Conclusion

Conclusion

The history of the Sydney Opera House is rich. It started in 1957 when it was a project won by Jorn Utzon and in 1973 when the opening of the building took place. The Sydney Opera House is a modern expressionist design, with a series of large concrete “shells”. The building's unusual exterior and interior impress all visitors to Sydney. The Sydney Opera House constitutes a masterpiece of the 20^th century architecture.

The Sydney Opera House is a modern expressionist design, with a series of large precast concrete “shells”, each composed of sections of a sphere of 75.2 metres radius, forming the roofs of the structure, set on a monumental podium. The building covers 1.8 hectares of land and is 183 m long and 120 m wide at its widest point. It is supported on 588 concrete piers sunk as much as 25 m below sea level.

Apart from the tile of the shells and the glass curtain walls of the foyer spaces, the building's exterior is largely clad with aggregate panels composed of pink granite quarried at Tarana. Significant interior surface treatments also include off-form concrete, Australian white birch plywood supplied from Wauchope in northern New South Wales, and brush box glulam.

The Sydney Opera House has got enormous cultural significance. It was designed to boast not only structural engineering and building technology but it was implied for different uses, including full-scale operas, chamber music, symphonies, dance, choral performances, and even rock 'n' roll, mass meetings, lectures, ballet performances and other presentations.

Only a handful of buildings around the world are as architecturally and culturally significant as the Sydney Opera House. But what sets it apart from, say, the Taj Mahal and the great pyramids of Egypt is that this white-sailed construction caught midbillow over the waters of Sydney Cove is a working building.

Most visitors are surprised to learn it's not just an opera house but a full-scale performing-arts complex with five major performance spaces. The Sydney Opera House plays the function as a world-class performing arts centre.

The Sydney Opera House’s contribution to the success of the Sydney 2000 Olympics was extensive. It played a pivotal role in bringing together entertainment, sport and the community. It was the time of great excitement as the Sydney Opera House rolled out its new programming initiatives.

Major Olympics and related events staged at the Sydney Opera House included the International Olympic Committee Opening Ceremony, Olympic Torch Relay, men’s and women’s triathlon events, yachting medal presentations and the closing night fireworks viewing.

Between 18 August and 30 September the Sydney Opera House hosted 293 Festival performances and events which attracted some 201,924 people.

Clearly, the year was dominated by the Olympics. For the Sydney Opera House, the challenge was to become a secure, “locked down” sporting venue, handling a huge influx of spectators and tourists, whilst simultaneously maintaining its prime role as a performing arts centre, hosting the Olympic Arts Festival.