Jørn Utzon and Transcultural Essentialism [1 ed.] 0367555875, 9780367555870

Citation preview

Jørn Utzon and Transcultural Essentialism This book introduces and defnes the burgeoning concepts of transculturalism and essentialism and how they relate to one another, as articulated with reference to the work of Jørn Utzon. It introduces critical contemporary perspectives of the design thinking and career of this renowned Danish architect, internationally recognised for his competition-winning, iconic design for the Sydney Opera House – an outstanding exemplar of transcultural essentialism in architecture. Transcultural essentialism is analysed through the lens of critical regionalism and architectural phenomenology, with emphasis on the sense of place and tectonics in Utzon’s architectural works. It provides a new understanding of the Danish architect as an early proponent of a still emergent and increasingly relevant direction in architecture. Going beyond biographical studies, it presents a more comprehensive understanding of the broad range of transcultural infuences that formed his thinking. The volume includes numerous previously unpublished photographs, drawings, and interviews with Utzon’s family members, former students, and colleagues, offering a signifcant contribution to the existing body of knowledge for any architecture scholar interested in Utzon’s work and design principles. The book also comprises a Foreword by eminent architecture theorist Juhani Pallasmaa in which he provides insights into the wider architectural and cultural context of Utzon’s worldview. Adrian Carter, Architect MAA (DK), is Professor of Architecture at Bond University, Queensland, Australia, previously at the Aarhus School of Architecture and later Aalborg University, Denmark. Born in Southampton, the UK, he gained his Master of Architecture at Portsmouth School of Architecture, with further studies in Urban Design with Jan Gehl, at The Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen and Phenomenology in Architecture with Dalibor Vesely, at the University of Cambridge. He has worked with Reima Pietilä, Niels Torp, Henning Larsen, Ken Woolley, and Dissing+Weitling. A recognised expert with a PhD (The Utzon Paradigm) on the work of Jørn Utzon, he was the inaugural Director of the Utzon Research Center and responsible for the realisation of the Utzon Center building on the Aalborg harbourfront, designed by Jørn Utzon. Marja Sarvimäki, Architect SAFA, is Associate Professor at the Bond University in Australia. Previously she taught architectural history-theory and design studios at the University of Hawaii, USA. She was born in Helsinki, Finland, and earned her MArch and PhD at the Helsinki University of Technology (current Aalto University). She also has pursued studies on Japanese architecture at the Tokyo National University of Arts and conducted her post-doctoral research on Korean architecture at the Korea University. In addition to her doctoral dissertation, which comprised extensive feldwork in East Asia, her work includes numerous later publications on East Asian cultures as well as architectural research methodology. Sarvimäki’s current research focuses on modernism in the Asia-Pacifc region.

Routledge Research in Architecture The Routledge Research in Architecture series provides the reader with the latest scholarship in the feld of architecture. The series publishes research from across the globe and covers areas as diverse as architectural history and theory, technology, digital architecture, structures, materials, details, design, monographs of architects, interior design, and much more. By making these studies available to the worldwide academic community, the series aims to promote quality architectural research. Le Corbusier in the Antipodes Art, Architecture and Urbanism Antony Moulis Kenosis, Creativity, and Architecture Appearance through Emptying Randall S. Lindstrom Affect, Architecture and Practice Toward a Disruptive Temporality of Practice Akari Nakai Kidd Architectural Anthropology Exploring Lived Space Edited by Marie Stender, Claus Bech-Danielsen and Aina Landsverk Hagen Writing the Materialities of the Past Cities and the Architectural Topography of Historical Imagination Sam Griffths Louis I. Kahn in Rome and Venice Tangible Forms Elisabetta Barizza Cybernetic Architectures Informational Thinking and Digital Design Camilo Andrés Cifuentes Quin Jørn Utzon and Transcultural Essentialism Adrian Carter and Marja Sarvimäki Husserl and Spatiality Toward a Phenomenological Ethnography of Space Tao DuFour For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/ Routledge-Research-in-Architecture/book-series/RRARCH

Jørn Utzon and Transcultural Essentialism

Adrian Carter and Marja Sarvimäki

First published 2022 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2022 Adrian Carter and Marja Sarvimäki The right of Adrian Carter and Marja Sarvimäki to be identifed as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifcation and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Carter, Adrian, 1959– author. | Sarvimäki, Marja, author. Title: Jørn Utzon and transcultural essentialism / Adrian Carter and Marja Sarvimäki. Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2022. | Series: Routledge research in architecture | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifers: LCCN 2021017267 (print) | LCCN 2021017268 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367555870 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367555894 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003094180 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Utzon, Jørn, 1918–2008—Criticism and interpretation. | Essentialism (Philosophy) Classifcation: LCC NA1223.U88 C37 2022 (print) | LCC NA1223.U88 (ebook) | DDC 725/.822099441—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021017267 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021017268 ISBN: 978-0-367-55587-0 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-55589-4 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-09418-0 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003094180 Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC

For Marianne

Contents

List of fgures Preface Foreword Acknowledgements 1

Introduction

ix xii xiv xxi 1

Understanding transcultural essentialism 16 Early modernism, the International Style, and “the other tradition” of modern architecture 21 Jørn Utzon: architect of the third generation and beyond 26 Poetics and phenomenology of architecture 28 The role of critical regionalism, tectonic culture, and transcultural architecture 29 2

Craft tradition and embodied knowledge

42

A desire for experiential understanding 42 Craft practice, making, and mastery 42 Parallels to boatbuilding in form and technique 45 Sailing, nature, and the mind of the hunter 47 Drawing and the eye of the artist 48 Becoming an architect 49 The nature of architecture 57 3

The experience, inspiration of and work within other cultures Origins in the Nordic realm 62 Early formative travels in Europe and beyond 69 Learning from Asia-Pacifc 73

62

viii Contents The unflled dream of Australia 88 A profound affnity to the Arab world 103 A Mediterranean homecoming 112 4

Thematic analysis

126

Learning from global vernacular 127 A cross-cultural sense of dwelling 130 Universal themes of courtyards, podiums, and foating roofs 136 Poetic transcultural synthesis 145 Essentialist tectonic integrity and innovation 159 Abstraction and the essential 160 A return to the cave 163 Transcultural poetics of site, materiality, and light 170 The essential beauty of nature and the beautiful idea 171 An essentially organic architecture 174 The transcultural essentialism of Utzon’s visions for an additive architecture 175 Poetic metaphor and the arche of architectural design 181 Tectonic analogy and the techne of construction 186 A return to roots: the fnal essential transcultural synthesis 188 5

Transcultural essentialism: an emergent direction  in architecture

202

The continuing relevance of Utzon’s beautiful ideas 203 Infuence and continuity amongst contemporary practitioners 206 Future directions 213 Index

219

Figures

1.1 Sydney Opera House 1.2 Conceptual sketch for an airport, separating passengers and services from planes vertically 1.3 Narrow opening high in the living room wall at Can Lis, Porto Petro, Mallorca. The direct ray of sunlight that enters briefy in the afternoon reveals the original circular saw marks on the locally sourced sandstone blocks, that tell the story of its making 1.4 Keynote speakers at the First International Utzon Symposium, held at Aalborg University, 2003. From left to right: Adrian Carter, Jan Utzon, Richard Weston, Kenneth Frampton, Brit Andresen, William J.R. Curtis, Philip Nobis, Richard Leplastrier, Richard Johnson, Tobias Faber, Thomas Mølvig, Joseph Skrzynski, and Emanuele De Dominicis 1.5 Interior of Bagsværd Church 1.6 Utzon self-portrait, dipping his pen in his brain. Indicating the connection between embodied memories and the creative hand 1.7 Utzon demonstrating the principle of the bird wing-inspired window mullions of the Sydney Opera House. To recreate the effect of stroboscopic lighting, Utzon placed a black plastic bag over his head for multiple exposures, taking it off for the last exposure to include himself. This he repeated twice to be sure he had the image he wanted 2.1 Muqarnas, multifaceted ceramic clad stalactite vaults, Isfahan, Iran 2.2 Jørn Utzon as a child with a model boat made by his father Aage Utzon, Aalborg, 1924 2.3 Spidsgatter boat sailing 2.4 Grundtvig Church, Copenhagen 2.5 Zui Ki Tei Japanese teahouse at the Ethnographic Museum in Stockholm 2.6 Crematorium proposal, Copenhagen, 1945 2.7 Water Tower, Svaneke on the Danish island of Bornholm

2 3

7

9 11 13

14 44 45 46 51 53 55 56

x

Figures

2.8 2.9

3.1

3.2

3.3

3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13

3.14 3.15 3.16

Sketches of a clearing in a Danish beech forest as the conceptual inspiration for the Paustian furniture showroom, Nordhavn, Copenhagen Utzon’s own photograph of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Johnson Wax Laboratory Tower under construction at Racine, Wisconsin in 1949, and model of Utzon’s competition proposal for the Langelinie Pavilion, 1953 Interior perspective of gilded roof shells in Utzon’s submission for the Sydney Opera House competition. The rules of the competition required black and white images only and Utzon’s application of gold leaf to this drawing nearly saw his design excluded Utzon’s sketch of himself presenting a copy of the “Yellow  Book” (1962) of the Sydney Opera House drawings to Alvar Aalto, with the inscription “med respekt og beundring fra jørn til alvar” (with respect and admiration from jørn to alvar) Mayan temple ruins at Chichén Itzá, Yucatán State, Mexico. The surrounding columns provide Utzon with inspiration for the addition of an external colonnade to the Sydney Opera House, as an entrance to the later creation of a western foyer Teotihuacan, Mexico, 1957. Photo by Jørn Utzon Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh, India, 1959 Yungang Buddhist cave temples Todai-ji, Nara, Japan Itsukushima Torii Gate, Japan Export College in Herning, a further development of Espansiva Exploded axonometric drawing and Utzon playing with models of Espansiva Housing system Sketch of elevation of proposed Bayview House, Sydney, 1963. Illustrating the conceptual idea of terracing, massing, and roofng Sketch by Utzon of himself serenading his wife Lis, on the deck of their proposed Bayview House, 1963 Jan Utzon and members of Utzon’s offce relaxing in a cave at Palm Beach. The naturally formed seating provided inspiration for the Utsep furniture system, now realised in the Utzon Park in Aalborg Conceptual sketches for Bagsværd Church. Translating the notion of a procession towards the horizon, beneath rolling clouds into built form Conceptual sectional sketch for Bagsværd Church inspired by Arabic calligraphy, 1973 Utzon with image “The mind of Louis Kahn” attached to his shirt, teaching at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa School of Architecture

57

59

67

68

72 73 75 80 83 84 85 87 89 92

95 97 100 102

Figures 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 3.21 3.22 3.23 3.24 3.25 3.26 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 5.1 5.2

