Jørn Utzon’s groundbreaking design for the Opera House won the judges over for its sheer audacity. But above all, the Opera House was, as its website puts it, “an extraordinary collective act of dreaming in public.” The design also demonstrated the power of collaboration between architects and engineers. The design foreshadowed projects like the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain, where showstopping architecture became a global calling card for up-and-coming cities.

And tension between the government of New South Wales and the architect led to him quitting the project halfway through.īut the building’s iconic shell-like roof serves as a towering crescendo of the possibilities of modern architecture - an ingenious scheme that arguably has never really been surpassed. Engineering of the building required the use of early computers to calculate challenging geometries - work that helped secure the reputation of Ove Arup & Partners, one of the world’s eminent engineering firms. 1 tourist destination, with more than 8.2 million visitors a year, and the complex’s two main performance halls (along with several smaller venues) collectively host more than 2,000 shows a year, according to the Opera House’s website.ĭuring the 1960s, when it was largely built, however, its success was hardly guaranteed. Today, we take the success of the Opera House as a given.

For Australia, that structure is undoubtedly the Sydney Opera House. There are few structures on Earth that serve as the undisputed icons of their respective countries: the Eiffel Tower in France, the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, and the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil are examples. The Sydney Opera House’s iconic shell-like roof is a testament to the possibilities of modern architecture.

Sydney opera house architecture