Jrn Utzons use of daylight in architecture

Inaugurated in 1972 after a building period of 16 years, the Sydney Opera is one of the worlds most original and spectacular buildings. The Opera is also a landmark for Sydney and an icon for the whole twentieth century.

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J r n

U t z o n s

u s e

o f

d a y l i g h t

i n

a r c h i t e c t u r e

I n ha biti n g L ig ht
For Jrn Utzon, light has been the enduring thread that binds his interest in nature to his interest in architecture and to his world view. Throughout his career, his passion for the natural world has led him to seek more from daylight than adequate illumination or sensual delight. Natural processes were models for numerous aspects of his work and they have inspired him to take that which is essential to daylight, because it is essential to human existence, and use it to generate architecture.

BY Richard Weston and Martin Schwartz

Through studies of the most important projects created by Jrn Utzon, Professor Richard Weston and architect Martin Schwartz analyse how one of the most original architects conceives of architecture as a function of daylight. Like many true innovators, Jrn Utzon is an observer with unusual acuity. His works are frequently founded in insights that initially appear quite small, but turn out to be so profound that they drive his architecture to a level of mastery with what seems like inevitable force. Many of these insights arise from observations taken from nature, but unlike the flowing, biomorphic shapes of much so-called organic architecture, the resulting forms do not resemble nature in any obvious way. Instead the projects derive from principles discovered in trees and leaves, fish,1 sand, snow, sky, and of course, light. Throughout his career, Utzon has sought to make buildings that have the kind of balance and order found in biology and physics as much as in architectural classicism. He has translated natural phenomena, light in particular, as well as principles from the natural world, into ideas about structure, enclosure, repetition, order and disorder, change and stability; and he linked them in his mind and works in order to establish his own basis for the composition of architectural form and space. Large thoughts, as Nicholson Baker has writ-

ten, depend more heavily on small thoughts than you might think.2 Baker might well have had Jrn Utzon in mind when he wrote this. Several of the most interesting examples of this process can be found in Utzons use of light and in his increasing reliance on light, throughout his career, to help generate space and form. His use of light centers on three observations that, although small in themselves, have great power as generative principles: firstly, the understanding that reflected or diffused light is usually preferable to a direct view of a light source; secondly, sensitivity to the suns daily and annual paths through the sky with reference to particular places; and thirdly, the realization that light-receiving devices could be made into inhabitable spaces.

interiors to be illuminated by daylight. Nevertheless, Utzon paid extraordinary attention to the roof shells and their potential to capture and hold light on their surfaces. The weather in Sydney is by no means as consistently sunny as the citys tourist promotions would have us believe, and the Harbor itself as Eero Saarinen (the most distinguished member of the original competition jury) pointed out to Utzon could be surprisingly dark at times. In response, Utzon decided to cover the shells with ceramic tiles, developing a combination of glazed (highly reflective) and unglazed (matte finish) tiles

Jrn Utzon. Photo: Ole Haupt

Light and form: Sydney Opera House

One cannot help but notice that by rotating the early PH lamps 90 degrees, so that the central axis through the lamp is horizontal, the profile resembles the silhouette of the nested shells of the Sydney Opera House (1957-73). However, the translation of a formal idea into architecture is not so simple. As it is difficult to meet normal acoustic and theatrical demands of the theater or music hall with openings to the outside world, the opera house offered limited opportunities (the lobbies) for

Photo: David Messent/Edition Blndal

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Photo: David Messent/Edition Blndal

The Opera is placed on a projected piece of land in Sydney Bay. The building looks like an almost hovering, moving formation of gigantic, white shells of various sizes, lifted above a terraced bastion, towering on the background of the sky, the sea and the horizon.

Sketches of plateaus and hovering forms, real and abstract clouds and a Chinese roof, associated by Utzon with the Sydney Opera.

Sketches: Jrn Utzon

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Photo: Richard Weston/Edition Blndal

All the shells of the Sydney Opera are different sections of the same, large sphere. They are formed by a gigantic, ribbed concrete structure, mounted in symmetrical pairs on their terraced base.

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Photo: David Messent/Edition Blndal

Utzon decided to cover the Opera with ceramic tiles in a combined pattern of glazed and unglazed tiles, intended to produce a shimmer rather than a mirror effect. In his description of the surface Utzon used a natural analogy to the glow of snow-covered mountain landscapes and the contrast between soft, newly fallen snow and the glisten of frozen snow.

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inspired, in part, by his admiration for the tiled domes and minarets of traditional Islamic cities. The character of light he sought for the shell surfaces was a shimmer that is not quite specular3 or as Utzon described it, a surface whichwould show the texture through the glaze4 and characteristically he offered natural analogies, in the light-reflecting qualities of snow that give rise to the phenomenon of Alpengluhen (the coloured glow of snow-covered mountain landscapes), and in the contrast between soft, newly fallen snow and the glisten and irregular surface of its frozen form. The resulting surfaces are among the most expressive in modern architecture. As passing clouds, the sun or you the viewer move by, the shells variously glow, gleam or flash with light. Stand closer and the tiles scintillate, as if studded with stars. Closer still, and tiny constellations appear and disappear below the bubbly surface of each tile. Walking down the narrow street between the performance halls one moves between soft blue shade and glistening ice. In the shadows mysterious pools of glowing light are reflected from the neighboring hall. And as the sun sets, the light lingers, caressing and coloring the tiles: cream and ochre, then salmon pink and the palest of violets, until the voluptuous geometry is reduced to a ghostly silhouette. The seams between tile-surfaced concrete lids, the joints between tiles, and the subtle variation between matte and glazed tile surfaces