Sectional sketch of Melli Bank, Tehran, Iran, illustrating the natural daylighting through skylights The Bazaar, Isfahan, Iran Farum Town Centre, competition 1966 Interior sketch, Kuwait National Assembly, 1972 Entrance canopy of the Kuwait National Assembly under construction Plan sketches, Kuwait Assembly Building, 1972 Conceptual plan and section sketches of Can Lis, Mallorca Plan drawing of Can Lis, Mallorca Can Lis, Mallorca Section and plan drawings of Can Feliz, Mallorca Utzon’s own house, Hellebæk, 1952 Fredensborg Houses Site plan of Fredensborg Houses Sketch of proposed Trades Union High School near Hellebæk, Denmark. First prize in a Danish competition, 1958 Rice paddy feld-inspired tiered section and plan of proposed Art Museum, Berkeley, California, 1965 Second Asger Jorn Museum of Art, Silkeborg, 1963 Bagsværd Church Sydney Opera House Painted timber model explaining the spherical geometry of the Sydney Opera House, made by apprentices at the Helsingør shipyards Sketch made with salt of frst proposal for the Silkeborg Museum of Art, 1963 Model of the frst proposal for the Silkeborg Museum of Art, 1963 Yungang Buddhist cave temples’ interior Model of palm leaf-like ribbed structure of the Sydney Opera House roof shells, 1956 Espansiva Housing system layout permutations Sketch of proposed Jeita Cave theatre Jørn Utzon with an initial concept model of the Utzon Center, Aalborg, made with LEGO Harbour view of Utzon Center, Aalborg Richard Leplastrier’s own house, Lovett’s Bay, Pittwater, Sydney Interior of Matti Sanaksenaho’s St. Henry’s Ecumenical Art Chapel, Turku, 2005

xi 103 104 106 107 110 111 113 114 114 116 131 134 135 139 141 143 144 148 152 164 165 168 174 179 180 190 191 209 213

Preface

The Essence of Architecture: We relate everything around us to ourselves. Our surroundings affect us by their size, light, shadow, colour, and so on. How we feel depends very much on whether we are in the city or in the country, in big spaces or in small ones. Our reactions to these conditions are originally unconscious, and we take note of them only in outstanding cases such as when feeling sublime pleasure from a detail or a perfect relationship to the environment or when experiencing some gross feelings of displeasure. However, our point of departure should be this: turning unconscious reactions into a consciousness. By training our ability to capture these differences and their infuence on us, by being in conscious contact with our surroundings, we learn the essence of architecture. In order to improve our conception of architecture, we must also understand that the architectural expression under all varying conditions is closely related to the structure of the society. The very essence of architecture can be likened to the seed in nature, and some of the transparency of the principle of growth as found in nature ought to be a fundamental concept in the architectural process. Thinking of the seeds, producing plants and trees – all the seeds of a common species would develop in the same way if not for the fact that the conditions for growth are so varied and each plant has the innate ability of developing without compromise. Seeds of a common species produce plants with individual characteristics under different conditions. Our environment, the time we live in, is totally different from any previous one, but the essence of architecture, the seed, is the same. The study of existing architecture is letting oneself be infuenced directly by it. One must become aware of how the solutions and the details are dependent on the time in which they are created. In order for the architect to be able to master his means of expression, he has to experiment. He must practice like the musician does, experiment with masses, with rhythmic forms made up of masses grouped

Preface

xiii

together, combinations of colour, light, and shadow, and so on. He must use his senses intensely and by all this train his ability to create new forms. An intimate knowledge of the materials is needed. An architect must be able to understand the structure of the tree, the heaviness and hardness of the stone, the character of glass; he must become one with his materials and be able to form and use them in harmony with their nature. When he understands the nature of a material, then its potentials are much more real to him than by means of mathematical formulas and arts. For the architect, mathematics is a means to ascertain that his assumptions were true. What is needed is a healthy approach to life. Understanding how to walk, stand, sit, and lie down so that it feels good. Enjoying the sun, the shadow, the water against one’s body, the earth, and all the less defnable sense impressions. An urge for comfort must be the basis for all architecture if a harmony shall be achieved between the spaces that are made and the activities that will take place in them. This is very simple rationality and common sense. What is needed is the ability to create a harmony out of all the demands that are raised in connection with a project, the ability to make all these demands melt together and form a novel entity – as in nature – compromises are not known in nature; all diffculties are accepted, not as diffculties but just as new factors which, without confict, grow to a unifed whole. To understand all the inspiration that can be found in man’s numerous forms of expression, to work on the basis of our hands, our eyes, our feet, our stomach, on the basis of the way we move, and not on the basis of statistical norms and rules formed on the principle of averages, this is the road to a varied and human architecture. To be in touch with the time, with the environment, to see the inspiration provided by the project itself, is necessary in order to be able to translate the demands of the project into an architectural language that can formulate a unity from the different factors. At the same time, the architect must possess the ability to give his imagination free rein, this ability that is sometimes called creativity, sometimes daydreaming.” Jørn Utzon, 1948 Arkitekturens inderste væsen (translated by Flemming Bo Andersen)

Foreword

Cultural fusions and creative amalgamations During the 1930s, the apparent dead-end of mannerist Functionalism gave rise to alternative approaches towards a more rooted architecture arising from local indigenous traditions as well as other cultures.1 Mediterranean vernacular traditions had inspired many of the pioneers of Modernism, including Le Corbusier, but after the war, a second wave of vernacular infuence, emerged as exemplifed by the works of Dimitris Pikionis in Greece. Italy had been the most important inspiration for Nordic architects since the late nineteenth century, but in the late 1940s and early 1950s onwards, Jørn Utzon, Sverre Fehn, and Geir Grung made long travels in North Africa and were especially inspired by the building traditions of Morocco.2 Alvar Aalto also visited southern Spain and Morocco in 1951 and some of his contemporaneous projects suggest an infuence of the vernacular settings documented in his travel sketches.3 On the other hand, fusions of modernity and indigenous architectures emerged simultaneously in Mexico as well as Middle and South America, while Hassan Fathy, “the architect of the poor,” developed an architecture based on Egyptian, Arabic, and modernist motives in Egypt. At the same time, the Dutch Structuralists, especially Aldo van Eyck, Piet Blom, and Hermann Haan, based their search for a behaviourally grounded architecture in anthropological studies. They were mainly inspired by the architecture and rich mythology of the Dogon tribe, South of the Saharan desert, as documented by the French anthropologist Marcel Griaule.4 Their aim was to insert behavioural patterns and mental meanings of the human collective mind into the technologised and abstracted aesthetics of modernity as exemplifed by van Eyck’s Municipal Orphanage in Amsterdam and Herman Hertzberger’s Centraal Beheer Offce Complex in Apeldoorn. The Structuralist principles were echoed in the “Mat-Buildings” of Candilis, Josic, and Woods (Center Plan for Frankfurt am Main and the Free University of Berlin, both of 1963). Finally, in 1964 Bernard Rudofsky’s exhibition Architecture without Architects at the Museum of Modern Art in New York introduced the rich

Foreword

xv

indigenous building traditions around the world to the architectural profession and a wider public.5 An interest in distant cultures and their habits, objects, and artworks is not an interest of the modern era alone. Already the great explorations were motivated by human curiosity and the appeal of adventure, as much as by trade and the interest in widening the realm of infuence and power. Since the late Baroque period, European art and architecture were infuenced by Far Eastern cultures, frst Chinese and later Japanese. After the ports of Japan were opened in 1854 and the wide infuence of exhibitions of oriental arts at the World Expositions, the interest in oriental art and aesthetics developed into the popular fashions of Chinoiserie and Japonisme. The deep infuence of Japonisme on the Impressionists and Art Nouveau artists, designers, and architects is well known. Japanese architecture infuenced Nordic architects and designers at different times before, during, and after the war years. The most signifcant and direct Japanese infuence for numerous Nordic architects (especially Danes who exiled in Sweden during the German occupation of Denmark) was the Zui Ki Tei Japanese teahouse, opened in the garden of the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm in 1935.6 The latest Japanese wave in the Nordic countries was the industrially oriented wooden house projects in the 1960s and early 1970s. A later infuence on European modern art came from the interest in African and Polynesian sculptures and objects, which inspired Cubism, Primitivism, German Expressionism as well as – somewhat later – American Abstract Expressionism. The cross-cultural impacts in the arts were sometimes unexpected, as the Tahitian life on Paul Gauguin’s paintings, the geometries of the Mexican pyramids on Joseph Albers’ Homage to the Square-Series of paintings, or the interlaced rattan joints in Alvar Aalto’s Paris Pavilion (1937) and Villa Mairea (1938–39), inspired by exotic huts at the World Exposition of 1935 in Brussels.7 Aalto turned into an outspoken critic of narrow rationality and began to lecture about “extended rationality,”8 which would expand the principle of rationality from technical issues all the way to psychological qualities – the cross-cultural infuences were part of this fexible attitude. In Aalto’s thinking of standardisation, the principles of nature that give rise to complex entities by means of basic cellular “modules,” became one of his guiding ideas. Also, Utzon developed a parallel emancipated rationality; in his works geometry often turned into organic patterns of movement and growth. The search for an architectural language that would reconnect modernity with a sense of historicity, tradition, and landscape turned the interest of many talented architects to distant cultures. As Utzon considered Aalto his mentor, the elder colleague’s interests could have been a stimulus for him. Yet, it is thought-provoking to realise that the two most signifcant and productive cultural explorers in contemporary architecture were Louis I. Kahn and Jørn Utzon. Both grew up in the Baltic Sea area, only about 800 kilometres from each other. Until the age of 5, Kahn lived on the Estonian island of

xvi Foreword Saaremaa, while Utzon grew up in Denmark. It is remarkable that they had interests in very different cultures, and this naturally resulted in completely different architectures. Comparing the similarities and differences of these two architectural explorers valorises the meanings of the cross-cultural strategies and the uniqueness of Utzon’s cultural fusions. Kahn has been presented as an American architect and his European origins and Nordic experiences, infuences and friendships have been neglected until the recent study Louis I Kahn: The Nordic Latitudes by Per Olaf Fjeld and Emily Randall Fjeld,9 which places him in the Nordic context. Although Kahn and Utzon met, they do not seem to have been intimate friends. However, they shared a circle of friends, especially members of the PAGON Group (Progressive Arkitekters Gruppe Oslo Norge), the Norwegian section in the Congrès internationaux d’architecture moderne (CIAM). More importantly, they had a shared travel companion in the infuential Norwegian colleague and professor Arne Korsmo; Utzon made a trip to the United States in 1950, and Kahn to Japan in 1960 with their Norwegian colleague. Kahn and Utzon surely knew each other’s interests and works, and Utzon is known to have admired the works of his colleague. As the current book shows, Utzon’s cross-cultural interests covered a surprising variety of cultures; Nordic traditions, North African vernacular, Mayan culture in Mexico, Islamic architecture (especially in Isfahan), Chinese temples, courtyard houses and cave structures, and Japanese traditional architecture. Utzon did not only casually visit architectural sites, as he studied them patiently through taking photographs, flming, and sketching, and after his trips, he deepened his technical knowledge through books and old manuals of the cultures in question. Louis Kahn’s transcultural infuences came from very different origins: Pharaonic Egypt and Greek, Roman and Mughal architectures. But he was also inspired by the European Renaissance, the spatial fantasies of Piranesi, the symbolising monumentality of the French Utopians, as well as the BeauxArts tradition. American Beaux-Art was actually his educational background, while Utzon was educated in Nordic Modernism. Kahn’s work was generated by layered but static geometries, whereas Utzon studied dynamic geometries reminiscent of the complex growth patterns in nature. He is known to have studied D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson’s infuential book On Growth and Form (1917). For Utzon, geometry was a source of complexity, dynamism, and becoming, more than of order and stasis. Important stimuli to his imagination were surely also his passion for sailing and engagement in naval architecture. He was also close to the world of the visual arts, which must have sensitised him to the poetic dimensions in his own art form. The authors of this book have chosen to name the multicultural rooting and branching of Utzon’s architectural oeuvre with the notion of Transcultural Essentialism. During the past decades, the concept for the culturally conscious orientation has been Critical Regionalism.10 At the frst glance, the two orientations appear to be parallel, but a deeper consideration reveals that the two concepts are largely opposites. Critical Regionalism identifes

