Great buildings - SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE

Have a look at The GUARDIAN's link here - interesting snap-shot of iconic buildings like the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, London's 'GUERKIN' and the SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE.

The one on the Opera House gives an insight into what became one of the world's most publicised project management disasters. JORN UTZON the building's architect 'resigned' in 1966 before work on the shell roofs was completed - he emigrated and never saw the building in it's finished state.

He says himself "I had the best job anyone could get. I had the possibility with a number of people to concentrate fantastically upon an extraordinarily great structure for a purpose which was not for profit but for the stimulus of the mind.

"It was my function as an architect to support the actors in the house and help them present their drama in a better way; and you could not dream of a better entrance to this new world. When it became clear that our function was to stimulate the audience before the drama, to take them away from their daily lives, the architecture came by itself."

On his departure the interior designs were completed by local architects who did it no justice. He was cut off and knew practically nothing of the new plans for the interior, which depart radically from his own conception. As he describes it, it had a coherent philosophy which began with the life of the city and harbour and drew it toward the stage, and there was not to be a light or a tile which did not have its place in that philosophy.

The only authentic Utzon interior - the Reception Hall - was completed in 2004 and named in his honour.

He now lives in Mallorca and, although in 1999 he was appointed 'design consultant' to provide guidelines that will oversee its future conservation, he has made it very clear he has no intention of returning.

In 2007 the Sydney Opera House was declared a world heritage site!