also lend proportion and scale to the roof shells, making the construction process explicit. These several qualities lend meaning to the overall form of the roof shells, tying the architecture to its place in the world. The play of light on the surface of the Sydney Opera House is evidence of the tension between stability and change that characterizes Utzons architecture and all of nature. The building, with all of its shells curved in correspondence with the same diameter, the finite number of tile lid sizes, the constant 5-inch-square tiles and resulting grid of joints, is quite obviously stable. But the ever-changing play of daylight on the varied shell sizes, the two tile finishes and lid arrangements, and the curves themselves, create an illusion in which the architecture appears to change and even move in response to its environment. Here we find the emergence of Utzons second insight in regard to daylight. He understood the geometrical relationship between the sun and a particular place on the earth and saw its architectural significance. Utzon was clearly aware of the changing but predictable path of the sun as it appears to travel through the sky, daily and annually. He knew how the suns path varies by latitude and the effects of local climate. With his preference for diffused light, he realized that to provide the most comfortable light to a space and to animate a structure visually, it would be sufficient to configure and locate an immobile structure correctly in the pre-

dictable but ever-changing path of the sun. After the tribulations of Sydney, Utzon must have realized that instead of a producing a complicated object, he could plan simple buildings and let the sun and sky do the hard work of generating a feeling of mutability.

Inhabited caves: Silkeborg Museum of Fine Arts and Jeita Theatre

With the Sydney Opera House, Jrn Utzon established himself as one of the great form-givers of twentieth century architecture. So it is noteworthy that he never again saw the need to make extraordinary form, and certainly not for its own sake. In his subsequent projects, form was devised to capture light, and directed toward the creation of the character of interior space. Form became a function of performance. By building underground, he quite literally suppressed extraordinary external forms in the first of two projects for the unbuilt Silkeborg Museum of Fine Arts (1963-1964). Designed to house the works of the leading Danish artist Asger Jorn, Utzon proposed a building that resembled an artificial cave system, with a pair of bottle-shaped galleries accessed by a roller-coaster network of ramps, all of which are contained in a three-storey-tall underground cham ber in which paintings were intended to be hung free in space. Utzon intended that the large chamber be bathed in light reflected off the northern sky from a completely glazed

In 1970 Jrn Utzon was commissioned to design a theatre in a large, underground cave at Jeita in Lebanon. The cave is almost completely devoid of natural light, and so Utzon decided to use artificial light as the primary means of creating space. The auditorium should be surrounded by a skeletal steel structure, lit with flickering yellow, orange and red lights, suggesting fire in the depth of the cave. Unfortunately, the project was never realized.
Sketch: Jrn Utzon

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Photo: Jan Utzon

Silkeborg Museum, north facade

Silkeborg Museum, section

Utzon submitted two proposals for the Silkeborg Museum of Fine Arts which was never built designed to house the works of the Danish artist Asger Jorn. One of the proposals was a building that resembled artificial caves with a pair of bottle-shaped galleries. They were accessed by a roller-coaster network of ramps, all of which contained in a three-storey tall underground gallery.

Silkeborg Museum, section

Silkeborg Museum, plan

roof, and the galleries project above ground with glazed openings. The result would have provided even, glarefree illumination for the display of artworks and for circulation in the museum some sun would have entered the museum, but only during very early and late hours during the long Nordic summer days. Every wall surface would have been bathed in reflected light, so that the composition is likely to have been one of illuminated spaces within illuminated spaces, in a progression of gradually dimmer rooms. This proces-

sion from bright exterior to dim innermost chamber would have eased the adaptation of our eyes to lower light levels as visitors entered galleries designed to exhibit the most delicate artworks, while also reflecting Asger Jorns wish that the encounter with his sculptures should be as much tactile as visual. Six years after projecting the cavelike system of spaces at Silkeborg, Utzon was presented with the challenge of creating a theatre in an actual cave

at Jeita Grotto, north of Beirut, Lebanon. The cave, a celebrated tourist attraction, was intimidatingly vast and almost completely devoid of natural light, and so Utzon determined to use artificial light as the primary means of creating space. To enclose the seating and support the stagelighting rigs, he proposed a skeletal steel structure. As visitors entered the cave, the steel structure was to be lit with flickering yellow, orange and red lights, suggesting the welcoming warmth of a fire burning deep in the cave. Before and

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during the performance, visitors would be aware only of the skeletal enclosure and the stage, but then, following a moment of total darkness, the house lights powerful floodlights directed at the natural vault above were to be turned on to reveal for the first time the vastness of the cave. Unfortunately the project was never realised.