Foreword

xvii

the local characteristics of climate and weather, prevailing landscapes, ageless traditional modes of building, as well as locally available materials and crafts, for the purpose of generating an architecture that is rooted in the specifc atmosphere and the sense of cultural continuum of the region. The hidden suggestion of conservatism in the notion of Regionalism is subdued by the requirement for a critical distance and independent judgement. Kenneth Frampton defnes in his seminal essay of 1983, The fundamental strategy of Critical Regionalism is to mediate the impact of universal civilization with elements derived indirectly from the peculiarities of a particular place. It is clear from the above that Critical Regionalism depends upon maintaining a high level of critical self-consciousness. It may end its governing inspiration in such things as the range and duality of the local light, or in the tectonic derived from a peculiar structural mode, or the topography of a given site.11 The transcultural orientation studies specifc architectural features, concepts, methods, and deep meanings of even geographically, climatically, and culturally distant traditions as sources and inspirations for new architecture arising from the fusion of ideas and motives. The elements of the syntheses may be distant in geography, technology, and time; as the imagery of the Mayan platform and the superbly engineered precast concrete elements of “the sails” in the Sydney Opera House, or the pragmatic and industrial main structure and the cloud-like concrete vaults in the sacred spaces of the Bagsværd Church. Critical Regionalism relies on the unifying and harmonising impact of regional characteristics, whereas the transcultural strategy aims at energising new architectural ideas by distant and often conficting sources through creative amalgamation and fusion. The frst strategy aims at the unity of related themes, whereas the latter works with differences and contrasts, and believes in the existence of pan-humanly valid mental, existential, and architectural images, which can enrich and deepen construction across cultural boundaries. In principle, regionalism is a culturally focusing or narrowing approach, whereas the transcultural aspiration is confding and opens up to new combinations of formal and tectonic confgurations. As anthropological history shows, human populations have always been fascinated by strangeness, at the same time that alien cultures have been looked upon with suspicion or even fear. Interacting cultures have merged alien features and enriched each other materially, in terms of knowledge as well as artistically. It is haunting to realise that in our current age of mobility and simultaneity, we may have become less interested in alternative cultures, ideas, thoughts, actions, and expressions. However, inspiring architectural projects are developed even today outside the western industrial and stylistic paradigm, for instance, using earth and bamboo as construction materials. Instead of cultivating a sensitivity for divergence, we tend to insist on the hegemony of our own established values and ideas.

xviii

Foreword

Utzon’s architectural thinking is based on an exceptionally wide, thorough, and dedicated personal experiential study of numerous ageless building cultures. He was not one of the rushed architectural tourists of today. Instead of just recording visual impressions, he spent time to internalise the cultural, mental, bodily, and existential meanings of the structures. He was a dedicated architectural traveller in the manner of the Grand Tour of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and countless later students of cultures from Le Corbusier to Tadao Ando and Glenn Murcutt. The most signifcant lessons of Utzon’s travels focused on the ontological images of the interplay of landscape and the manmade – earth (foor) and sky (roof), horizontality and verticality, materiality and form, light and shadow. His attention was focused on the experiential and mental meanings of these traditions, rather than on historiographic narratives, or intellectual academic analyses. As modernist architecture has largely lost its connection with earth, ground, and gravity, as well as climate, the sky, and the innate human dream to fy, Utzon re-grounded architecture in its mythical and mental historicity. In traditional building cultures, the roof is in dialogue with the sky, climate, and weather, and it is the most important expressive feature of the building. Modernity has replaced the authority of earth through constructed and abstracted horizontality and replaced the dominant image of the roof with a “roofess” technical solution. New technologies and materials have enabled the elimination of the roof entirely as the dominant image in architecture. “There is a magic in the play between roof and platform. . . . A fat roof does not express the fatness of the platform,” Utzon notes in his essay on platforms and plateaus.12 The roof has lost its autonomy as the crowning architectural feature as it has turned into the nameless ffth facade of the volume. This forced technical horizontality has even eliminated true verticality and replaced it with stacked horizontality. In today’s world of simultaneous information and the limitless mobility of materials, products, people, and ideas, the magic of cultural difference, exchange, and interaction tends to be lost. It is evident that we need again cultural curiosity, courage, and open-mindedness, in order to replace the dried-up sources for architectural inspiration with pertinent ideas. Utzon was open-minded, curious, and humble, and he could draw inspiration from nature, natural processes, human cultures, the arts of the world, as well as very different colleagues of his own time, such as Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto. His tireless curiosity gave rise to some of the most memorable architectural structures of the entire century of modernity. Jørn Utzon was concerned with the mental and experiential qualities of architecture, architectural essences rather than intellectualisations, and visual and compositional effects. He describes the experience of standing on a horizontal Mayan platform,“A great strength radiates from them. The feeling under your feet is the same as the frmness you experience when standing on a large rock.”13 Instead of aestheticising the phenomenon, the experience transforms its meaning by connecting it with deep unconscious mental layers. “They had

Foreword

xix

completely changed their landscape and supplied their visual life with a greatness, corresponding to the greatness of their gods,” Utzon continues.14 Here he points out the necessity of architecture to transcend its utilitarian, technical, and rational realities and evoke experiences of elevating spiritual meanings. Ludwig Wittgenstein, the philosopher, who was also engaged in architecture, wrote in his notebook: “Architecture immortalises and glorifes something. Hence there can be no architecture where there is nothing to glorify.”15 The Sydney Opera House and the Bagsværd Church and other great projects of Utzon surely glorify human life and culture, and elevate our minds to sublime experiences and associations, echoing thus Wittgenstein’s assertion. By Juhani Pallasmaa

Notes 1 Colin St John Wilson, The Other Tradition of Modern Architecture: The Uncompleted Project (London: Academy Editions, 1995), names an alternative Modernism aiming at integration of history, landscape, and materiality often in a rather complex formal language. Wilson presents Hugo Haering, Hans Scharoun, Erik Gunnar Asplund, and Alvar Aalto as the main representatives of “the other tradition.” 2 In 1947, Utzon developed two conceptual projects in Morocco, for a printing factory and an apartment building. Sverre Fehn spent the winter of 1951 in Morocco and made further visits in 1952–1953, while his offce partner of the early years, Geir Grung, lived several months with Saharan Bedouins in 1954 and visited Mongolia, China, Japan, and Alaska in 1958. Aldo van Eyck’s journeys in North Africa took place in 1951–1952. Van Eyck also visited the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico in 1961. In addition to these Nordic architects, several notable French architects worked in North Africa after the war. 3 Alvar Aalto made a trip to Morocco and southern Spain in 1951. Details and atmospheres of his sketches are echoed in his projects of the early 1950s, such as The Experimental House (1952) and the sublime competition project for the Lyngby Crematorium and Graveyard (195). He even made sketches for the Säynätsalo Town Hall in Morocco. 4 Marcel Griaule, Conversations with Ogotemmeli: An Introduction to Dogon Religious Ideas (London: Oxford University Press, 1965). 5 Paul Rudofsky, Architecture Without Architects: A Short Introduction to NonPedigreed Architecture (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1964). 6 Fred Thompson, “Split Nationalities,” Lecture Manuscript, September 28, 1995. For the Japanese tea house in Stockholm, see: Tehuset Zui-Ki-Tei, Det löftesrika ljusets boning (Stockholm: Folkens Museum Etnografska, 1996). 7 Alvar Aalto was impressed by the exotic lashed joints he saw at the World Fair in Brussels in 1935. Göran Schildt, Alvar Aalto: The Decisive Years (Helsinki: Otava Publishing Company Ltd., 1986), 134. 8 Alvar Aalto discussed the notion of “extended rationalism” in his lecture “Rationalism and Man” of 1935. Göran Schildt (ed.), Alvar Aalto in His Own Words (Helsinki: Otava Publishing Company Ltd., 1997), 89–93. 9 Per Olaf Fjeld and Emily Randall Fjeld, Louis I. Kahn: The Nordic Latitudes (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2019). 10 The notion of Critical Regionalism was coined by Alex Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre in their essay “The Grid and the Pathway” of 1981. The notion was made globally

xx

11 12 13 14 15

Foreword known by Kenneth Frampton through his essay “Towards a Critical Regionalism” of 1983. Kenneth Frampton, “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for Architecture of Resistance,” in Postmodern Culture, ed. Hal Foster, (Port Townsend: Bay Press, 1983), 16–30. Jørn Utzon, “Platforms and Plateaus: Ideas of a Danish Architect,” Zodiac, 10 (Milan: Edizioni Comunità, 1962), 113–141. Jørn Utzon, “Platforms and Plateaus: Ideas of a Danish Architect,” Zodiac, 10 (Milan: Edizioni Comunità, 1962), 113–141. Jørn Utzon, “Platforms and Plateaus: Ideas of a Danish Architect,” Zodiac, 10 (Milan: Edizioni Comunità, 1962), 113–141. Ludwig Wittgenstein: Culture and Value, revised edition, ed. G.H. von Wright in collaboration with Heikki Nyman (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1998), 74.

