reflect the purity of the architect's vision, they were ignored. ![]() After Arup's death, the English critic Peter Murray was given access to his private papers. The relationship between the two Danes, warm at first, turned sour. He began the project working with the great engineer Ove Arup. In an era before desktop computing had transformed the limits of structural engineering, Utzon was asking for a lot in trying to get his complex shells built in load-bearing concrete, while accommodating all that the brief called for. There were real technical issues at stake.
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