General Information
Project Type
| Structure: |
Double thin shell |
|---|---|
| Function / usage: |
Opera house Concert hall |
| Material: |
Prestressed concrete structure |
Awards and Distinctions
| 2007 |
for registered users |
|---|
Location
| Location: |
Sydney Central Business District, City of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
|---|---|
| Coordinates: | 33° 51' 25" S 151° 12' 55" E |
Technical Information
Dimensions
| width | 120 m | |
| length | 183 m | |
| Concert Hall | seats | 2 679 |
| Drama Theatre | seats | 544 |
| Joan Sutherland Theatre | seats | 1 507 |
| Playhouse | seats | 398 |
| The Studio | seats | max. 400 |
| Utzon Room | seats | max. 210 |
Cost
| cost of construction | Australian dollar 102 000 000 |
Materials
| shell |
prestressed concrete
|
|---|
Notes
An international competition for the design of the Opera House, won by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, was held in 1955 and work started in 1959. After many disagreements with the Department of Public Works of New South Wales, Utzon resigned from the project in 1966 at the mid-point of construction. The architectural duties passed to Peter Hall, E. H. Farmer, Lionel Todd and David Littlemore. Very sever cost overruns were apparent from th earliest stages of construction and the additional expenditure was alleviated by a series of public lotteries.
Participants
Concept design
- Jørn Utzon (concept designer)
Architecture
- E. H. Farmer (architect)
- Peter Hall (architect)
- Lionel Todd (architect)
- David Littlemore (architect)
Engineering
- Ove Arup (engineer)
Contractor
Stage engineering
Rehabilitation
Water proofing
Relevant Web Sites
Relevant Publications
- : Architects + Engineers = Structures. Academy Editions, New York (USA), pp. 56-57.
- (1997): L'art de l'ingénieur. constructeur, entrepeneur, inventeur. Éditions du Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (France), pp. 491-493.
- (2017): Concrete Conservation Framework for the Sydney Opera House. Presented at: IABSE Conference: Creativity and Collaboration – Instilling Imagination and Innovation in Structural Design, Bath, United Kingdom, 19-20 April 2017, pp. 364-365.
- (2016): Conserving the Socks: Diagnosing and treating deterioration of the Sydney Opera House roof pedestals. Presented at: Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions (SAHC) 2016, Leuven, Belgium, 13-15 September 2016.
- (2021): Danish spheres and Australian falsework: Casting the Sydney Opera House. Presented at: Seventh International Congress on Construction History (7ICCH), Lisbon, Portugal, 12-16 July 2021, pp. 786-794.
- About this
data sheet - Structure-ID
20000073 - Published on:
28/10/1998 - Last updated on:
09/02/2021