Acknowledgements

It has been a great privilege and inspiration to have known Jørn Utzon, and also his immediate family, his artist daughter Lin and architect sons Jan and Kim Utzon, as well as his friends and architect colleagues, including Steen Eiler Rasmussen, Tobias Faber, Sverre Fehn, Johan Fogh, Jan Gudmand-Hoyer, Richard Johnson, Richard Leplastrier, Jon Lundberg, Yuzo Mikami, Rafael Moneo, Peter Myers, Oktay Nayman, and Mogens PripBuus, amongst many others who had contact to Utzon. The outstanding Australian architect Richard Leplastrier is to be especially thanked for his friendship and insights; his understanding of Utzon not only greatly informed the understanding of Utzon that underpins this book, but also inspired the realisation of the Utzon Center in Aalborg, Denmark. Also, to be thanked are earlier great teachers who fostered an understanding of architecture, most notably Geoffrey Broadbent and Barry Russell in Portsmouth, Jan Gehl in Copenhagen and Dalibor Vesely in Cambridge, some of whom sadly are no longer with us, but whose inspiration continues in this book. Especial thanks go to Juhani Pallasmaa, as a great friend and colleague through many decades, whose poetic, humane, and profound insights on life and architecture continue to inspire us greatly. We are particularly indebted to Flemming Bo Andersen for access to his Utzon photographs and knowledge, to Michael Asgaard Andersen in his collation and analysis of Utzon’s work, to Richard Weston, whose Utzon endorsed monograph is the bible for all subsequent Utzon scholars, to Jaime Ferrer Forés for his considerable knowledge and enabling such excellent discussions in Spain on Utzon, to Thomas Arvid Jaeger for sharing my enthusiasm in getting the Utzon Center realised and to Roger Tyrrell for also collaboratively keeping the fame of sincere, refective Utzon research and dissemination alive. During the feldwork for the book, numerous people were helpful in terms of visiting buildings and gaining new insights of Utzon’s design thinking. In Hawaii, his former students and colleagues also provided views of Utzon as an educator. Of the latter, Utzon’s former colleague, Leighton Liu, and former student, Kelvin Otaguro, provided us with the most information, alongside many others mentioned in Chapter 3. Those in Iran wish to remain

xxii Acknowledgements unidentifed, though we wish to express our profound gratitude to them to be even able to travel there, including Tehran and Isfahan. In Kuwait, a great help was Geoff Pollitt, who was the young British engineer hired to manage the Kuwait National Assembly project and worked in close collaboration with Jørn and Jan Utzon on its completion. Still based in Kuwait, he was able to organise a memorable and informative visit to the building. In addition, we interviewed various people directly related to the analyses of this book who are acknowledged in the endnotes. Many thanks also go to family, close colleagues, fellow Utzon enthusiasts and friends, who have greatly assisted this work, José Manuel Abella Cardó, Malene Abildgaard, Brit Andresen, Lars Botin, Alberto Campo Baeza, Alison Carter, Karl Christiansen, Federico Climent, Àngels Colom, Nicola Crowson, William Curtis, Peter Davey, Hans Dall, Kim Dirckink-Holmfeld, Kenneth Frampton, Jaime Ferrer Forés, Françoise Fromonot, Caroline GrandjeanThomsen, Jørgen Jørgensen, Martin Keiding, Bjarne Kennig, Poul Henning Kirkegaard, Swetik Korzeniewski, Marianne Kristensen Carter, George Lakoff, Susan Lambert, Jeff Malpas, Eric Messerschmidt, Michael Mullins, Glenn Murcutt, Thomas Mølvig, Anne Mette Nayberg, Ib Nielsen, Philip Nobis, Line Nørskov Eriksen, John Roberts, Joana Roca, Cleveland Rose, Xing Ruan, Joseph Skrzynski, Enrique Sobejano, Lene Tranberg, Alec Tzannes, Jozef Vissel, Anne Watson, and Sjors Wiersma. Lastly, but not least, particular thanks go to our invaluable Research Assistant Alexander Pollard for his greatly appreciated assistance with editing and preparing the illustrations for publication and to the excellent team at Routledge for making this book possible.

1

Introduction

The work of the Danish architect Jørn Utzon embodies a visionary approach to architecture that is poetic, noble, and humane; one that is informed by a profound transcultural appreciation of nature and openness to the diversity of human cultures, as a source of inspiration, metaphoric association, and analogy, in a manner that defnes him as an exponent of transcultural essentialism. His often sculptural expression of form and structure, however, always derives its essentialist integrity from a rational use of geometry, combined with an authenticity of construction and materials. To achieve his architectural visions, Utzon pushes the boundaries of what is technically feasible and in so doing has established precedents for the use of industrial techniques, prototyping, and advanced component design. The realisation of his most complex masterpiece, the Sydney Opera House, was the frst building constructed to make use of computers and can be seen as a precursor to the complexity of architectural constructions that have now become possible by means of computer-aided design. Jørn Utzon is an architect who, by his own admission, liked to work at the “edge of the possible”1 and has often been far ahead of his time. His ideas, methods, and approach are now at last becoming compatible with current aspirations and developments in architecture. Though Utzon has long been recognised as an architect of genius, it has previously been diffcult to place him in a clearly defned historic context or within a specifc movement. Consequently, he has been and is even today overlooked by some historians, or misguidedly considered as an exponent of expressionism. It is only now that Utzon is being more fully appreciated for his signifcant contribution to modern architecture and the continuing inspiration his approach to architectural design represents. In 2003, Jørn Utzon was awarded the architectural profession’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Previous recipients have included his good friend from early in his career, the Norwegian architect Sverre Fehn and the noted Australian architect of refned sustainability, Glenn Murcutt, who played a signifcant role in Utzon’s re-engagement with the Sydney Opera House. These are both architects who have similarly concerned themselves with the expressivity of construction and the relation of DOI: 10.4324/9781003094180-1

2

Introduction

Figure 1.1 Sydney Opera House. Source: Photo by Adrian Carter

modern architecture to a specifc context and understanding of place. The Pritzker Prize is perhaps the most signifcant of a long list of prestigious prizes awarded to Utzon that have included, amongst others, the Aalto Prize, the Royal Institute of British Architect’s Gold Medal, and Denmark’s highest cultural honour, the Sonning Prize. Though awards in themselves had an appreciated, but limited importance for the retiring Utzon, who never courted such accolades, they are an indication of the enduring and still very actual signifcance of Utzon’s work. As Ada Louise Huxtable, the American architectural critic and member of the Pritzker jury, commented It has taken half a century to understand the true path of architecture in our time, to pick up the threads of continuity and the signposts to the future, to recognize the broader and deeper meaning of 20th century work that has been subjected to doctrinaire modernist criticism and classifcation, or tabled as history. In this light, the work of Jørn Utzon takes on a particular richness and signifcance.2 Jørn Utzon’s work is emblematic of a Scandinavian culture that has long prided itself on the attainment of quality in architecture and design, through the simple, honest yet noble synthesis of form, material, and function, motivated by social values. His Scandinavian sensibility and integrity of design continue the legacy of the earlier, great Nordic architects Asplund, Korsmo, and Aalto. To this specifc cultural background Utzon combines a profound fascination for the ancient legacies of the Mayan civilisation, China, Japan

Introduction

3

and the Islamic world, a sense of architecture as art, an innovative approach to the use of technology, and a natural understanding of organic structures in relation to specifc context and conditions. Utzon intuitively, but with great insight, could understand the essential qualities of that which he experienced in the world, whether in the natural environment or in the diverse cultures, from ancient to modern that he encountered and synthesise that understanding into his own work, in accordance with the given context. “Utzon transcends the schism that has existed between a phenomenological understanding of architecture, with its appreciation of the specifc qualities of place and the modernist use of the latest universally applicable technology. The immense breadth of his architecture ranges from the most modest, yet handsome and humane Kingo houses, to the supreme sculptural abstraction and technical innovation of the Sydney Opera House and the understated monumentality of the Bagsværd Church with its poetic undulating ceiling,

Figure 1.2 Conceptual sketch for an airport, separating passengers and services from planes vertically. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

4 Introduction through to such visionary unrealised projects as the submerged Silkeborg Art Museum”3 and sketch proposal for an underground airport, that still fre the imagination. It is Utzon’s ability to achieve a poetic humane architecture, while fully utilising and pushing the boundaries of industrialisation to pursue that goal that underlies the paradigmatic nature of Utzon’s work, which is ever more relevant today.4 The focus and genesis of this book owes much to an inspired and inspirational gathering of architects, artists, and idealists, that Utzon no doubt would have found empathetic to his own thinking, much of which had been informed and inspired by Alvar Aalto, whom Utzon greatly admired. Certainly, Utzon would have been in good company with those that were gathered together for the 6th International Aalto Symposium held at the Alvar Aalto designed campus of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland in August 1994 on the thematic topic of “Architecture of the Essential.” In that context, Markku Komonen, the Chairman of the organising committee explained by way of introduction that “in the personality of Alvar Aalto, idealism and realism combined like the poles of a dynamo whose opposing forces form the source of its energy” and that “he was a creative artist and idealist for whom social and technical issues were also at the very core of his architectural oeuvre” but that “a signifcant, but less well known phase of Aalto’s life work occurred during and immediately after the Second World War, the subsequent reconstruction period of Finnish society, the nation was in a state of crisis, material and technical resources down to a minimum.”5 As Komonen further remarked, “the extreme circumstances following the aftermath of the war forced people to re-evaluate what was essential and necessary and to eliminate all excess. An inventive mind might manage to create more from less.”6 Speaking in the mid-1990s, at a time of seemingly ever-increasing prosperity, brought about by unsustainable economic growth, Komonen’s concluding comments are as relevant today, if not even more so in an era of more immediate awareness of the consequences of global climate change and pandemics. Then he said that “the present state of the world is also in a situation which requires serious evaluation and balancing of values and resources.” There is a “need to discuss what should be the essence of the art and technique of building,” a “discussion that does not revolve around questions of architectural style, but rather on the fundamental material and spiritual living conditions vital for our culture to survive and prosper.”7 The opening keynote talk of this symposium on the “Architecture of the Essential” was presented by the esteemed architectural historian Paul Oliver, whom Utzon also greatly appreciated for his comprehensive studies and documentation of traditional vernacular architecture across the globe. Oliver defned the most essential form of building, vernacular architecture, as that which “is not architect designed, but is customarily owner-built or community built” and irrespective of “whether it is sacred, rural or urban, permanent or temporary, vernacular architecture is related to its environmental contexts” that is in response to the environmental conditions, that

