Chapter 3: Jørn Utzon, the Great Eclectic
Jørn Utzon was born in April 1918 in Copenhagen, just seven months before the end of the First World War.
In the wake of war, modernity was beginning to re-model the landscape of early Twentieth Century Europe. By the age of thirty eight, the year he entered the competition to design Sydney Opera House, Jørn Utzon would witness and inherit broadly from the great artistic, cultural and scientific revolutions that arose out of this tumultuous and immense period of change. He would become heir to an eclectic mix of craft traditions and modernist thinking.
Utzon's father, Aage, was a talented naval architect who became the director of Aalborg and later Helsingr Shipyards. It was an environment in which Utzon learned about the economies that are inherent to boat design, and how form and function might converge in an honest expression of purpose.
When Jørn was just twelve years old his parents went to the 1930 Stockholm International Exhibition and were transformed by the experience. The architecture of Gunnar Asplund, in particular, impacted them deeply.
"My parents returned home completely carried away by the new ideas and thoughts. They soon commenced in redoing our home... We developed new eating habits... We began to exercise, get fresh air, cultivate light and the direct, so-called natural way of doing things... That's how much architects can bring about, and it came to influence our whole society." (Utzon quote, from Henrik Stein-Mollar interview, Living Architecture)
At the age of nineteen, Utzon began studying architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts in Copenhagen, under accomplished Professors Steen Eiler Rasmussen and Kay Fisker. Utzon's deep interest in the architecture of ancient civilisations emerged during these years, and the influence would continue to develop and inform his work throughout his life.
He also developed a strong interest in graphic design and was inspired by the expressionist painter Carl Kylberg and his mystical philosophy. It's likely that Utzon's bold sense of colour derived from the influence of Kylberg, who also introduced the young architect to Hinduism.
"For me it was a great inspiration to talk to Carl Kylberg. He taught me about the introspection in nature that he knew so well. He constantly dealt with this theme in his work: longing and expectation. I repeat it again and again to myself that Kylberg found a great wealth in his inner being, as can anyone who dares to open themselves up. There was a sense of timelessness to him like that of water and life." (Utzon in interview with Sten Mller)
Having just graduated in 1942, Utzon left Nazi-occupied Denmark to work in Sweden. Here, alongside friend and early collaborator Tobias Faber, he worked for various architectural practices and developed his interest in organic theory and forms. He was particularly inspired by the landmark work of D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's On Growth and Form, as well as an exhibition America Builds, in which he witnessed the work of Frank Lloyd Wright in detail.
In 1945, Utzon worked briefly with Alvar Aalto, who was also a profound influence on him. The great Scandinavian architect was himself deeply inspired by Gunnar Asplund, who in the 1930s had begun to champion modernism. Both men combined the traditions of Nordic Classicism with emerging modernist principles, a fusion that proved so important to Utzon. Much later in life Utzon noted how, in choosing to live in a beech forest and to reflect natural forms and functions in his work, he had been following Aalto's advice.
In the late 1940s, Utzon visited Paris where he met Le Corbusier and the sculptors Fernand Leger and Henri Laurens. He also travelled to Morocco, where he was inspired by the exotic yet familiar crafted approach of the mud brick villages.
At the end of the decade, Utzon was awarded a travel scholarship that enabled him to visit North and South America. During these travels he met the great American and migr architects Frank Lloyd Wright and Eero Saarinen, Mies van der Rohe and designer Charles Eames.
In South America, he was deeply impressed by the Aztec and Mayan ruins. They would directly influence his design of the podium of Sydney Opera House, wherein he elaborated on ancient ideas of procession and of elevating people up and away from their normal lives to experience higher culture.
Returning to Denmark, Utzon designed his own house in Hellebk, inspired by the Usonian style of Frank Lloyd Wright and nestled in the beech forest. This was his first built work and was followed by the Middleboe House and a series of projects and competitions, which reflected the ideas he had now been cultivating for fifteen years. Foremost among these were the consideration both for the site and the location of a built work; of striking a balance between the Scandinavian traditions of comfort and the craft approach to construction, with the emerging ideals of modernism.
By 1955, a year before he began his opera house design, Jørn Utzon had been exposed to many great influences during a time of profound change in Europe and North America. He had witnessed Europe's realignment and rebuilding after the ravages of two world wars, and absorbed new ideas and ways of thinking that arose in that environment, which continue to inform postmodern digital life today.
Alvar Aalto; Gunner Asplund; Eiler Rasmussen; Kay Fisker; Carl Kylberg; Arne Jacobsen; Fernand Leger; Le Corbusier; Henri Laurens; Frank Lloyd Wright; Mies van der Rohe; Eero Saarinen; Charles Eames; D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson and a broader group of eminent minds; ancient architecture, Nordic Classicism, Modernism, Folklore and mysticism, all influenced Utzon in his deeply eclectic approach to architecture and design.
A month after celebrating his 38th birthday in May 1956, Utzon began designing his competition entry, inspired both by ancient architecture and the sculptural possibilities of modern concrete shell design. He completed his submission by December.
Numbered 218, it was among the last entries to be received.