Light and space: Bagsvrd Church

Bagsvrd Church (1968-76) north of Copenhagen fully orchestrates the interplay of all three of Utzons daylighting themes. (Firstly, the understanding that reflected or diffused light is usually preferable to a direct view of a light source; secondly, sensitivity to the suns daily and annual paths through the sky with reference to particular places; and thirdly, the realization that light-receiving devices could be made into inhabitable spaces.) The church was conceived from its inception as a spatial response to daylight and the path of the sun in this part of the world. The approach is so fluent that it is fair to say that the church is organized in light; however, confronted by the opaque, virtually windowless enclosing walls, the first-time visitor may be confounded by this claim. But upon entering, even after many visits, one is astonished by the interior spaces suffused with illumination.

The sun travels low in the Scandinavian sky, often grazing the horizon and frequently presenting the problem of glare.5 Utzon realized that the geometry of that sun-earth relationship contained a solution to the problem. As invigorating as sunlight sometimes can be, the best reading, working, and living light should be light reflected from the portion of the sky without the sun. In Scandinavia, this is the top of the sky. Bag svrd Churchs almost distinct zones of direct and reflected light result from Utzons orientation of building openings primarily in one direction in this case, upward. The light in Bagsvrd Church is either skylight (containing little or no direct sun) from the top of the sky, or direct sun reflected from building surfaces before it reaches our eyes. This idea, the separation of sky and sun, generated floor plans and sections with distinct qualities. The plans are orthogonal, constituted by squares6 of varying sizes, and with an armature of corridors, entirely skylit, that structure movement, receive direct light and delineate residual space for rooms and courtyards. The plan depicts a clear structural grid capable of supporting ambitious sectional qualities. And it is in section, the vertical dimension, that a building is enabled to gather light. Here, the ceilings are generated by cir-

cles7 of varying diameters or, at the corridors, completely glazed. The corridors receive skylight and sun on tall, matte white walls, high enough to reflect and re-reflect light. The corridors are saturated with illumination and, as a result, noticeably brighter than the streetscape of darker houses and vegetation, just outside the building. The light in the corridors, Jrn Utzon wrote, provides almost the same feel as the light experienced in the mountains during a sunny day in winter, making these elongated spaces happy places in which to walk8. Like the corridors, the courtyards also take light, receiving it on their ground and wall surfaces, where it is reflected through screens of wood and glass and into offices and meeting rooms. Almost every room in the church is situated between, and brightened by, two light sources: corridor and courtyard. The sanctuary of Bagsvrd Church is one of the most extraordinary ecclesiastical spaces in twentieth-century architecture, and is a technical as well as a psychological achievement. The sanctuary uses the Nordic sky as the source of light and also as a working model for the illumination of the room. The forms of the vault are not only inspired by clouds, but also work much like clouds as a sheltering canopy and a reflector

The plan of Bagsvrd Church is a clear structural grid, consisting of squares of various sizes connected by corridors receiving only daylight. In section, the ceilings are a combination of circles of varying diameter.

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Bagsvrd Church is design ed as a combination of insitu cast concrete and con crete components. The facades are faced with light concrete elements and ceramic tiles of the same colour.

Photo: Bent Ryberg/Edition Blndal

The church is situated in an institutional area, but surrounded on all sides by green lawns. The limited area of the site dictated the narrow volume of the building.

Photo: Arne Magnussen & Vibeke Maj Magnussen/Edition Blndal

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of light. Utzon is said to have realized the potential of this strategy while observing cloud formations on the beach in Hawaii,9 but the idea was latent in his earlier work. The idea of the roof as a cloud-like form floating above a platform was posited in sketches associated with Sydney Opera House and ex-

plored in Utzons most important published article, Platforms and Plateaus: Ideas of a Danish Architect,10 while the almost calligraphic, wandering line quality of Bagsvrds ceiling can be traced back to an early theoretical design for a printing factory made in Morocco in 1947. The ceiling which

is, in fact, also the primary roof structure is a curved complex of sprayed reinforced concrete vaults. The vaults are thin, 8 to 10 centimeters spanning 17 meters (almost 56 feet). Everchanging daylight and the fluid forms of the vault transform concrete into a nearly weightless hovering canopy designed

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Sketches: Jrn Utzon

Utzon conceived the concept of Bag svrd Church in two sketches, showing the transformation of a group of people on a beach into a congregation in a church, framed by an abstract landscape of trunk-like columns and cloud vaults.

Photo: Bent Ryberg/Edition Blndal

In Bagsvrd Church there is one of the most unusual architectural naves in 20th century architecture. The sanctuary uses the Nordic sky as the source of light. The vaults a reinforced concrete structure are not only inspired by clouds, but also work like clouds as a sheltering canopy and a reflector of light.

to diffuse light and distribute sound in the space. The clerestory windows high on the west side of the sanctuary vault allow skylight and warm afternoon and evening sun to break through and play on the vault. The vaults are painted

white so as to take a small amount of northern skylight (a very small amount in winter months), and occasional direct sun, and distribute it generously throughout the room. The only shadow on the vaults is the fine tracery of the wood formwork, which reveals the true nature of the material. There is no shad-

ow to suggest that there is a boundary between the real sky and the cloud vault of the worship space. The light is reflected and re-reflected so that it is further softened, until the brightness of the vault is gradually reduced to a darker underside where, like a cloud, it shades itself. Daylight enters the sanc-