Introduction

5

include the climate and the use of available material and “is built to meet the needs, values, traditions, economies and ways of life of the cultures that produce it.”8 Oliver explained what draws contemporary architects to the vernacular architecture of the past and present, both within their own cultures and elsewhere, and suggested that there were two reasons as to what motivated that interest and what they hoped to gain from such studies. The frst reason, as he stated, is that “it has to admitted, is basically self-indulgent and selfinterested: architects are often drawn to the vernacular for what they may gain from it, as a fount of inspiration, as a source of forms and design details, and confrmation of their own personal design approach.” The second reason for the interest on vernacular architecture, he said, “is more altruistic, based on a desire to improve living conditions, to provide better housing, and to enhance the quality of the life of the poor, the disadvantaged or the victims of disasters.”9 Both reasons Oliver gave could be justifed, but he suggested that neither approach could be based upon subjective opinions and the evaluation of architects, based on their own professional criteria. According to Oliver, “If we are to understand the vernacular traditions of widely different cultures, we need to understand what makes its architecture essential to each culture, within its own terms.”10 According to Oliver, when we speak of an Architecture of the Essential, at least with regard to vernacular architecture, there are at least two shades of meaning. One understanding that relates “to that which is necessary, that which is vital to life support, that which is indispensable” where the essential relates to the “resources of the environment, and to the resourcefulness by which they are exploited and constructed in architecture.” However, as he points out, there is another meaning of the Essential, “that which is of the Essence, that which is fundamental to the purpose of life itself, which fnds expression in the motivation to build and in the meaning of each architectural tradition to its creators and user.”11 Having presented and discussed the vernacular architectural traditions of many different world cultures, past and present, Oliver concluded with a caveat, that: To regard the vernacular as a model of thrift, of respect for materials, as intuitive design or other romantic preconceptions is to run the risk of idealising an architectural ‘noble savage’. Recognition of vernacular traditions, skills, wisdom and above all, values, beliefs and traditions is fundamental to any ‘architecture of the essential’ that seeks to combine traditional handcraft building and higher technologies.12 Without that understanding of the underlying culture, as Oliver suggests, the use of such inspiration as a basis of a design aesthetic can result in “considerable problems of cultural compatibility.”13 Thus, he intimates, without more explicitly stating it per se, that there is a need for critical transcultural essentialism in architecture.

6

Introduction

It was most appropriate in the context of the thematic focus of the symposium, that one of the international practitioners presenting there, was the Australian architect, Glenn Murcutt, already well known through the publication of his work, but then yet to receive the Pritzker Award in 2002, with Utzon receiving the prestigious award the following year. Murcutt’s work so elegantly combines the essential qualities of an indigenous understanding and respect for the land, infuenced by his childhood growing up in Papua New Guinea, with the more recent Australian vernacular of the tin shed and the refnement of plan and detail of Mies van der Rohe, the modern architect synonymous with the ethos of “less is more.” For Murcutt, the essential means “an indispensable quality, constituting things of essence, fundamental (not fundamentalism), all that makes a thing what it is, the intrinsic nature of a thing, belonging naturally, inherent, a reality which underlines phenomena.”14 However, for Murcutt, perhaps the most essential characteristic of his architecture is that it is ecological. For him: Every building that we as architects build, no matter how beautiful, we are essentially destroying some part of this planet somewhere. The only materials that have a real sense of future are those that can be recycled and those having renewable resources.15 That Murcutt is now so internationally recognised as the quintessential Australian architect is due to the ethos, he so carefully adheres to himself, that: We as architects need not only to ask what architecture is, but also ask what the essentials are that make for an appropriate architecture of our culture, our land, available technology, the resources that we have, the climate, the economic conditions and our time.16 This ecological understanding of the essential in architecture was further expanded upon by Juhani Pallasmaa in his discussion of “the ecological functionalism of animal constructions”17 at the same symposium, where he emphasised the essential effciency of the constructions made by animals strictly according to the purpose of the constructions, the environmental context, the prevailing conditions, and available materials. As made clear by Pallasmaa: Animal architecture is in perfect harmony with its ecological context; animal builders do not exhaust natural resources, or cause waste and pollution. The ecological balance, however, is not achieved by the activity of a single species, but the complex functioning of the entire ecosystems.18 Most signifcantly by comparison to human architecture, a “bird’s nest is absolute functionalism, because the bird is not aware of its death,”19 an

Introduction

7

understanding Pallasmaa had gained in conversation with Sverre Fehn. This would seem to mean to Pallasmaa, “that the ecological rationality and functionality of our building is compromised because architecture for us is also a means of attempting to understand and symbolize the world, and an effort to achieve immortality.”20 As Alvar Aalto wrote early in his career “Form is nothing but a desire for eternal life on earth.”21 This would suggest that even in the most essentialist approach to architecture for us as human beings, the poetic expression of our existential understanding of being in this world, is also an essential requirement. As Pallasmaa was later to write so beautifully of Utzon, in celebration of Utzon’s 90th birthday, “Your poetic alchemy enriches the imagination of all of us. Thank you for your generosity.”22 Representing a more abstract, minimalist, poetic essentialist approach to architecture, at the symposium, was the Spanish architect Alberto Campo Baeza, whose reinterpretation of Mies van der Rohe’s dictum, sought to evoke “more with less.” Where the “more” places the human experience at the centre of architecture, the created world, and the “less” transcends any form of minimalism in being “only the precise number of elements” required

Figure 1.3 Narrow opening high in the living room wall at Can Lis, Porto Petro, Mallorca. The direct ray of sunlight that enters briefy in the afternoon reveals the original circular saw marks on the locally sourced sandstone blocks, that tells the story of its making. Source: Photo by Adrian Carter

8

Introduction

to translate ideas into material reality.23 In his words, he sought beauty in his architecture: a naked Beauty, intelligent, ESSENTIAL, capable of captivating our minds and hearts. The mind, with the overwhelming logic of reason; with the precision of the dimensions, the effcacy of the proportions, the clarity of the scale. With a built idea. The heart. With a warm sentiment of emotion, with the splendour of the light, with the serenity of an ordering of space that accede control to gravity.24 Thus, for Baeza, the three principal components of architecture he considered essential, are “Idea, Light and Gravity”25 and essential space is “that which is formed by only the indispensable number of elements capable of translating an idea with precision.”26 Some years later in 2008, Alberto Campo Baeza participated in a seminar on Utzon that had been organised together with Joana Roca Cladera and Jaime J. Ferrer Forés, on Mallorca. As part of the event, all the guest speakers were gathered together for a conversation at Utzon’s own home on the island, Can Lis, near Porto Petro. Clearly enamoured with Utzon’s home, Baeza declared the house to be perhaps the fnest built in the Mediterranean and with a degree of self-irony and deep admiration for Utzon, stated that he, as a Spanish architect, could not have allowed himself to use such cheap untreated local materials. At Baeaza’s insistence, we were not to leave the main living room at Can Lis, before we had experienced the ray of light that enters through a vertical slit high in the wall, for approximately 10 minutes each afternoon, that illuminates and highlights the rough saw marks on the sandstone walls of the interior. A feeting moment that, as Pallasmaa would say, poetically confrms the veracity of matter. Among the other noted architects speaking at the symposium was Peter Zumthor, described by the Swiss architectural critic Peter Rüedi, as “an essentialist of the sensual”27 and perhaps the architect, other than Utzon, so profoundly evoking archaic notions of the cave within contemporary architecture. Also speaking, and personally so, without an interpreter who had been taken ill, was Toyo Ito, whose architecture according to the architectural critic of The New Yorker, Thomas de Monchaux emerges from “a ferocious editing down to unexpected essentials.”28 For Ito, on a subsequent visit to Copenhagen, the most important building for him to experience frsthand was the interior of Utzon’s Bagsværd Church, to which he felt a strong kinship with, in its essentialist poetic evocation of nature. All these leading architects of their generation represent a spectrum of essentialist thinking in architecture, from the ecological to the more abstractly minimalistic and poetic, while also continuing the humane artistic, idealistic, but practical ethos of Alvar Aalto in seeking essential inspiration in nature, vernacular tradition and craft, rationally expressed through Platonic forms and realised by means of contemporary techniques. They also all emulate and evoke the work of the architect, who most effectively continued Aalto’s legacy, the

Introduction

9

Danish architect Jørn Utzon, who further developed Aalto’s essentialist organic approach and contemporary reinterpretation of the western architectural canon, by evolving and refning a much more holistically transcultural essentialist paradigm in contemporary architecture. As Kenneth Frampton stated in his keynote address at the First International Utzon Symposium in Aalborg in Denmark in 2003 that: Comparable in subtle ways to the protean achievements of Le Corbusier, Utzon’s architecture emerges today as paradigmatic at many levels not least of which is the manner in which from the beginning of his career; he would totally repudiate the assumed superiority of Eurocentric culture.29 This First International Utzon Symposium, as the initiative of the Utzon Research Center at Aalborg University, brought together for the frst time many of Utzon’s close colleagues and leading academics writing on Utzon, including Brit Andresen, William J.R. Curtis, Tobias Faber, Kenneth Frampton, Richard Johnson, Richard Leplastrier, Peter Myers, Philip Nobis, Richard Weston, and Jan Utzon. The symposium helped consolidate a growing interest and appreciation of Utzon. It also provided the catalyst for the realisation of the Utzon Center in Utzon’s hometown of Aalborg, designed by Utzon and his architect

Figure 1.4 Keynote speakers at the First International Utzon Symposium, held at Aalborg University, 2003. From left to right: Adrian Carter, Jan Utzon, Richard Weston, Kenneth Frampton, Brit Andresen, William J.R. Curtis, Philip Nobis, Richard Leplastrier, Richard Johnson, Tobias Faber, Thomas Mølvig, Joseph Skrzynski, and Emanuele De Dominicis.

10 Introduction son Kim Utzon’s offce, to house his archive, provide a forum for research into his work and design methodology, as well as his boat designer father Aage Utzon, together with an auditorium, exhibition space, and a dynamic workshop environment where ideas could be prototyped and developed. Previously in the late twentieth century, it had been diffcult to place Utzon within the continuum of architectural history and pantheon of modern architects, despite Sigfried Giedion’s early recognition of Jørn Utzon as a pioneer and leading fgure for a new Third Generation of Modern Architects. The Norwegian architect and theorist Christian Norberg-Schulz, who was an early friend of Utzon and had studied under Sigfried Giedion, expanded upon Giedion’s understanding of the “genius loci” or sense of place in relation to the work of Utzon, in his seminal book Genius Loci: Towards a phenomenology of architecture (Norberg-Schulz 1980). Norberg-Schulz continued to use Utzon as a signifcant example, notably in Architecture: Meaning and Place (Norberg-Schulz 1988), to explain a phenomenological understanding of architecture. Similarly, Kenneth Frampton has promoted Utzon’s work, as being exemplary of a critical regionalist and transcultural tectonic approach to architecture.30 Now Utzon is widely recognised as one of the outstanding architects of the twentieth century, despite a limited production. Jørn Utzon was nevertheless responsible for a remarkable range of works, from the noble, humane Kingo and Fredensborg housing projects, visionary unrealised projects, through to poetic and powerfully symbolic public buildings, such as Bagsværd Church, the Kuwait National Assembly, to the most internationally recognised and iconic building of the twentieth century, the Sydney Opera House.31 Each of his major works represents important recurring themes and aspects of Utzon’s design methodology, deriving from an essentialist understanding and interpretation of transcultural infuences. The Kingo and Fredensborg Housing exemplifes Utzon’s use of the courtyard, as a synthesis from many transcultural sources, including traditional Danish farmhouse and embodies his vision for more community-orientated suburban housing. At the other end of the scale spectrum, the monumental Sydney Opera House is undoubtedly Utzon’s iconic masterpiece and the embodiment of his innovative tectonic use of transcultural metaphor and analogy. The subsequent initial proposal for the Silkeborg Art Museum is Utzon’s visionary unrealised project that was inspired by the ancient Chinese Buddhist temple grottoes of Yungang but suggests where Utzon’s architecture might have further evolved and anticipated contemporary architectural developments, enabled by computer-aided design tools. Bagsværd Church, a building for Protestant Christian worship, inspired by Buddhist and Islamic traditions, is perhaps Utzon’s most evocative and beautifully provocative tectonic synthesis of poetic metaphor and transcultural references. The Kuwait National Assembly Building is an essentialist tectonic reinterpretation of specifc regional cultural precedents and a rare example of a contemporary Western architect working appropriately and authentically within the Arab world. Can Lis, Utzon’s own house

