Most architects design buildings to be practical, but some wants their designs to tell a story or make a statement
Sydney, Australia
The gleaming white sails of the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia, is not just a symbol of the city, or even of the country — it is a symbol of the entire continent.
Perched at the edge of Sydney Harbour, the opera house is home to several concert halls and theatres that host 1,600 events each year. Don’t let the name mislead you — the opera house hosts much more than just operas. People come to watch a whole range of live performances, including concerts, ballets, circuses, and plays. It’s also Australia’s top tourist attraction.
Those sail-like white structures that make the opera house so iconic are actually called “shells.” The shells look smooth, like they’ve been dipped in white paint, don’t they? They’re actually covered with more than one million clay tiles in both glossy white and matte cream. These tiles became known as the Sydney Tile.
The architect, a Dane named Jørn Utzon, had a special passion for sailing. Since the opera house was to be situated on a harbor, he designed the building to look like the sails of ships. The construction of the design was super complicated! The engineers had to figure out how to make the shells look curvy. No two shells are alike, which made things even more complicated. Models of the shells were tested in a wind tunnel to make sure they would hold up during wind and storm conditions.
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