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Journalism of Courage
The late Queen Elizabeth II unveiled the Sydney Opera House on October 20, 1973, exactly 50 years ago today. Do you know it could not have had its now-iconic roof at one point?
The unusual-looking edifice, which was completed a decade late and massively over budget, did not go down well with the Australians, at first. Despite this, its stunning shell-shaped roof has helped it become an architectural symbol and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, attracting over 10 million tourists each year.
Jrn Utzon, a Danish architect’s design was one of the 233 submissions to a worldwide design competition. It was established in 1955 by New South Wales Prime Minister Joseph Cahill, who had long advocated for converting the site of the old tram depot where the Opera House now stands.
The tournament attracted participants from over 30 different countries.
The Brown Book, a document defining the competition qualifications, listed some architectural specifications: The structure would require a main hall with a capacity of 3,000 to 3,500 people (but the finished structure had a capacity of less than 2,700) and parking for 100 cars. The plan also addressed topics such as ventilation and exit routes. In addition, designers were encouraged to use their imaginations, with organisers placing no restrictions on how much money plans could cost to materialise.
Only black and white drawings, containing floor plans and drawings, were requested, as well as a report that “should be as concise as possible, explaining only matters which cannot be readily explained on the drawings,” the Brown Book reads.
So, in 2019, the creative studio NeoMam Studios and the now-defunct architecture firm Projection Comunicación Arquitectónica set about investigating the entries and envisioning how some of the designs may have appeared in full colour.
They chose seven of the 232 unsuccessful proposals, depending on the qualities of the submissions as well as the amount of material available to academics.
While Navarro concludes that the competition judges “made the right choice,” she praises some of the contestants’ “blue-sky thinking.”
It’s unclear how close any of these possibilities got to winning. However, legend has it that Utzon’s winning design was initially rejected, only to be saved from the reject pile by one of the judges, Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen.
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