BLOC MAGAZINE WINTER 18-19

66 // WWW.BLOCHOTELS.COM Since its opening in 1973, the Sydney Opera House has become one of the world's most iconic buildings... SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE DESIGN ICONS #16 F using ancient and mod- ernist influences, and built on a site sacred to the local Gadigal people for thousands of years, the sculptural elegance of the Sydney Opera House has made it one of the most rec- ognisable buildings of the twentieth century, synony- mous with inspiration and imagination. As Pritzker Prize judge Frank Gehry said when awarding architecture’s highest award to the Op- era House’s architect in 2003: “[Jørn] Utzon made a building well ahead of its time, far ahead of available technology... a building that changed the image of an en- tire country.” The Sydney Opera House has been home to many of the world’s greatest artists and performances, and a meeting place for matters of local and international significance since opening in 1973. Today it is Australia’s num- ber one tourist destination, welcoming more than 8.2 million visitors a year and one of the world’s busiest performing arts centres, presenting more than 2000 shows 363 days a year for more than 1.5 million peo- ple. The breadth of those expe- riences reflects the vision- ary 1961 Act, which charges the Opera House not only with the promotion of artis- tic taste across all art forms, but also “scientific research into, and the encourage- ment of, new and improved forms of entertainment and methods of presentation.” But while the tale of the Opera House is one of breathtaking triumph, it is also one of personal cost. The building’s design was inspired - entirely unlike anything that had been seen before. Pressures piled upon its architect, Jørn Utzon, who left Australia midway through construc- tion, never to return to see the building completed. Nevertheless, Utzon’s mas- terpiece would define his career, and redefine the image of Australia both to itself and the world. An ex- ercise in nation building, as Joe Cahill underlined, it was an extraordinary col- lective act of dreaming in public; a work of art built for the performance of works of art and brought to life by people who believed in the power of imagina- tion. Realising the dream took us all - visionaries and prag- matists, politicians and ar- chitects, engineers, artists and, most fundamentally, the people of Australia.