Jørn Utzon overleden (architect Sydney Opera House)
Op 90 jarige leeftijd is ten gevolge van een hartaanval in zijn slaap de Deense ontwerper Jørn Utzon overleden. Hij is vooral bekend door zijn ontwerp van het Sydney Opera House.
Utzon begon als ontwerper van woonhuizen en werd in 1957 bij een competitie gekozen als de ontwerper van het nieuw te bouwen prestigeproject in de haven van Sydney. Naar verluid liet hij zich voor het ontwerp van het iconische gebouw met zijn daken die doen denken aan scheepszeilen, inspireren tijdens het pellen van een sinaasappel. Als de ronde delen worden samengevoegd, ontstaat er een bol, net als partjes sinaasappel.
Utzon verhuisde naar Australië om leiding te geven aan het project, maar raakte in de loop der jaren gebrouilleerd met de opdrachtgevers over de te hoge kosten. Uiteindelijk werd hij in 1966, zeven jaar voor de voltooiing van het gebouw, van het project gehaald.
Ondanks de wereldberoemde status van het Opera House is het binnen met de akoestiek volgens kenners slechter gesteld. Daarbij ontbreekt het aan voldoende achtertoneel. Deze gebreken zijn het directe gevolg van de ruzie tussen Utzon en de geldschieters. Om de opera meer rendabel te maken werden 3000 stoelen geplaatst. Utzon had er vanwege de akoestiek slechts 2000 gepland.
Vorig jaar nog heeft Utzon samen met Johnson een ontwerp gepresenteerd voor een nieuw interieur van het Opera House.
kijk hier voor een impressie van de historie van het wereldberoemde gebouw en haar architect .
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Jorn Utzon, the Danish architect who designed the Sydney Opera House, has died aged 90.
Utzon died from a heart attack in his sleep early today in Denmark surrounded by family members, his son, Kim Utzon, told the Associated Press.
"He had not been doing well these past few days, since Thursday. He had been undergoing a series of operations recently," Kim Utzon said. He declined to give details.
Utzon, who has often been compared to architectural giants such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aalto of Finland, drew up the design for the Australian opera house in 1957.
But he left the project in 1966, seven years before it was finished, after scandals about cost overruns and design arguments. Government-appointed architects took over and the interior was not completed to Utzon's original plan.
Although considered an architectural masterpiece, the opera house has been criticised for poor acoustics in the concert hall and a lack of performance and backstage space in the opera theatre.
Utzon, who in recent years had been suffering from a degenerative eye condition that made him virtually blind, declined several invitations to return to Australia, citing high blood pressure. Still, he said he wasn't bitter about the dispute over the Sydney landmark.
"It's part of education. I can't be bitter about anything in life," Utzon told Associated Press in 1998.
Born April 9 1918, in Copenhagen, Utzon graduated from the Danish capital's academy of arts in 1942. He worked in the offices of Swedish architects Paul Hedquist and Gunnar Asplund and later with Aalto in Finland, before he established his own office in Copenhagen in 1950.
Utzon's earliest buildings were private homes. It came as a surprise to many when he won the competition for the Sydney Opera House in 1956. The building, with its distinctive white roof shells resembling sails, is perched on the edge of Sydney harbour.
Utzon received the prestigious Pritzker architecture prize in 2003 for his design. The jury singled it out as among the most iconic buildings of the 20th century, saying it "proves that the marvellous and seemingly impossible in architecture can be achieved".
Utzon also designed the national assembly building in Kuwait City. Constructed between 1971 and 1983, the structure is made of concrete and its shape evokes a series of large tents, traditional meeting places for the Bedouin nomads that live in Kuwait.
The soft-spoken Dane lived in Mallorca, off Spain's eastern coast, with his wife Lis Utzon, for several years. Utzon and his sons, Kim and Jan, designed several projects in partnership, including a church that opened in 1976 in Bagsvaerd, a Copenhagen suburb and a furniture and design showroom in the Copenhagen harbour, known as Paustian, which was completed in 1983.
Utzon won several awards for his work, including the Order of Australia in 1985 and the Sonning prize for contributing to European culture in 1988. He is survived by his wife and their three children, Kim, Jan and Lin, and several grandchildren.
1 december 2008
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