The Sydney Opera House: Politics in the Creation of an Icon

The Sydney Opera House is one of the most innovative and iconic buildings of the twentieth century, which owes its existence to brilliant, but flawed realisation of various personal and political ambitions. Despite not being fully realised as its architect Jørn Utzon had envisioned it, the Opera House has become the reference for politicians and the wider public alike of how a single work of architecture can transform the identity of a city and even, as in this case, a nation.

This Paper examine the background to the original political vision and international architectural competition for the Sydney Opera House, illuminating how politics undermined the project, with consequences that last to this day.

The ambition to build an Opera House on a promontory within the magnificent Sydney Harbour, was driven during the mid-1950’s by the conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and championed by the Labor Premier of New South Wales, who both saw the Opera House project, as a means for Sydney to raise its status as a city. The choice of an open international architectural competition for the Sydney Opera House reflected the aspirations for the project, as did the selection of the most dramatic and unconventional of the proposals. The choice of Utzon’s design, catapulted the relatively unknown Danish architect to the forefront of architectural debate.

The political potential of architecture has been one of the underlying principles of the work of avant-garde architects from the early 20th century onwards. Though not overtly political in his personal statements, the work of Jørn Utzon, embodies a visionary approach to architecture that is poetic, socially concerned and humane; that was rooted in a Nordic culture where architecture and design, has been derived through the simple, honest yet noble synthesis of form, material and function, motivated by social values. For Utzon his approach to architectural design was further informed by a profound appreciation of nature and remarkable openness to transcultural sources of inspiration. It is Utzon’s highly original and innovative synthesis of many diverse cultural influences, in specific relation to its context, which makes the Sydney Opera House such an appropriate symbol for a dynamic multi-cultural society.

While Utzon’s sculptural expression of form and structure derives its integrity from a rational use of geometry, his architectural vision did push the boundaries of what is technically feasible. To compound the technical challenges of the project, the political will to realise the project ensured building began before the design was fully completed and an accurate costing had been made. The realisation of the building proved to be much more costly than anticipated and became the basis for a political campaign that eventually resulted in Jørn Utzon being forced to leave the project before completion.

The political controversy surrounding the Sydney Opera House is probably the best known of any building project and for a long time coloured perceptions of its architectural significance, as well as blighting the subsequent career of its architect. It is only in recent years that Utzon has come to be widely recognised as one of the outstanding architects of the 20th century. However, while the Sydney Opera House has become a reference for major public buildings since; the lessons of the role and potentially detrimental effects of politics have not been learned and continue to be repeated. It therefore appropriate to examine and provide a wider understanding of this most famous example, to achieve significant public architecture more successfully in the future.