Introduction

11

on Mallorca, is a timeless site-specifc expression of dwelling, the archaic, and sense of place. Finally, the Utzon Center was intended as the home for Utzon’s archive, research, and as a dynamic architecture centre; a modest building, but one designed by Utzon consciously to embody the underlying themes within his oeuvre and an Utzonian vision of architectural practice. The quality and signifcance of Utzon’s work are now beyond doubt, in terms of its poetic phenomenological qualities, tectonic integrity, and humanity. However, despite the international recognition of Utzon and his architecture as being exemplary, his essentialist use of transcultural sources has not been widely comprehended and been fully appreciated as a wider source of inspiration to others, until recently, beyond those that knew him personally or have been taught or otherwise informed by those that did know him or

Figure 1.5 Interior of Bagsværd Church. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

12

Introduction

otherwise gained inspiration from the direct study of his works. This book seeks to readdress this by providing an insightful and critical understanding of his transcultural sources and essentialist methodology, to be able to better appreciate his work and take his inspiration further.32 While Utzon’s background, infuences, and sources of inspiration have been written about, there has however been limited analysis of Utzon’s overarching thought process and the “modus operandi” of his design approach; that would fully tie together and explain his synthesis of often disparate references. There is therefore a need to theoretically articulate Utzon’s seemingly intuitive and non-theoretical approach to architecture and design; to determine what underlies the success of his approach; to develop an understanding that provides not only further insight into Utzon’s work but also potentially a key for both appreciating and being able to create an authentic and signifcant architecture of a similarly poetic, humane, and tectonic calibre.33 As Donald Schön notes in his preface to The Refective Practitioner “When people use the terms such as ‘art’ and ‘intuition,’ they usually intend to terminate the discussion rather to open up inquiry.”34 Schön further suggests that many practitioners believe that their form for knowledge is indescribable and that to attempt to do so on their part would be to risk paralysing that creative process; an understanding that leads to a wide gulf between as Schön puts it, “the ‘hard’ knowledge of science and scholarship and the ‘soft’ knowledge of artistry and unvarnished opinion.”35 Utzon, a profoundly intelligent individual with an acute sense of observation, but an aversion to overly academic understanding, was most particularly, such an artistic practitioner whose creative process was based upon personal experiential understanding and insight. In keeping with Schön’s dichotomy between academia and practice, he assumes “that competent practitioners usually know more than they can say. They exhibit a kind of knowing-in-practice, most of which is tacit”36 and goes further by saying that: If it is true that there is an irreducible element of art in professional practice, it is also true that gifted engineers, teachers, scientists, architects, and managers sometimes display artistry in their day-to-day practice. If the art is not invariant, known and teachable, it appears nonetheless, at least for some individuals, to be learnable.37 In the same vein, it is important to note that transculturalism, in this book, is not understood as conscious adaptations of particular cultures, but rather as a subconscious, intuitive, and innovative interpretations of all world cultures, as well as natural phenomena and forms. That Utzon, like many outstandingly creative individuals, was dyslexic, is a key to understanding how important his use of visual imagery and embodied experience were for him in both his conceptual thinking in architectural design, but also in his solving of complex technical problems. Utzon’s need

Introduction

13

Figure 1.6 Utzon self-portrait, dipping his pen in his brain. Indicating the connection between embodied memories and the creative hand. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

to compensate for a lack of more conventional academic prowess and fnd alternative means of gaining knowledge, as well as realising his creative ambitions, led him to seek inspiration in nature, in art, and boatbuilding, as well as similarly in the vernacular cultures he travelled to experience frst-hand around the world. This underpinned his humane, cosmopolitan, and tectonic approach to architecture and design.38 As Malcolm Gladwell has described in his book David and Goliath,39 it is often those that have to overcome disadvantages in their youth that overcompensate in other areas and achieve most, later in life. Utzon and other notable architects, including Antoni Gaudi and Richard Rogers, had to cope with dyslexia and they compensated by more greatly developing their visual and spatial faculties. In Utzon’s case, it was his ability to draw that enabled him to enter the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts to study architecture, despite having very poor fnal grades from school that had denied him the possibility of following in his father’s footsteps in a more maritime direction and becoming a naval offcer, as he had intended.40

14

Introduction

For Utzon, sailing and being out in nature was not only a source of inspiration, it was also where he found joy and refuge from school. Due to his dyslexia, Utzon did not do well academically and did not enjoy being confned within a classroom, preferring being out in nature and most particularly on the water, sailing. Utzon often spoke of being able to fnd inspiration in nature, whether the poetic metaphor of the concrete clouds of the interior ceiling of Bagsværd Church; or the notion of an opening in a birch forest that inspired the spatial and structural design of the Paustian furniture store; or the analogy to the jointing of bird’s wings that provided inspiration for the window mullions of the Sydney Opera House; or the folding of palm leaves as the catalyst for the ribbed under-structure of the Opera House roof shells. Utzon combined this use of nature with a remarkable ability to make an analogous transfer from the ancient and transcultural architectural experiences he had gained around the world, into the contemporary context of his own work.41

Figure 1.7 Utzon demonstrating the principle of the bird wing-inspired window mullions of the Sydney Opera House. To recreate the effect of stroboscopic lighting, Utzon placed a black plastic bag over his head for multiple exposures, taking it off for the last exposure to include himself. This he repeated twice to be sure he had the image he wanted. Source: Photo by Jozef Vissel

Introduction

15

According to Kenneth Frampton, what is a great strength of Utzon’s outlook on architecture and one that ensures his continuing relevance is his “critical, cross-cultural stance.”42 From the very outset of his career, Utzon eschewed a narrow provincialism and always took a broad international outlook. This is evident in his sincere interest in widely differing cultures, as well as an enthusiasm to visit, live, and work elsewhere in the world. In keeping with his openness to international infuences, following his winning of the Sydney Opera House competition in 1957, he ran his offce in English to enable overseas architects to work there and to encourage an international outlook.43 Also an interest in architecture from different historical epochs, for as Utzon himself stated: You can study architecture from many angles, from a historic point of view for instance. You can sort out buildings belonging to different periods and – therefore – built in different styles: Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, etc., but you can also – as the Italian structural engineer, Pier Luigi Nervi – evaluate buildings according to the structure and the building technique applied. Nervi has reached the conclusion that the buildings considered most outstanding of a certain time and style are almost always constructed with the most exquisite building technique of that special time. If you look at architecture in yet another way – evaluating a building purely from the sensation of joy it gives you – you experience the building with your senses only and you become a user of the building in the way the architect had conceived it. Then you are in close contact with what the architect was aiming at.44 Through experiencing the world as intuitively, empathetically, and insightfully, as Utzon did, one can understand and appreciate those qualities that are both of their time and place, but also transcend their time and place. Providing, as Utzon’s design methodology and resulting work exemplify, enduringly timeless transcultural sources of essential inspiration, for satisfying and signifcant work within other temporally, environmentally, and culturally different contexts. However, within whatever context Utzon was working, the essential humanity of his intentions comes through. The aim always is to provide a frame for the life and activities of those that will use his architecture. In discussing the special role of the architect, Utzon states: Of all persons involved in the building process, the architect is the only one whose aim is to create the most ideal conditions for human beings out of the programme and the means given to him. The other participants each have a different niche: the engineers seek to achieve the ideal performance from equipment and stability from structure, the contractors get the building up and are responsible for the actual

16

Introduction construction, the fnanciers and the lawyers are in control of the economic aspect and the client provides the programme with the basic requirements.45

In emphasising how important the client is to the architect, Utzon cites his good friend and equally humanist architect Ralph Erskine, who Utzon quotes as saying, “In the development of a project the client (i.e., the future user of the building with his special life style) is just as important a building material as concrete, brick, stone, timber and steel.”46 The challenge in every culture and context has been to meet those needs as best possible with the available means and materials. The term Aristos, deriving from ancient Greek, originally simply meant, as explained by the English writer John Fowles, the best according to a given situation.47 Utzon, with his openness to the world, both of nature and human cultures, from ancient to contemporary, saw and understood the essence of what worked well according to its circumstances and was able to transfer that essential understanding from one cultural context to another, as inspiration for his architecture. An understanding that transcended time and place, without preconceptions and prejudice, to create new solutions and meaning somewhere else. In this regard, Utzon was an exemplary exponent of transcultural essentialism and as the world increasingly needs to fnd ever more effective solutions to meet human needs, practically, as well as culturally and emotionally, in the face of ever-greater existential challenges and with the least harm to natural environment, making the best use of resources. Then we need to turn away from notions of universality, as manifested in the glass and steel edifces of international modernism, that pay no heed to the local climatic conditions and sense of place, and as Utzon was, be open to fnding the best solutions in all other cultures, whether past or present, and translate them to our current needs and aspirations in accordance with the actual context.