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tuary from spaces on its four edges. It is filtered through a double layer of glazed screens on the west entry side, pours down through the skylighted corridor and balcony system north and south, and sneaks in from the sacristy behind the altar. The vaults appear to levitate, like clouds or puffs of smoke, with no means of support, and certainly not as if made from a heavy material. The sanctuary is effectively a courtyard, where parishioners worship in the landscape just as Utzon depicted in his evocative early sketches.

courtyard, from the earlier private houses such as the Villa Banck with its two courts (Helsingborg, Sweden; 1958) to the Paustian Furniture Showroom (Copenhagen, 1987). Even Sydneys platform is such a space: the Opera House is not just an isolated sculpture, but also a successful public plaza. Utzons mature works illustrate his success in bringing the character of the courtyard, enclosed yet day-lit, to other spaces. At the same time that Utzon was making open spaces on a civic, even geographical scale at Sydney, he was exploring the courtyard on residential and community scales, suggesting its use for a variety of living and working activities, and to guarantee each houses access to daylight. For the Skne housing competition, with Ib Mgelvang in 1953, Utzon developed a house type consisting of a masonrywalled precinct of 20 metres on each side with two adjacent walls made available to support an L-shaped, shedroofed dwelling. In this proposal, a courtyard remained open to light and views and for private outdoor living. Two versions of this house type were built as the Kingo Houses (also called

Light in courtyards
Utzons architecture is grounded in his empathy with sun, sky, light, and inhabitation, and he always begins a project with the creation of open space, a room in daylight. Bagsvrd Church, with its open courtyards and sanctuary, created from daylight, is just one of several essays on outside rooms. In fact, his career could be explored through his use of this venerable architectural element.11 Utzon knew the traditional Danish farm courtyard arrangement and became familiar with its Chinese and Islamic versions from his travels and books. Almost every one of Utzons built works originates with a

the Roman Houses; begun 1957), and Fredensborg Houses (completed 1965). In these influential and articulate schemes, the private outside spaces the courtyards are oriented southwest or southeast for midday and (a choice of) afternoon or morning sun. The units are attached, sited with reference to the slope of the land, and offset from each other in plan for advantageous views, to enhance privacy, and to individualize each unit. The resulting housing developments offer open space and light at two scales: private and public, with the former dedicated to the family and the latter defined by the aggregated community of walled courtyards. Utzons Espansiva residential building system of the late 1960s is similarly depicted as a community of communities. A site plan diagram shows nine houses, each comprised of varying layouts of five modules, with each house forming a courtyard. The collection of houses makes a larger open space. At each scale, Utzon oriented spaces around light, and light toward people. Utzon enlarged his understanding of light when he translated his Nordic perceptions to a Mediterranean setting. At Can Lis (1970-1972), the first of two

Both the Kingo Houses (left) and the Fredensborg Houses (right) are situated according to the slope of the land and offset from each other in plan for advantageous views and to enhance privacy. Both developments offer open space and light at two scales: private and public.

Photo: Keld Helmer-Petersen

Photo: David Messent

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Photo: Arne Magnussen & Vibeke Maj Magnussen/Edition Blndal

The Fredensborg Houses were built in 1963 for returning expatriate Danes, primarily elderly people without small children. The houses clearly divide traffic areas and the landscape.

In 1954, together with Ib Mgelvang, Jrn Utzon developed a house type for a housing competition in Skne (in the south of Sweden), consisting of a masonry-walled precinct forming an L-shaped, shedroofed dwelling. The project was not realized, but marked the beginning of Utzons work with walled courtyard dwellings.

The house type from the proposal for the Skne competition was used in the Kingo Houses in Elsinore from 1957. Today about 50 years after they were finished these dwellings are still among the finest in Danish house design.

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Photo: Flemming Bo Andersen

In 1972 Jrn Utzon created his own sanctuary on Mallorca. On bedrock, turned towards the African coast, he had a house built Can Lis on the background of the local stone architecture.

Photo: Bent Ryberg/Edition Blndal

Photo: Bent Ryberg/Edition Blndal

When the doors of the house are open towards the road, the small patio, the colonnade and the living room form an entire room opening dramatically towards the horizon.

Photo: Jrn Utzon

The fantastic views from the living rooms are enhanced by the fact that the windows are installed so that from within the frames are out of sight.

A small, narrow, glazed opening in the south-east corner of the living room marks the passing of the day. Once a day, for a very short time, the sun sends its rays through the opening.

Behind the shielding wall of the house there are five offset pavilions, connected by courts and walls, oriented at various angles to the broad view.

