AESTHETICS OVER ACOUSTICS
or a brief look at Sydney opera house's failure.
One of the most recognizable buildings in the world, the Australian icon: Sydney Opera House is a vibrant performing arts center set in a stunning location on Bennelong Point, Sydney, Australia. The building was designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon (1918–2008), who was appointed to the project as a result of winning an international design competition in 1957 even though his submission consisted mainly of drawings and sketches. The complex opened in October 1973. Sydney Opera House is much more than an arts center now. Now It is a State, National, and World Heritage-listed national icon, listed under UNESCO’s criterion: A masterpiece of human creative genius.
Following his win, Utzon proceeded to refine his building plans and form. The design of the Sydney Opera House was inspired by nature, its forms, functions, and colors. Utzon was influenced in his designs by bird wings, the shape and form of clouds, shells, walnuts, and palm trees. He looked upon nature for guidance when designing, as nature over time combines both efficiency and beauty. However, to capitalize on strong public support for the project at that time, and to ensure its funding, the government pushed for the project to begin early, in 1959, even before the design has been finalized. The push to begin construction without finalized design and before solving crucial structural design challenges caused the project to be delivered 10 years behind schedule and cost more than 14 times the original budget.
As the main focus of the project was solely on the pointed roofs of the future, the internal working took the back seat, and due to this, taking precaution for good acoustics was out of the picture. The construction of the Sydney Opera House was planned in three distinct stages. The first consisted of the structure’s podium, the second saw the formation of the iconic outer shells, and the final stage focused on the internal fit-out of the concert halls and other open spaces. In the last stage the spaces for the auditorium, concert halls were allotted and designing was done without any structural planning.
The project was already facing delays significant delays and work was more than 47 weeks behind schedule — partly to inclement weather but mostly due to the lack of completed proposals. 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. While the shells of Utzon’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. To find an economical solution, the roof was redesigned at least 12 times, and not once, the acoustics of the inside were considered. Following several threats of resignation, Utzon finally left the project in February 1966, with more than AUD $100,000 owed to him in unpaid fees.
Utzon’s original acoustic and seating proposals for the major hall were considered insufficient and led to a re-design which still caused acoustic problems for performers and orchestras on completion. A report in 1998 concluded that, without major structural modifications to the hall’s geometry, the acoustical improvement would require a series of steps, including an overhead reflector, stage modification, replacing lightweight materials with dense materials, and addressing background noise issues. That means literally everything that can go wrong with the acoustics did go wrong and they will have to take extra measures just to provide standard acoustic insulation inside the building.
In conclusion, Utzon built a masterpiece, but not a place for performance. Even though Utzon was awarded architecture’s highest honor — the Pritzker Prize — in 2003 for his faulty yet captivating design, the works to rectify the building’s interior acoustics have still been ongoing since 2004. The development of the Concert Hall acoustics needs to be measured holistically and within the overall programming and operational demands of the venue. Recommended improvements to the acoustics represent a multimillion-dollar investment and consequently require integration with the plans for the entire Sydney Opera House complex. If higher priorities would have been given to the acoustics, then the biggest failure of the most iconic building could have been prevented.