Understanding transcultural essentialism Architecture of essentialism can be understood as a belief in the essence of materials and forms. An essentialist perception of that which is constructed, that aligns with a phenomenological and idealistic understanding, that tends towards the simplicity, utility, and formality of a more minimalist approach.48 Consequently, an understanding and embodiment of that which is essential is fundamental in the creation and appreciation of all architecture, irrespective of historical and stylistic variations. Satisfying the human need for the essential, whether it be for basic shelter or more esoteric use, is a basic and innate component of architecture that underpins its pragmatic purpose and deeper existential meaning. The Nordic countries, with their ancient need to endure harsh climates, with at times scant resources and more recent Lutheranism, have developed a design culture of “Noble Poverty” making that which was most functional, well-crafted,

Introduction

17

and made most effective use of the materials available, to serve basic existential needs. In so doing, there emerged an approach to design that refned and articulated the essence of the functional purpose and at the same time paid respect to the essential nature of the materials used, the climate, and landscape context. This epitomises an essentialist approach to design and architecture. According to Gareth Griffths, “Christian Norberg-Schulz has been paramount in Heidegger-inspired essentialist descriptions of Nordic architecture, even claiming to explain what Nordic architecture truly is, and how Finnish building is a ‘successful’ translation of the Finnish environment into architectural form.”49 Typical for essentialism, Norberg-Schulz understands identity diacritically: the essence of the North is that is it not the South. For him, “the North is a world, scarcely understood, of moods as determined by the light, while the South is the birth of Idea and Form, each entity becoming discrete.”50 That “essentialist account is also evident in the reasoning of Norberg-Schulz’s teacher, Sigfried Giedion, who categorically stated that ‘Finland is with Aalto wherever he goes.’”51 Juhani Pallasmaa’s refection that “Finns tend to organize space topologically on the basis of an amorphous ‘forest geometry’, as opposed to the ‘geometry of the town’ that guides the thinking of traditionally urbanized Europe,”52 also represents an essentialist phenomenological position.53 Griffths states that: Commentators have not only sensed a continuity in Finnish architecture that seems to transcend international stylistic categories. Architectural isomorphisms have also been discerned transculturally between traditional and modern Finnish and Japanese architecture, and likewise between Danish and Japanese approaches. On one level, this is a matter of taking direct stylistic ‘borrowings’, Japonisme for instance, but of more interest are the deeper isomorphisms.54 The similarity of aesthetic aspirations in Finland and Japan, according to Juhani Pallasmaa, is evident in “the preference for visual reduction and restraint, appreciation of natural materials and subdued colours, the interplay between elements and rhythms of nature and manmade geometry and a distinct sense of humility.”55 This approach is, of course, not limited to the Nordic countries and Japan, as it is invariably true of all embedded traditional vernacular cultures, at least in their ancient origins. The authentic essential integrity of vernacular architecture came to appeal to the early modernist architects, such as Le Corbusier. Just as modernist painters early in the twentieth century, which Utzon admired, such as Picasso, appreciated the essential qualities inherent in primitive art. According to Gail Peter Borden: The ideal of primitivism comes from a quest for essentiality. It is a bluntness that in its crude and basic nature allows for a multi-dimensional

18 Introduction starkness. Complexity breeds an ornamental quality of the non-essential. Adornment, decoration, and embellishment distract through their additive nature to supplement inadequacies in the original object itself. The lack of essentialism to ornament is what defnes it as an extraneous and additive enhancement. The object of origin (the thing to which ornament is being applied) demands an intrinsic sense of being. The innate beauty of things is core to the essence.56 An understanding of what is essential can be found in every culture, but it requires a perceptive critical understanding of the particular context and culture to fully perceive and comprehend what is essential in that situation and a particularly profound understanding to be able to translate the essentiality in one cultural domain to another, that is very different and still maintain a sense of the essential in another cultural context. As Vince Marotta writes: The transcultural refects the interconnectedness of cultures at the societal level, but also at the level of cultural identity. The transcultural subject is a cultural hybrid which interconnects and integrates various cultural forms. It has the potential to ‘transcend our monocultural standpoints’57 and is attentive to what is common and connective between different cultures. This echoes the intercultural hermeneutic approach which blurs the boundary between universalism and particularism.58 Essentialism, in its most fundamental understanding, posits the view that every entity has essences, certain attributes, characteristics, and properties that defne its identity. Plato’s idealism that has so much infuenced early western thinking in this regard established the view that all things have an “essence,” that is a clearly defned “Idea” or “Form” that is unchanging. Transcultural Essentialism represents a less fundamentalist understanding that the essences of ideas and forms can be transformed and transcend their particular cultural context and circumstances to gain an equally profound but differentiated essential identity within another situation. A notable example is Utzon’s translation of the ancient Mayan sacred stepped platforms, which were heightened ceremonial places of sacrifcial offerings to the gods, into the Sydney Opera House’s grand public staircase leading to a raised view of the surrounding harbour, and as a means to rise above the humdrum every day, as preparation for the enjoyment of the performing arts. As Borden states in New Essentialism: Material Architecture (2018): Architecture is the process of engagement with material to create effect. Every design at the point of realization must participate with material and tectonic systems. Physical manifestation requires a dialogue with matter. The boundaries and rules of the natural world, even with man’s expanding infuence have governing edges. This juncture with material during making is critical to architecture.59

Introduction

19

According to Borden: The history of architectural form has moved through a series of transitions in its history based upon the infuences of technology. The response to performance (driving composition and generating experience) has been encircled by intellectual constructs and discourse extending beyond the pragmatic to the philosophical to differentiate architecture from building. .  .  . Architectural form has emerged to defne itself through process-based techniques and methods. It is time to challenge these methods and reconsider relevance. .  .  . Contemporary architectural form must engage a new paradigm. In an era of extreme material and technological complexity the desire for a New Essentialism to drive the formal and perceptual qualities of architecture is paramount .  .  . a focused return to effect regarded through essential form and logic of construction.60 To achieve this, Borden’s New Essentialism lists the following criteria: • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

The idea of making is a conceptual and literal model. There must be a working knowledge of technology that facilitates refnement. There must be foundational rooting in abstract making. There must be underpinning in conceptual modelling and graphic capability of thought. Architecture must emerge from precedent. Architecture must address site and context. Architecture must engage the vernacular. None of these must reference form but must analytically recognise conceptual underpinnings. Architecture must fabricate a place, emergent from program to orchestrate event. Architecture must be evaluated in terms of use and phenomenological experience. Architecture must deal with form relative to the environment. Architecture must deal with form relative to program. Architecture must deal with form relative to materials and tectonics. Architecture must look towards how we fabricate.61

All of these criteria, as will become evident very precisely described by the underpinnings of Utzon’s work, were in his case greatly informed, heightened, refned, and gained originality from the synthesis of his extensive transcultural sources of inspiration and reference. However, as Nils Ole Lund notes: if Jørn Utzon’s buildings are original, it is not because they are vehicles for an idiom with novelty value. They are unusual because they have

20 Introduction roots in foreign cultures that are closer to what Utzon considers important. Utzon belongs to what Giedion called the third generation of architects – a generation that by no means thought ahistorically, but which sought a link with the past; not to fnd a catalogue of motifs, but to draw some lessons from history that still had value.62 According to Lund, Utzon demonstrated an ability, particularly with his unrealised projects “to create building types that are at once new and evoke memories that go far back in history and deep into the subconscious.”63 In a similar vein, Frampton comments that with regard to Utzon’s inspirations, “the deeper impulses lying behind such hidden, possibly unconscious references are as elusive as they are complex.”64 An understanding confrmed by Utzon himself in conversation,65 when queried about or presented with, potential sources for his work, that he readily acknowledged could well have been the case, but possibly not or in combination with other infuences that he could not be sure had played a role in his design thinking. As his student friend and collaborator Tobias Faber said of Utzon, that he “managed to convert his impressions into personal, imaginative ideas through a kind of metamorphosis.”66 Similarly, Michael Asgaard Andersen, who has written extensively on Utzon’s work, describes that this metamorphosis by which Utzon created his projects was not only: based on impulses from many cultures but could also be interpreted in many ways. The designs of his buildings invite laypeople and professionals to engage in dialogue with them. We can relate them to our own experiences. Even if they do not match up with the project’s concepts. Utzon’s architecture calls into question our perception of both past and contemporary building cultures. The invitation to dialogue that is found in Utzon’s work is based on several conditions, central to which is his rethinking of different building cultures. Geographically separate and of different epochs, the regional methods of building that Utzon drew from are rarely related. In fact, they are characterised by their temporal and spatial separation from each other. In his architecture, Utzon did not gather these building cultures in a mosaic of diversity or in an image of ambiguity, nor did he devalue them to the lowest common denominator. On the contrary, he incorporated them into a method in which they were processed – consciously or unconsciously – in interaction with other aspects of his projects. In turn, they became indirect signposts in the creation as well as the experience of his architecture. Paradoxically, this aspect of Utzon’s work can produce perceptions of both presence and absence, common features and differences, continuity and breaks. This richness contributes to the development and renewal of the building cultures that Utzon’s buildings became a part of and continue to infuence.67

Introduction

21

This openness and ability to synthesise the essential qualities of widely divergent transcultural infuences and personal experiences from his travels was apparent early in Utzon’s career. In describing the background to the design of his frst own family home, in 1953 he opines that: Simple, primitive country life, trips to the hills with skis or a rife, sailing trip, a few weeks with Arabs in the mountains or desert, a trip to North America and Mexico, the way of life of American Indians – all of this has made the basis for the form of existence my wife and I wished to lead and, thus, for the design of the house.68 Underpinning the inspiration Utzon gained in his travels and the essential focus of his work was always his humanity and his interest in human nature in a way its needs and activities are best served by architecture. As Utzon’s eldest son Jan writes of his parents: My father and mother discussed much together and had a shared particular interest in understanding what it is to be human. My parents read a great deal on other people’s thoughts on life. On living together. On marriage. On envy. My father hated gossip. It simply did not interest him. I never heard him speak negatively or dismissively about another colleague’s work. What he considered to be uninteresting, he simply did not bother himself with. Architects can certainly demonstrate a tendency to put each other down. To not recognise each other’s work. My father would rather see what was positive and praise.69

Early modernism, the International Style, and “the other tradition” of modern architecture With the dawn of the twentieth century came a distinctive break with the classical tradition and renewed interest in original sources of inspiration that still resonates today. Nietzsche, perhaps more than any other single thinker, represents the critical break with the classical understanding of the world; his proclamation that God is dead represents a denial of a divinely imposed classical order and the exaltation of the will and experience of the individual. The use of metaphor in the twentieth century began with the early German Expressionist architects and had its origins in Nietzsche. Most notably Bruno Taut, as one of the leading members of the Expressionist movement, annotated his sketches and writings with quotes from Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883), which were laden with potent metaphoric architectural imagery. In particular, the image of the mountain was often evoked in the projects of expressionists and other architects in Germany and Central Europe at the time, since according to Wolfgang Pehnt “Zarathustra lives in the perilous solitude of the mountains.”70 Inherent in these visions

