Sydney Opera House: Building an Icon

it's one of the most recognizable buildings in the world positioned on the water's edge and overlooking the famous harbour Sydney Opera House is an iconic structure that is synonymous with Australia though it now appears to float effortlessly on the water this landmark building took some extreme engineering and over a decade of construction works to become a reality this is the story of how Sydney Opera House was built in 1955 when the New South Wales Conservatorium of music outgrew their home at Sydney Town Hall premier Joseph Carr Hill launched an international design competition for a dedicated Opera House after reviewing 233 entries from architects in 32 countries the judges declared Danish architect John Hudson as the winner of the competition in 1957 despite his entry comprising largely of diagrammatic drawings and simple sketches [Music] following his win hudson proceeded to refine the building plans however in order to capitalize on strong public support for the project at that time and to ensure its funding the New South Wales government pushed her work to begin early in 1959 before the scheme's design had been finalized with an initial budget of seven million Australian dollars and an expected completion date of January 1963 the push to begin construction without a finalized design and before solving crucial structural design challenges caused the project to be delivered ten years behind schedule and more than 14 times over budgets its final cost was a hundred and two million Australian dollars which is equivalent to nine hundred and twenty seven million Australian dollars today the construction of Sydney Opera House was planned in three distinct stages the first would consist of the structures podium the second would see formation of the iconic outer shells and the final stage would focus on internal fit-out of the concert halls and other open spaces in March 1959 construction began on some 588 concrete piers to support the 1.8 hectare building by 1961 the project was already facing significant delays and work was more than 47 weeks behind schedule partly due to inclement weather but mostly due to the lack of completed proposals to give just one example of the impact this had the support columns for the building's roof were installed before the roof itself had been designed when the full extent of the roof structure was determined and finalized the columns proved too weak to support it resulting in all of them being taken out and replaced [Music] construction of the sail-like structure that gives the Opera House its iconic shape made up the bulk of the project second phase while all the shelves of Hudson's design were a key part of his winning submission no one at the time knew of a cost-effective way to construct these large non repetitive forms in effort to find an economical solution the roof was redesigned at least 12 times the project was one of the first to use computers to run structural analysis on the designs allowing the product team to understand the complex forces that the roof shelves would be subjected to eventually a solution was reached that would see the curved roof shells cast as sections of a single sphere while the individual responsible for this breakthrough remains unconfirmed it is rumored that Utz and himself came up with the solution while peeling an orange by treating each shell as sections of one sphere arches of varying lengths were able to be cast in a common mold in total more than 2400 precast ribs and 4,000 roof panels were manufactured this way in an on-site factory avoiding the need to cast the shells in situ and the high formwork costs this would have entailed once installed the roof structure was finished with more than a million white and cream tiles giving it the appearance we see today [Applause] as works progressed but soon relocated his office to Sydney in 1963 however when the government changed just two years later the project was placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Works the new government had long been outspoken critics of the projects and tensions around its delivery steadily began to grow following several threats of resignation but soon finally left the project in February 1966 with more than a hundred thousand Australian dollars owed to him in unpaid fees despite public outrage and protests in Sydney demanding that he be reinstated as lead architect Hudson left Australia never to return or see his project completed departing before the internal fit-out began several changes to us since initial designs were undertaken the multi-purpose major hall which was to host both concerts and opera became solely a concert venue while opera and ballet productions were planned to take place in the minor hall which became known as the Opera Theatre until its renaming as the Joan Sutherland hall some years later Hudson's original acoustic and seating proposals for the major hall were considered insufficient and led to a redesign which still caused acoustic problems for performers and orchestras on completion after 14 years of construction Sydney Opera House was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth the second on the 20th of October 1973 in a televised event that featured fireworks and a performance of Beethoven's Symphony number nine [Applause] goodsoon was not present at the opening nor mentioned during the ceremony and it wasn't until the 1990s that the Sydney Opera House trust appointed him as a design consultant for future works on the building Hudson was awarded architectures highest honor the Pritzker Prize in 2003 and works to rectify the building's interior have been ongoing since 2004 works on the Joan Sutherland theater began in 2017 and the concert hall will undergo renovation between 2020 and 2021 despite these ongoing works and the years of engineering professional and logistical challenges to bring the structure into existence Sydney Opera House is now synonymous with the city that surrounds it and has become an enduring symbol of the Australian nation if you enjoyed this video I would like to get more from the definitive video channel for construction subscribe to the b1m

Channel: The B1M

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Keywords: BIM, B1M, TheB1M, Construction, The B1M, Fred Mills, design, architecture, modern wonder, 7 wonders of the world, sydney, australia, opera house, opera, ballet, icon, danish, architect, Jørn Utzon, innovation, iconic, building, sydney harbour, sydney opera house, sydney harbour bridge, oceania, australasia, pacific

Id: 51m-YvjmijI

Length: 7min 59sec (479 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 05 2018