Jørn Utzon

Jørn Oberg Utzon ( born April 9, 1918 in Copenhagen, † November 29, 2008 in Copenhagen) was a Danish architect who became famous for the construction of the Sydney Opera House. Utzon was awarded the 2003 Pritzker Prize for his life's work.

Biography

Childhood

Jørn Utzon was the son of Aage Utzon, a yacht designer, and Estrid Utzon. He had an older brother named Leif. Jørn visited the mathematical-scientific branch in a private school. He was a mediocre student in mathematics his performances were downright bad.

1930 visited the family Utzon in Stockholm architecture and design fair Stockholmsutställingen. There, lightweight, light-colored furniture and the concept of air and light were presented. The family then turned their whole life around, removed in favor of lighter, more practical furnishings the gloomy Victorian furniture from the house and placed the food order on light, healthy fare. The children were given bicycles so that they could move around in the fresh air.

Jørn helped his father in the making of design drawings and models. In the 1930s he met the artist Poul Schrøder know who taught him how to draw with charcoal pencils.

Career as an architect

After school Jørn Utzon wanted the officer career track in the Navy, but was not accepted at the officer school due to poor grades. In 1937 he began studying architecture in Copenhagen. In 1942 he joined the staff of Paul Hedqvist in Stockholm. In 1946, he worked for six months at Alvar Aalto. Thereafter, he lived for a short time with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin and toured Mexico and Europe.

Jørn Utzon in 1950 founded his own architectural office in Copenhagen. He was there with a name houses, including his own, in 1952 built house, further comprising the 1958-1960 established garden courtyard condominium Kingo in Elsinore and the 1962-1963 series and built garden courtyard settlement in Fredensborg. Also in 1950, built in Svaneke on Bornholm water tower dates from him.

Works

In 1957, he became famous overnight when he won the competition to design the Opera House in Sydney.

This success brought an Utzon worldwide reputation and orders. He was, for example, in 1963 entrusted with the construction of the Melli Bank in Tehran. There followed in 1967 a stadium in Saudi Arabia, 1976 Bagsvaerd Church in Copenhagen and 1972-1987 the parliament building in Kuwait, he was concerned with his son Jan.

His most famous work, however, the Opera House in Sydney, initially appeared in a personal failure to end: the first estimated budget of 3.5 million U.S. dollars handed by far not sufficient to finance the statically demanding roof construction and the sophisticated interiors. As the cost reached $ 57 million, called Robert Askin, the Prime Minister of the State of New South Wales, an end to the incalculable cost increases. As Jørn Utzon refused to agree to a cheaper compromise solution for the interior, he was excluded in 1966 from the project. A group of young Australian architect and a team of engineers at Ove Arup brought the work to an end. Utzon was convinced that the compromises made ​​would ruin the work, and at the opening of critics and artists gave him partially right: people complained of general frames to small halls to steep stairs, and, above all miserable acoustics. The functionality of the interior spaces will not do justice to the magnificent exterior in some ways, so the critics.

Jørn Utzon has never re-entered after his release from the Opera House project Australian soil, which originally was due to the perceived shame of it. Since the 1990s, however, he adopted a more conciliatory attitude, but now there were age and health, which prevented that the architect was able to take his masterpiece completed in appearances for the first time.

Evening of life in Mallorca

Jørn Utzon last lived withdrawn in one of the two original designed by himself Houses on Mallorca. His private life he consistently shielded from the public. Only 1998, on his 80th birthday, he made ​​an exception and gave the Australian TV an exclusive interview.

Utzon died, in November 2008 at the age of 90 years in a nursing home north of Copenhagen, having never recovered from surgery a few months earlier.

Important buildings

• Residential House Utzon in 1952 Hellebæk
• Water tower in Svaneke 1952
• Villa, Dronninggårdsvej 42, Holte (1952 )
• Housing, Helsingborg, Sweden (1954, 1st prize together with E. og H. Andersson, implemented 1966)
• Villa with studio for Ejler Bille and Agnete Therkildsen, Glentevej 8, Vejby beach (1955, together with Ib Møgelvang )
• Kingo Houses in Helsingør ( 1956-60 )
• Sydney Opera House in Sydney Australia ( 1956-66, completed by other architects )
• Romerhaus in Elsinore (1958 )
• Melli Bank University, Tehran, Iran (1959, together with Hans Munk Hansen)
• Hammershøj in Elsinore (project 1962, 1966 realized by Birger Schmidt)
• Settlement Fredensborg, Bakkedraget 1-79, Fredensborg ( 1962-63 )
• Dansk Samvirkes bebyggelse Terrasserne, Fredensborg ( 1962-63 )
• Model Home for Espansiva - princippet, Hellebæk ( 1969-71 )
• Residential House Utzon, Can Lis, Mallorca ( 1971)
• Parliament building in Kuwait ( 1973-82 )
• Bagsvaerd Church, Bagsvaerd, near Copenhagen ( 1974-76 )
• Paustian Furniture House, Northern Harbour Copenhagen ( 1985-86 )
• Residential House Utzon, Can Feliz, Mallorca ( 1992-94 )
• Skagen Odde Nature Center, Denmark, 1989 ( completed by his son Jan Utzon 1999-2000)
• Aarhus Esbjerg, Ribe

Unrealized most important buildings:

• School in Elsinore, Denmark, 1958-1962
• House of Architects, Bayview, Sydney, Australia, 1963-1965
• Museum for works by Asger Jorn, Silkeborg, Denmark, 1963
• Neues Schauspielhaus on Heimplatz, Zurich, Switzerland, 1964-1970
• Stadium, Jedda, Saudi Arabia, 1969

Awards and honors

The honorary doctorate by the University of Sydney for his work at the Opera House, he participated in, but due to illness was unable to make the long trip to Australia. His son Jan took this answer for him.