He was born in Copenhagen as the son of a naval engineer, and grew up in Denmark. In 1957 he won the competition for a new opera house in Sydney, Australia. In the following years, Utzon gradually developed a way to construct the large shells that cover the two halls.
He also had spectacular plans for the interior of these halls, but due to political changes, the newly elected state government of New South Wales suddenly stopped the payments to Utzon and he left the country in 1966, never to return.
In March 2003, Utzon was awarded an honorary doctorate for his work on the opera house by the University of Sydney. Utzon's son accepted the award on his behalf as he himself was too ill to travel to Australia. Utzon has also been awarded the Order of Australia and the Keys to the City Of Sydney. He has also been involved in redesigning the opera house, and in particular, the reception hall, following an agreement made in 2000. Also, in 2003 he received the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honor.
Among other Jørn Utzon's projects are: Planetstaden housing project - Lund, Sweden (1958) - Kingohusene housing project - Elsinore (1960), The Kuwait Assembly Hall (1972), Can Lis - Mallorca (1972), Bagsværd Church - Copenhagen (1976), The Paustian Furniture Store - Copenhagen (1987), Can Feliz - Mallorca (1995).
External links
Utzon Center (http://www.utzon.auc.dk/utzon.htm)
The Kingohouses website (http://www.romerhusene.dk/index2003eng.htm)
The Sydney Opera House history (http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/sections/about_the_house/house_history/?sm=4&ss=18)
Utzon made a building well ahead of its time, far ahead of available technology, and he persevered through extraordinary malicious publicity and negative criticism to build a building that changed the image of an entire country.
When Utzon left Australia in April 1966 never to return and with his masterpiece unfinished, the local profession, despite protestation, were powerless in UtzonÂ’s final hour of need.
It must be said, however, that Utzon was himself not without blame in all of this, carrying his artistic pride before him, principles held aloft, he was unwilling to compromise at any cost.
Utzon walks out of the house where he has lived for the past decade and, in his polite, Scandinavian way, dispels a reputation for being an obstinate recluse.
Utzon's solution to the challenges of Bennelong Point was to bury the guts of the theatre in a platform on which would sit his magnifi cent white shells, all segments of spheres of the same dimensions.
Friends say that Utzon, an intensely private man in an age of superstar architects, has been reinvigorated by his return to the opera, by his realisation that he had made a unique building, and by the fact that a definitive book on his work has finally appeared.
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