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homes he built on the Spanish island of Mallorca, Utzon revisited the three themes we have explored with a neat twist essential to the way the house fits in its site and climate. Located in a distinctly different solar environment, Utzons light-receiving strategy at Can Lis is actually the same as at Bagsvrd, but inverted. To minimize glare, reflected daylight is gathered from the part of the sky farthest from the path of the sun. In the Mediterranean, the locations of sun and diffused skylight are reversed from those of Scandinavia: skylight is available from near the horizon, and direct sun from the top of the sky, because the sun path is so much higher throughout the year.12 The manifestation of these observations is clearly observed in the most important room in the house, the living room. The Can Lis complex of five pavilions is associated with six courtyards in varying configurations, seven if you count the living room. Like Bagsvrds sanctuary, this living room has a reciprocal relationship with the sky and site, in which the room is both part of the house but incomplete without the sky and, at Can Lis, the view. And again, Utzon designed the room to receive and reflect indirect light. There are no openings in the roof plane to admit hot sunlight. Instead of reaching upward for light, the living room projects episodically toward the sea with five glazed window bays, each about the size of a person and aimed at a different angle around the horizon. The bays resemble the window seats that we used to find in the thick-walled buildings of previous centuries. But at Can Lis, the bays are fully open to a view of the sea and they have no seats the floor continues into the bays. They are like side chapels in a church, small rooms linked to a great room, but with the exterior walls blown out to reveal the horizon resulting in a dual allegiance. In form, they resemble the deep-set, canted openings in Le Corbusiers chapel at Ronchamp, but are more inviting because they can be lived in. The bay surfaces catch skylight from the horizon and diffuse sunlight. Their sandstone surfaces absorb radiation and lend their warm yellow-pink colour to the sunlight. The character of the

stone emerges: its texture and the circular marks of the saw are revealed in shadows and highlights. All year round, the bays reach out to the horizon for skylight and to control sunlight, while at the same time framing stunning views of the Mediterranean. Each of the bays is fully glazed without intermediate divisions, and the wooden window frames are applied to the outside face of the building in the manner of Swedish architect Sigurd Lewerentz.13 With the frames out of sight, not even a sliver of shadow obstructs the inward rush of light. There is no impediment to the competing attractions of the sea and sky. As the openings appear to be unframed and unglazed, it looks as though you could walk right out into the horizon. Sunlight is introduced conditionally to the living room. When the sun is low in the sky, early in the day and during the cooler winter season, it penetrates deeper into the room. But as the altitude of the sun increases, the depth of its reach is restricted to the bays where it is held and diffused. The one exception to this rule is the single, small, glazed opening high on the southwest wall that invites a blade of light to swing across the southeast wall in the late afternoon to animate the space and mark the passing of the day. The introduction of sun high in a tall room and softened light entering below recalls the Hall of the Abencerrajes and its relationship to the Court of Lions at the Alhambra. Like the Hall, the living area at Can Lis has a ceiling capable of diffusing light down into the room: a series of shallow, vaulted, white-painted ceiling tiles in place of the Alhambras polychromed muquarnas. And again like the Hall, sun and skylight are reflected from the floor of an adjacent courtyard (north of the living room) and are admitted through a colonnade that creates a layer of cooling shade. By means of this courtyard, skylight is gathered from the northern sky, which, at this latitude, is the quadrant of the sky with the least direct sun. In its sectional development, Can Lis recalls many built and unbuilt projects by Utzon. At the Zurich Theatre (an unbuilt competition-winning project of 1963), Bagsvrd, and Sydney, to cite

three examples, the primary public room rises above a fabric of smaller supporting facilities, and furnishings appear to be sculpted from the ground. As in those public projects, the living room at Can Lis is a kind of theatre. It is oriented on a diagonal with the northsouth axis, its arc of built-in seating aimed south. The orientation of this pavilion maximizes the exposure of the living room pavilion to the arc of the sun throughout the day and across the seasons, while the bays control the reception of daylight. Both Can Lis and Bagsvrd have vaulted ceilings; had Sydney been completed to Utzons vision, the Opera House would also have had ceilings generated by circles and in sympathy with acoustic principles. In the Can Lis living room as at Bagsvrd, light is the performer, and it is reasonable to conjecture that for the architect, this is the kind of theatre that he always wanted to make.

Structuring light: Kuwait National Assembly

The Kuwait National Assembly building (1970-1983) is a direct response to the aridity of the region and the need to control sunlight that brings extreme heat. Here again, Utzon found the solution embedded in the problem: the stronger the sun is, the deeper is its shadow. The dangerously strong sunshine in Kuwait, Utzon wrote, makes it necessary to protect yourself in the shade the shade is vital for your existence14 It might be said that the location of the sun in the sky prompted the design of shade, rather than the design of light. The institutional occupancy and the public scale of the building task gave Utzon the opportunity to identify architectural modules that were both spatial and structural. At the same time, each of the three module types, for circulation, offices, and large gatherings, works to control light in a slightly different way and each draws from the architectural traditions of the host culture.

The central hall of the National Assembly Building, which Utzon called the central street, is spanned by a series of precast concrete vaults. The curved elements of the structure allude to the folded fabric of tents and the full-length tunics worn by many who work in the building.

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Photo: Bent Ryberg

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Utzon was inspired by Isfahans Islamic urban pattern when he designed the Assembly Building.

Plan of the Assembly Building. The function of the building as an institution and the public magnitude of the project gave Utzon an opportunity to focus on both spatial and structural architectural forms.

