As arguably the most structurally ambitious building of the post-war era, Sydney Opera House mixes the westernized expertise of Jorn Utzon and of Arup Engineers, his collaborators on the design, with culturally mixed influences which reinforce its image as an early icon of globalized modernity. The key references taken from elsewhere are from Chinese traditional architecture, in two ways:

·      the precast concrete ribbed construction system used for its shell-like roofs is derived from Utzon’s study of Chinese dou-gong timber bracket systems.

·      these shells are coated externally in glossy white and matt cream glazed ceramic tiles to evoke the lustrous roofs found in Chinese palaces and temples.

Utzon won the international competition back in 1957 with bold drawings that evoked his fascination with buildings created as ‘platforms and plateaus’. The problem, however, was how to construct the shell roofs he drew. Only after extensive geometric experimentation was Utzon finally able to arrive at the distinctive roof forms by cutting a series of segments out of a sphere and rearranging them vertically. Dogged by the delays this entailed, and by disputes over costs and deadlines, a change of Australian government in 1965 saw Utzon soon forced off the project: it was completed instead by a local practice (Hall, Todd and Littlemore). Utzon never returned to Australia, although in 1999 he was re-hired along with his son to design from afar some minor alterations, these being completed in 2009.

A classic piece of modernist monumentality, the Opera House is located dramatically on the shoreline of Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour. It has since become Australia’s most famous face. Beneath the three sets of curving white shells are two main auditoriums – a concert hall and an opera theatre – along with other facilities sunk into a massive podium which steps down externally to the south in the form of an ultra-wide staircase. At night its shells appear to float as if they are clouds; on a sunny day, there is nowhere better in the world to sit outside and drink a beer while watching how these sail-like roofs fit in with the boats plying up and down the harbour.