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Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is one of the most iconic structures of the 20th century located in Sydney, Australia. Its distinctive white sail-shaped roof sits on the backdrop of Sydney Harbour. The architect Jørn Utzon designed the complex roof shells, which were inspired by an orange and constructed by casting identical concrete rib segments that were segments of a 75-meter radius sphere, allowing for standardized production. This innovative solution addressed the nearly decade-long challenge of constructing the complex roof. The Opera House has since become one of the most successful performing arts centers in the world and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its architectural significance.

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100% found this document useful (1 vote)

1K views18 pages

Sydney Opera House

Uploaded by

Rhythm

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

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The Sydney Opera House

Sydney, Australia
Introduction
With its white sailed roof, set on the backdrop of Sydney Harbour, the Sydney
Opera House is arguably one of the most iconic structures of the 20th century.
Deemed as one of the most successful artistic hub in the world, its architectural
status has been confirmed by its inscription on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

Architect Structural Engineer Contractor

Jørn Utzon Ove Arup and Partners Civil & Civic (Stage 1)
M.R. Hornibrook (Stage 2)
Constructing the roof shells (or sails) posed
the greatest challenge.

The Spherical After trying multiple profiles, Uzton had a

brainwave and decided to use segments of
Solution the same sphere for all sails.

How an orange inspired the solution to This enabled both accurate profiling of the
almost a decade long problem curves for the ribs and using the same
formwork to mass-produce the ribs for all
the sails
Stage 1 : Construction of the podium

Construction Stage 2 : Construction of the sails

Stage 3 : Construction of the windows

and interior
Post Tensioned

Internally Prestressed

Prestressing Linear Prestressing

End Anchored
Classification Fully Prestressed

Bonded
Folded Slab Podium
For Sydney opera house
engineer’s precast the rib
segments in giant moulds on site.

Normal crane and vertical

direction methods will not work
with a building like the opera
house.
All the shells would be segments of a
sphere of 75 metre radius. All of the
concrete segments could be cast in the
same moulds.
Design and placement of
the rib section
Roof Sails
Located along the coast, the sails are fully
exposed to marine environment. The
prestressing steel ducts have been filled
with grout and inspection of accessible
areas indicates the steel is good for now

Conservation Roof Pedestals

The pedestals are made of RCC and have
been left bare as of now. Many protective
coatings were discussed but rejected due to
ineffectiveness or negative architectural
impact
References