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A concourse, the primary corridor, which Utzon has referred to as a central street, is a two-storey-high space, spanned by a series of precast concrete vaults that overhang the clerestory glazing by half the width of the concourse. This configuration requires sunlight to bounce at least twice, once from the roof surface and again from the underside of the vaults, before it enters the space. Running through the building from its entry on the southeast to its shaded square on the northwest, the illumination in the concourse is a greatly softened version of the harsh exterior climate. The light also models the surfaces of the alle of cylindrical, precast, supporting elements. This produces an effect of grace and subtlety that plays against the rigour of the construction system. The curved elements allude without mimicry to the folded fabric of tents and even to the traditional full-length white tunics worn by many who work in the building. Utzon also called our attention to the fact that the concourse is an orientation device.15 The size, scale, and linearity of the space contribute to this, but so does the shifting light. Even as daylight changes

over the course of the day and as the light is diffused by the architecture, it reminds us of the outside world, time of day, and direction. With this strategy, the recognition of the path of the sun and the quality of its light, Utzon counters the disorienting tendencies of a large building with similar spaces and symmetries. The courtyards and roof monitors support this approach, the use of daylight to engage architecture and place, establishing spatial character while helping us to orient ourselves in the world. The concourse bisects the orthogonal grid of office modules and provides access to the two large gathering spaces, the legislative assembly hall and a covered outdoor space, both roofed by sweeping vaults of precast concrete, again recalling the tent architecture associated with Bedouin life in this region. The outdoor space is open on three sides, one of them facing the waters of the Arabian Gulf. Utzon called the space a great open hall and a big open square symbolic of the protection a ruler extends to his people. It is an optimistic gesture toward making a

public piazza, its freedom within constraints symbolized and enabled by its access to daylight. Utzon envisioned the space as one where the people can meet their ruler somewhat in the manner of western democratic society.16 The shadow that the canopy casts on the ground is a function of the intensity of the sun, and it is as much this pool of darkness as the architecture that defines the space. This space recalls Junichiro Tanizakis observation in reference to his native Japanese architecture, that in making for ourselves a place to live, we first spread a parasol to throw a shadow on the earth...17 The work spaces, actually office courtyard modules, have received scant critical attention. Perhaps they have been devalued as they are simply places to work and not as important as the honorific spaces. Perhaps the difficulty is that little good documentation has been available. As Utzons work matured, however, it was compounded by his frequent rethinking of the courtyard, and in Kuwait the office courtyard elements become the very fabric of this significant public structure. We can

Projects from Jrn Utzons hand are derived from principles found in natural phenomena such as snow, sky and light.

Photo: Richard Weston

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Photo: Hans Munk Hansen

make some reasonable conjectures about this compelling composition and the further ideas it suggests based on Utzons previous courtyard schemes and on the available Kuwait plan drawings, conceptual sketches, and models. In the early floor plans, the office courtyard modules are units that allow for groups of work spaces to be flexibly arranged around two-storey-high courtyards of various rectangular configurations. The offices borrow light captured

by the courts. Precast concrete blades, a variation on the wood grilles that fill wall openings in Islamic architecture, span the courtyards at the roof. These louvers break solar radiation, shade the courts, cast changing shadow patterns, and permit air to move through.18 The office modules were originally intended to aggregate beyond the initial boundary of the building as needed for future expansion. That is, there is a vocabulary of parts and a syntax for their

combination such that new spaces will always have a means for receiving daylight. Since the modules are square, as Utzons building and planning elements so often are, the building is quite easy to expand, at least conceptually, in two directions. The result is a chequerboard of solids and voids, occupied offices and spaces for the reception of light. The fabric of the National Assembly is an institutional version of the courtyard houses, the possibility of which was

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A section of the original competitive proposal, containing a mosque and a conference hall. The conference hall was left out of the realised project.

Sketchers: Jrn Utzon

A sketch of the covered square which, as Utzon formulated it, was born in the meeting of shore and sea.

A sketch of the central covered street opening onto the Arabian Gulf.

The National Assembly Building from 1970 is formed as a direct response to the aridity of the region and the need to subdue the sunlight that brings extreme heat.

hinted at by the ordered plan of Bag svrd Church. The courtyard appears in many cultures and climates, but it assumes a critical role in the architecture of hot climates because of its effectiveness in taming heat, creating shade, moderating sunlight, and transforming arid landscapes into habitable settlements. It comes as no surprise that in Islamic culture, the ordered courtyard garden is

closely associated with the image of paradise19 and that improvisations on these themes recur in Islamic architecture. A view of Isfahan from 1712 depicts a city composed of the same three spatial/daylighting modules that we find at the National Assembly: a long, broad street called the Chahar Bagh ( not covered, but enhanced by trees for shade and a thin waterway down the center20), an urban fabric knit from an orthogonal alternation of courts

(lighted spaces) and houses (shaded enclosures), and even a roofed loggia, the Ali Kapu (a talar or columned porch), deployed as a reception pavilion facing an open public square, much like Utzons covered square.21 Utzon understood the National Assembly and its additive potential as a version of the Islamic bazaar22, an urban pattern with spatial complexities, capable of growth, and enlivened by

31

Utzons simple diagram of Can Lis catches the essence of this unique house on the east coast of Mallorca.

