Sydney Opera House Roof Shells

The impressive and subtle chevron pattern has glossy white matte cream coloured tiles manufactured by höganäs ab.

Sydney opera house roof shells.

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. 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. 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. Though they are meant to be self cleaning in nature they still require maintenance replacement.

Sydney opera house opera house located on port jackson sydney harbour new south wales australia. 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. Sydney opera house model. The sydney opera house is situated on bennelong.

First the podium was found to be not strong enough to support the shells and needed extensive reworking as early as 1963. The entire construction period of the sydney opera house was beset with problems. The roof of the sydney opera house has a whopping 1 056 000 glazed white granite tiles that have been imported from sweden. Then the problem of the shells which were elliptical parabolic and finally spherical took six years to resolve.

This is an extract from the publication icons which can be purchased online. The sydney opera house is one of the most photographed buildings in the world known for its unique use of a series of gleaming white sail shaped shells as its roof structure.