Learning from challenges

DESIGN OF THE
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE

Almost 50 years after it was officially architecture alike. In the words of the
opened, the Sydney Opera House remains Sydney Opera House’s lead architect,
one of the most recognizable buildings in “Sometimes in architecture it happens
the world. To quote the legendary that a daring step into the unknown gives
architect Frank Gehry, it is a building that us great gifts for the future.”
„changed the perception of an entire
The lead architect for this project was
country.’ It is a valuable tourist attraction
Jørn Utzon, whose designs were selected
and cultural center for Australia, and as a
as the winning entry from over 200
brand, it is priceless. An important
designs received as part of an open
milestone in Modernist architecture, it
competition. Utzon’s designs had a
became an inspiration for all landmark
number of radical features, the most
cultural buildings. However, the design
interesting being the dramatic form of the
and construction of these iconic sails gave
roof. The free-form, organic designs set
rise to a number of challenges for the
them apart from the conventional
structural engineering and construction
rectangular structures and turned the
industries. Overcoming these challenges
decision in his favour. This would be
paved the way for a number of
Utzon’s first project of such magnitude.
innovations in engineering and
Moreover, neither the architect nor the
jury had consulted a structural engineer
for a feasibility study before selecting the
winning design. Ove Arup was eventually
taken onboard as the structural
consultant – and his genius made it
possible to bring the designs to life.
While self-supporting concrete
membrane roofs were widely used at the
time, Utzon’s proposal involved shells
which were not self-supporting i.e. the
shells could not transfer their weight to
the foundation through compression
alone. Moreover, Utzon initially
envisioned the shells to have the same
length-to-thickness ratio as that of a rose
petal – shells spanning over a hundred
meters would have to be no thicker than a
few centimeters. Finally, since the roofs
would be covering auditoriums and
performance halls, the structure could
not have any columns supporting the
shells in the center. Despite these
challenges, Arup was determined to bring
the architect’s vision to reality.
Reinforced concrete was quickly ruled out
as it led to very large sizes, in turn
increasing the weight to be supported by
the shell. It took half a decade for the
engineers to iterate through multiple
structural systems and finally design a
concrete shell supported by prestressed
concrete ribs that spanned from the
pedestal to the top of the half-arch.
Prestressed concrete technology had
become accessible only in 1929 when
Eugene Freyssinet was able to define the
properties of steel essential for effective
use as prestressing strands. In the 1960s,
pre-stressing was a relatively new
development in the field of construction.
If prestressing technology was young,
there was another technological
innovation that was younger still. It is
difficult to describe the world without
personal computers through an article
written (and in all likelihood being read)
on digital devices. In the 1960s, structural
engineering calculations were largely
done using slide rules and logarithmic
tables. However, when the structural
models (actual, physical models) of the
Opera House were tested, it became
apparent that predicting the foundation
loads would be nearly impossible with
existing analytical methods. As the roof
designs were being continuously revised,
Arup decided to use computers to perform
the analysis. Computer was rented by the
hour at a London manufacturer’s
headquarters. Software was written by
Arup engineers themselves specifically
for the project. It often took weeks to feed
data for analysis – and the more complex
analyses took hours. Even then, it is
estimated that be the end of construction,
use of computers had saved ten years’
worth of engineering effort. Sydney Opera
House became one of the first large-scale
projects designed with the help of
computers – a landmark in the history of
engineering.
tiles required for exterior finish. This
Spherical Solution would become the
single, unifying discovery that allowed
for the distinctive characteristics of
Sydney Opera House to be finally realised.

Challenging as they may seem, all these

problems were trifles when compared to
the problem of constructing the concrete
shells. Utzon’s winning drawings featured
organic free-form concrete shells.
Bringing such a design to life is, as
expected, a monumental task. Just the
economic and logistic hurdles of
developing formwork for each individual
piece of the free form roof and ensuring
The Sydney Opera house remains a
they all fit would be a huge challenge
timeless fusion between architecture and
today – it would be have been nearly
engineering. It has come to symbolize
impossible in the 1960s. This problem
many landmarks in the fields of
remained unsolved for over three years.
architecture and engineering. It showed
Countless geometries were tried and
us the power of computing even in its
analyzed by humans and computers alike
infancy – a particularly meaningful
– but to no avail. Finally, the solution
development given the widespread use of
came from Utzon himself. He designed
computing in engineering applications
each half-arch of the sails from different-
today. It was a stunning example of the
sized sections of the same sphere – an
possibilities unlocked with pre-stressed
idea later named the „Spherical Solution’.
concrete. It defined the meaning of a
This solution enabled the designers to use
landmark cultural building. And finally, it
repetitive elements for the shell – all the
is standing proof that even the most
concrete ribs could now be precast from a
formidable engineering challenges have a
single piece of formwork and the same solution – one just needs to keep looking.
mould could be used for over a million

References
 sydneyoperahouse.com/our-story.html
 ‘The Saga of Sydney Opera House’ by Peter Murray
 ‘The disappearance of the structural analysis barrier: the Sydney Opera House from a contemporary
perspective’ by Juan Rey Rey
 ‘Design and Construction of the Sydney Opera House Roof Sails’ by Robbie Van Leeuwen
 ‘Prestressed Concrete Design of the Sydney Opera House’ by Manit Rambhia, Sahil Bakliwal, Utkarsh
Yadav, and Anushk Shukla