surprising incursions of light alternating with shade and shadow. In this spirit, light also activates the circulation spaces between office courtyard modules. Roof mounted light monitors catch light from the relatively benign northeast quadrant of the sky and are located to bring skylight and reflected sunlight into the corridor stairwells and into the basement. This is again evidence of Utzons awareness of the path of the sun. The sun only threatens to breach the monitors and break into the interiors during the summer season, and then only early in the day when its energy is most easily diffused and the heat of day is lowest. At those times, the sun is in the northeast sky but so low as to be intercepted by the hood of the monitor and reflected down into the corridors. Here, as at Can Lis, the buildings diagonal orientation to the north-south / east-west axes offers advantages. Sunlight is not entirely eliminated. It may enter the corridors briefly, but these spaces are meant for movement and the occasional conversation. A brief sliver of sun may be enjoyed or easily avoided.

many. But it is to say that light was never simply a forecast of future lux levels or merely a means of decoration. Utzons ideas have not been founded in intricate calculations, nor have they been constrained by his technical fluency, and his passion for the natural world has led him to seek more from daylight than adequate illumination or sensual delight. Natural processes were models for numerous aspects of his work and they have inspired him to take that which is essential to daylight, because it is essential to human existence, and use it to generate architecture. Conceiving daylight as a function of architecture, he addressed the constituent features of daily life: how we find our way in the world, how we differentiate our public lives from our private selves, how we organize ourselves in a landscape, how we distinguish inside from outside, and the ways in which we support a roof above our heads. Because he imagined whole buildings as intrinsic light-gathering and construction systems, daylighting or shading tasks were assigned to nearly every inhabitable space and surface. No light-receiving or intercepting element is simply a mechanism attached to the architecture; each one is a space and meant to be inhabited. Utzon could not possibly have plan ned the arc of his career, but a compelling pattern emerges from an overview of his work as if it were an essay, a proposition about the individual, the community, and lighted space. The square Kingo and Fredensborg courtyard houses adjust themselves vertically and horizontally on their sites to differentiate themselves one from another and such that the residence of each family is lent individuality. At Bagsvrd Church the courtyards realign themselves into a linear sequence to correspond with the hierarchy of organized religion. Finally, the fabric of the Kuwait National Assembly is a reordering of the square courts into a civic grid, which acts both as a symbol of equality under the law and suggests the potential for future growth. Utzons work with light might be described as metonymical, meaning that light is a stand-in, a representative for people at the moment of composition

and, so to speak, the buildings first inhabitant. This approach has allowed Utzon to make decisions about how we might live in buildings by imagining how light would enter, be distributed, and perform on and inside architecture. Where there is light, there are people.

Conclusions
For Jrn Utzon, light has been the enduring thread tying his interest in nature to architecture and to his world view. This is not to say that there are no other influences on his work there are

Notes 1. Richard Weston, Utzon; Inspiration Vision Architecture (Hellerup: Edition Blndal, 2002) p. 22-23. 2. Nicholson Baker, The Size of Thoughts, in The Size of Thoughts, Essays and other Lumber, (New York: Random House, 1996) p. 14. 3. Weston, pp. 152-153. 4. Jrn Utzon, Sydney Opera House: The Roof Tiles in Architecture in Australia, December 1965; reprinted in Weston, p. 149. 5. In Copenhagen, the sun reaches just over 57.5 degrees above the horizon at noon on midsummer day, June 21: this is the highest point that the sun reaches all year long. If on that day the sky is clear, the sun may be seen in more than 260 degrees of the 360-degree horizon. Early and late in the day, it is low and well within an individuals cone of vision. On December 21, midwinter day, the sun barely reaches 11 degrees at noon. 6. Francoise Fromonot, Jrn Utzon, The Sydney Opera House (Milan/Corte Madera, CA: Electa/Gingko, 1998) page 210. 7. Fromonot, p. 210. 8. Jrn Utzon, Bagsvrd Kirke, unknown source, pp. 23-25. 9. Francoise Fromonot, Un riccordo della Hawaii, Casabella, October 1997, (649), pp. 24-37. 10. Jrn Utzon, Platforms and Plateaus: Ideas of a Danish Architect, Zodiac, no. 10, 1962, pp. 112-140. 11. Martin Schwartz, Light Organizing, Jrn Utzons Bagsvrd Church, Jrn Utzon Logbook, Volume II, Bagsvrd Church, Edition Blndal, 2005). 12. At Can Lis, the sun reaches an altitude of about 74 degrees (almost 20 degrees higher than Copenhagen) on June 21. On December 21, the sun rises to almost 24 degrees (more than twice that of Copenhagen) at noon. 13. At Lewerentzs St. Peters Church in Klippan (1962-1966), the architect fixed lights of insulating glass to the exterior faces of the masonry walls with metal clips and filled the gaps with sealant. 14. Jrn Utzon, The Importance of Architects, in Denys Lasdun Architecture in an Age of Skepticism, (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1984) p. 222. 15. Ibid. 16. Ibid. 17. Junichiro Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows (New Haven, CT: Leetes Island Books, 1977) page 17. 18. Weston, p. 331.

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19. John D. Hoag, Islamic Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1977) p. 9. 20. Charles W. Moore, William J. Mitchell, William Turnbull, Jr., The Poetics of Gardens (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1988) pp. 148-149. 21. John D. Hoag, Islamic Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1977) p. 346. 22. Utzon, Architecture in an Age of Skepticism, p. 222. The illustrations in the article Inhabiting Light, Jrn Utzons use of light in architecture, have been used by courtesy of Edition Blndal and come from the book: Utzon Inspiration Vision Architecture.

