Sydney Opera House Roof Structure

As construction of the podium began in sydney jørn utzon and his team of architects back in hallebaek explored how to build the opera house s shell shaped roof.

Sydney opera house roof structure.

The impressive and subtle chevron pattern has glossy white matte cream coloured tiles manufactured by höganäs ab. Its unique use of a series of gleaming white sail shaped shells as its roof structure makes it one of the most photographed buildings in the world. With its white sailed roof set on the backdrop of sydney harbour the sydney opera house is arguably one of the most iconic structures of the 20th century. Between 1958 and 1962 the roof design for the sydney opera house evolved through various iterations as utzon and his team pursued parabolic ellipsoid and finally spherical geometry to derive the final form of the shells.

It took 16 years of design and construction to realise this architectural monument and with its final cost over 10 times the initial budget the project was never far from the eye of the public. The roof of the sydney opera house has a whopping 1 056 000 glazed white granite tiles that have been imported from sweden. Timber illustrates the origin of the roof geometry of the sydney opera house designed by jørn utzon made by ove arup and partners england australia 1961 65. The building covers 1 8 hectares 4 4 acres of land and is 183 m 600 ft long and 120 m 394 ft wide at its widest point.

Sydney opera house model. Principal curator matthew connell explores the ideas behind the creation of sydney s most famous building. This is an extract from the publication icons which can be purchased online. The sydney opera house is a modern expressionist design with a series of large precast concrete shells each composed of sections of a sphere forming the roofs of the structure set on a monumental podium.