Essay On Jørn Utzon

1040 Words3 Pages

1. Name the designer and describe their background and their field of design work.
Jørn Utzon

He was born on the ninth of April 1918 and raised in Aalborg, a small town in Copenhagen. He was greatly influenced by his father in his early years as he worked as an naval architect and engineer and was a manager of the local dock and ship yards.

The world renowned Danish designer, Jørn Utzon, was practically unknown up until the age of 38. When he entered in the the “International competition for a national opera house at Bennelong Point, Sydney.”( http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/about/the_architect.aspx). When number 218 was named winner his life was changed for ever.
He was a promising scholar and wanted to follow in has fathers foot steps until he was offered and opportunity to study Architecture at the Copenhagen Royal Academy of Arts. After studying there for many years he gained his diploma. When he graduated in 1942, during world war 2 he lived and worked in Sweden where he ls claimed he got some of his influences from. The person that inspired him was Gunnar Asplund and Later Alvar Aalto, which he got to work with a short time after the war in Finland.
Utzon’s travels and life experiences shaped and manufactured his ideas for the Opera House and his other designs. His childhood memories of sailing and helping design and craft boats inspired him on how the shapes of the Opera House would be sails. Along with his maritime background, which helped decide what materials and how they would actually be made.
The field of design that he was involved with is architecture, he did this in a very modern and large scale, progressing from the designing of state of the arch housing projects such as the ‘Frendsonborg Housing develop...

... middle of paper ...

...detail and is carried out in an unorthodox manner, where the maximum use of models and prototypes secures that nothing is introduced into the scheme, before it has been carefully investigated and has proved to be the right solution to the problem.” Jørn Utzon, ‘Descriptive Narrative, Sydney Opera House’ January 1965
Experimentation
“Successful flood lighting can only be achieved through experimentation on the surface concerned.” Jørn Utzon, ‘Descriptive Narrative, Sydney Opera House’ January 1965
Some points such as Material research, Models and Experimentaion show just how committed he was to his job and how much thought would go into the design till it was perfect.

6. Identify the major technological processes that the designer uses to facilitate his/her design work.

7. Compare and describe how these processes could best be duplicated in a school-based project.

Open Document