Richard Weston is Professor of Architecture at Cardiff University, BA (1st Hons.), BArch, MLA (Penn), RIBA, editor of the refereed journal Architectural Research Quarterly, and director of Richard Weston Studio Ltd. His recent books include Plans, Sections and Elevations, Key Buildings of the Twentieth Century; Materials, Form and Architecture; and Utzon Inspiration Vision Architecture, Edition Blndal 2002, the only monograph written with full access to Jrn Utzon and his archive. Co-editor of Jrn Utzon Logbook Vol I-VI, 2004. His monograph from 1995 on Alvar Aaalto won the Sir Banister Fletcher Prize, while Modernism received the International Book Award of the American Institute of Archtects. Martin Schwartz is an architect, teacher, and writer. He contributed an essay, Light Organizing Architecture: Jrn Utzons Bagsvaerd Church, to the recently published book, Jrn Utzon Logbook, Volume II, Bagsvaerd Church, (Edition Blndal, 2005). In 1994 he was the Frederick Charles Baker Distinguished Professor in Lighting at the Department of Architecture, University of Oregon. Most recently he has taught at the University of Michigan, Lawrence Technological University, and the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

The deep window bays in the Can Lis living room form a stone frame of the sea with great beauty.

Photo: Bent Ryberg

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19. John D. Hoag, Islamic Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1977) p. 9. 20. Charles W. Moore, William J. Mitchell, William Turnbull, Jr., The Poetics of Gardens (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1988) pp. 148-149. 21. John D. Hoag, Islamic Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1977) p. 346. 22. Utzon, Architecture in an Age of Skepticism, p. 222. The illustrations in the article Inhabiting Light, Jrn Utzons use of light in architecture, have been used by courtesy of Edition Blndal and come from the book: Utzon Inspiration Vision Architecture.

Richard Weston is Professor of Architecture at Cardiff University, BA (1st Hons.), BArch, MLA (Penn), RIBA, editor of the refereed journal Architectural Research Quarterly, and director of Richard Weston Studio Ltd. His recent books include Plans, Sections and Elevations, Key Buildings of the Twentieth Century; Materials, Form and Architecture; and Utzon Inspiration Vision Architecture, Edition Blndal 2002, the only monograph written with full access to Jrn Utzon and his archive. Co-editor of Jrn Utzon Logbook Vol I-VI, 2004. His monograph from 1995 on Alvar Aaalto won the Sir Banister Fletcher Prize, while Modernism received the International Book Award of the American Institute of Archtects. Martin Schwartz is an architect, teacher, and writer. He contributed an essay, Light Organizing Architecture: Jrn Utzons Bagsvaerd Church, to the recently published book, Jrn Utzon Logbook, Volume II, Bagsvaerd Church, (Edition Blndal, 2005). In 1994 he was the Frederick Charles Baker Distinguished Professor in Lighting at the Department of Architecture, University of Oregon. Most recently he has taught at the University of Michigan, Lawrence Technological University, and the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

AIA CES/NYT CO N T I N U I N G E D U C AT I O N
LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. After reading this article, the learner should be able to: a. Discuss the use of daylight in the design of buildings. b. Describe how nature can be an essential tool in the creative process. c. Discuss Jrn Utzons architectural career in terms of recurring themes. INSTRUCTIONS Read the article Inhabiting Light Jrn Utzons use of light in architecture using the learning objectives provided Complete the questions below, then fill in your answers (back cover). Fill out and submit the AIA/CES education reporting form (back cover). QUESTIONS 1. Jrn Utzons architectural insights frequently have been inspired by his observations of natural phenomena. The sources for his insights include which of the following items? a. Sand and snow b. Sky and light c. Trees and leaves d. All of the above 2. Jrn Utzon relied on three observations to help generate space and form with daylight. Identify the one item below that is not one of these principles. a. The advantages of reflected and diffused daylight b. The suns daily and annual paths through the sky

c. Making inhabitable spaces into receivers of daylight d. Direct sun 3. The finishes of the ceramic tiles that make up the exterior surfaces of the Sydney Opera House shells are of two types, an unglazed matte finish and a glazed reflective finish. a. True b. False 4. Two of Utzons projects specifically evoke the spatial and lighting character of what geological formations? a. Caves b. Lakes c. Mountains d. Deserts 5. In northern latitudes, such as Scandinavia, the sun travels relatively low in the sky making the top of the sky a good source of diffused light. a. True b. False 6. The sanctuary vault at Bagsvrd Church adopts what feature of the sky to help develop a working model of Nordic sky illumination? a. Rainbow b. The sun c. Blue sky d. Clouds

7. Utzon translated his Scandinavian daylighting strategy (low sun, diffused light from the top of the sky) to Spain with no changes of any kind. a. True b. False 8. The Kuwait National Assembly presented a critical daylighting challenge to Jrn Utzon, requiring the design of: a. Glare b. Shade c. Reflection d. Brises soleils 9. Jrn Utzons career could be analysed in terms of what recurring architectural and daylight-gathering device? a. Courtyard b. Light Monitor c. Skylight d. Bay window 10. Jrn Utzons buildings are conceived as intrinsic light-gathering and construction systems. a. True b. False

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