22

Introduction

was a desire to impose a superhuman ideal, to inspire in the observer a humbling sense of the greatness of the universe in contrast to the smallness of humanity. It is appropriate that the most signifcant realised Expressionist building is the almost monstrously organic Einstein Observatory by Erich Mendelsohn in Potsdam. However, the notion of the superman and perceived antisocial nature of Zarathustra largely distanced other architects elsewhere in the world from the use of such powerful natural imagery. The emerging Modern movement, having similarly made a break with the past, saw the machine as the metaphor for modern architecture. Though espousing a rejection of the classical tradition, the early modernists were nevertheless well versed in the architecture of the classical world and were not only heavily indebted to it in terms of their sense of proportion, but more importantly as a source of metaphoric imagery. The white-washed houses of the Greek islands and sun-bleached columns of classical ruins served as an inspiration for Le Corbusier’s white architecture and use of piloti posts. This pure, unadorned architecture was combined with allusions to the great passenger liners that crossed the Atlantic, which for Le Corbusier and other modernists epitomised the forward progress of modern technology. Similarly, the Russian Constructivists and Italian Futurists sought to embody in their architecture the dynamic energy and sense of movement of the new machine age, which they saw as the driving force for an equally dynamic new society. This unquestioning fascination with technology and somewhat naïve belief in its potential for enabling the realisation of a universally more ideal society led to an increasing interest in industrialisation and mass production. The ideals of the modern movement culminated in the Bauhaus, where a belief in industrialisation and increasing abstraction of design was nevertheless informed by artistic endeavour and craft tradition. Sadly, the Nazis not only closed the Bauhaus but also effectively curtailed the metaphoric idealism of the Modern movement for a while. By the end of the 1930s, many of the leading members of the modern movement had emigrated to the new world, most particularly to the United States. Spearheaded by Mies van der Rohe, whose earliest designs for a skyscraper had originally shared the Expressionist vision of a crystalline architecture, the modern movement evolved into the International Style, whose vacuous anonymity has dictated the appearance of the central business district of almost every major city around the world since. The metaphoric bareness of the ubiquitous curtain wall denied all potential allusions to all other analogies, than that of an all-enclosing skin, which even today we are technologically as yet incapable of truly replicating in a fully functioning, fexible, and unbroken form. From the ashes of war-torn Europe emerged a more brutal, socially realistic, and pragmatic modern architecture, shorn like the victims of Auschwitz of more esoteric associations and the urge to rebuild on a megalomaniac, industrialised scale à la Le Corbusier’s vision for a new Paris, disregarding the fact that much of the previous underlying infrastructure of roads, foundations,

Introduction

23

and sewerage, even in Berlin, remained intact. Even in cities that had remained unscathed, such as Stockholm in neutral Sweden, huge areas of urban fabric were levelled and replaced by large-scale developments of industrialised uniformity, in the name of misguided social policy and vested economic interests. A modern architecture emerged that was largely devoid of metaphoric reference and thus remote from human experience. In Denmark, the relatively humane and refned work of Arne Jacobsen was mocked by Utzon and other young Danish architects of his generation for his conformity to Euclidean principles and limited variations on a basic form, joking “all Jacobsen’s could be modelled with a box of matches: fat, it was a housing scheme; standing on its long edge, an apartment block: on end, an offce tower.”71 Despite an overwhelming tendency towards a metaphorically empty architecture, there were a number of notable exceptions, such as the expressively sculptural and highly narrative works of Le Corbusier; the idealised American mythology in the late works of Frank Lloyd Wright, yet combined with Japanese spatial conceptions; the sublime abstractions of nature in the work of Luis Barragán and Louis Kahn’s poetic reinterpretations of archetypal architectural elements and the inspiration of the ruins of antiquity; to mention just a few. Perhaps the most signifcant alternative to the otherwise banal conformity to the International Style was the work of Alvar Aalto. In the intervening years, Aalto’s work has been constantly re-evaluated, reassessed and his contribution to modern architecture elevated. Far from being merely an inspired but idiosyncratic and eclectic regional architect, Colin St John Wilson argues that Aalto was the leading pioneer of what he calls “the other tradition of modern architecture,” which he considers to be “the uncompleted project,”72 thereby optimistically suggesting an alternative continuing tradition of the modern. Aalto moderated and humanised modern architecture, through the extensive use of various forms of metaphor: Tangible Metaphors in terms of direct allusions to local vernacular and classical European and other building traditions, particularly Japanese traditional architecture, although Aalto never travelled to Japan and had knowledge of Japanese culture only indirectly through books and other publications. More importantly, he took inspiration from forms he found in indigenous nature. Together with Intangible Metaphors, that sought to refect personal interpretations of such concepts as individuality and community. Often in Aalto’s work, these tangible and intangible, visual and conceptual metaphors overlap, as for example in the Town Hall at Säynätsalo, where the realisation of a raised acropolis, with an enclosed agora, evokes the forum for debate within Plato’s Greek City-State, as the original image of democracy. Within Finnish architecture, Reima Pietilä was an outstanding successor to Aalto, who selected Pietilä the winner of the competition for the Student Union Building at Dipoli, opposite the University Campus he had himself designed. In the overtly expressive and fragmented forms of Reima and Raili Pietilä’s Dipoli building,73 which evoked rock formations, the Finnish forest,

24 Introduction shards of ice and cave-like interiors, the Pietiläs were both continuing the Finnish organic tradition, based on National Romantic themes. At the same time, they anticipated future directions in architecture that subsequently became more widely manifest in the works of such architects as Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, and Steven Holl. According to Reima Pietilä, Euclidean geometry was merely a cultural invention, an incidental and passing phase in history, and that one could achieve greater architectural signifcance and authenticity through the inspiration and integration of timeless metaphors to be found in nature. On this basis, Pietilä reinterpreted the Christian symbolism of the fsh in the Kaleva Church, recreated the undulating snow-covered Finnish landscape and its underlying geological structure in the Finnish Embassy in New Delhi and later the Finnish President’s Residence in Helsinki, as well as developing what he referred to as Zooamorphic architecture, based on the forms of animals as in the Tampere Library, where the formal and structural idea of the building was inspired by the image of the native wild grouse ruffing its plumage in a mating call. While Pietilä’s work has exasperated architectural purists, the unique personality and narrative of his architecture endeared it to the wider public. The legacy of Aalto is also clearly apparent in the equally unique work of Jørn Utzon. In his remarkable and sadly unrealised design for the Asger Jorn Art Museum in Silkeborg, Utzon proposed a subterranean building formed like fower bulbs or sunken earthenware pots. In the Silkeborg project, Utzon metaphorically returned to the womb-like quality of the cave, proposing a dynamically organic interplay of curved subterranean volumes that created an endless quality to interior spaces, in a manner that echoes the thoughts and experimental studies of the artist and architect Frederick Kiesler, in addition to Utzon’s transcultural references of the Yungang Grottoes in China, for instance. In the European context, as an outspoken critic of the inhumanity of modernist rationalisation and standardisation, Kiesler had throughout his work strived to develop Loos’ Raumplan to realise the morphological and symbolic potential of multidimensional and complex space. Utzon was an architect for whom materiality, and its honest expression, was a fundamental element of his architecture. He learned from his navel designer father how certain types of timber could serve the specifc needs in the construction of a sailing boat74 and took this understanding further into his own work as an architect, without waiver, throughout all his projects during the entire course of his career. Like his good friend and colleague Sverre Fehn, Utzon admired the material expression of Le Corbusier; they were of that generation of architects for whom the uncompromising honesty of brutalism was believed to be the only true course for modern architecture.75 Though Utzon’s architecture was informed by the prevailing brutalist approach of the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, which sought architectural integrity through structural honesty and the use of contemporary materials, Utzon’s approach was somewhat different. Utzon had been infuenced by Aalto and the more humane Nordic version of modernism, as

Introduction

25

Colin St John Wilson described in The Other Tradition of Modern Architecture, where an appreciation of traditional craftsmanship, materials, fnishes, and attention to detail, moderated, refned, and humanised the otherwise austere character of international modernist architecture. This can be seen most clearly in Utzon’s domestic architecture, such as in the Kingo and Fredensborg Houses, where the use of traditional Danish brick humanises the architectural expression and places it frmly within its cultural context. Also, in the Sydney Opera House, the careful attention given to the fnish of the concrete softens its otherwise brutal character, and within the Utzon Room that is the only interior of the building completed fully in accordance with Utzon’s intentions, the powerful polished concrete beams are juxtaposed and complemented by the natural warmth of the unvarnished timber fooring.76 Utzon’s work stands out in contrast to the harshly, socially realistic architecture of that time, by virtue of his personal interpretation of the essential defning characteristics of many diverse transcultural and metaphoric references. Notably, a fascination for traditional East Asian and ancient Mayan architecture has been a potent source of inspiration for Utzon. The stepped walled enclosures of the Kingo courtyard houses owe more to Arab and Chinese vernacular building than to Danish tradition. Similarly, the image of the raised ceremonial plateau, used to such profound effect as the base for the Sydney Opera House, derives from the stepped podiums of Mayan temples and in its articulation of the local topography refects the infuence of Aalto’s artifcial landscapes. While the distinctive roof shells hover above the plateau in a manner inspired by the seemingly foating roofs of Chinese buildings, the sail-like silhouette of the white ceramic tiled roofs was not only a highly appropriate metaphoric image for a building projecting out into one of the world’s most magnifcent harbours, but in itself as a synthesis of transcultural infuences has come to serve as a propound and instantly recognisable international iconic symbol for the multicultural vitality of not only Sydney but also the nation of Australia. That the Sydney Opera House remains one of the most widely recognisable and popularly admired buildings of the twentieth century is due to the transcultural essentialism that underpins its metaphoric imagery. The power of its imagery, despite the apparent clarity of its symbolism, is that it avoids a direct literality of reference and is imbued with a multivalence of associations. It ranges from Utzon’s own personal references, such as his father’s work as a boat designer and the use of spherical geometry, akin to peeling sections of an orange, to achieve the roof construction, to more whimsical associations that have been ascribed to the form of the building, such as sharks feeding, amorous turtles or nuns playing rugby. This potential for personal interpretation that derives from the essentialist abstraction of its transcultural infuences is what captures the imagination. That combined with Utzon’s belief in a nature-inspired organic architecture gives it a harmonious sculptural integrity and timeless quality. This transcends the two-dimensional, overtly literal, and historic symbolism that subsequently

26 Introduction emerged in the work of postmodern architects, as a reaction to the austerity of modernism. For which Utzon’s Sydney Opera House can be seen as a precursor, but not as erroneously claimed by Charles Jencks, as an early iconic example of postmodernism. As Utzon’s essentialist transfer of transcultural ideas and adherence to tectonic integrity ensured that the notions underpinning his architecture were always integral and embedded, rather than superfcially applied and merely decorative.

Jørn Utzon: architect of the third generation and beyond Already in 1967, Utzon was recognised by the Swiss architectural historian Sigfried Giedion, in the ffth edition of his book Space, Time and Architecture (1967), as the prime exponent of the new third generation of architects, the frst generation being the pioneers of Modernism, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe and the second generation being represented by Aalto and Kahn. This young Third Generation was breathing a new vitality into and humanising the modern movement within architecture.77 In his amended ffth edition of the seminal book, Sigfried Giedion added an entirely new chapter entitled “Jørn Utzon and the Third Generation” and identifed Utzon as the leading proponent of what he considered to be a new third generation of modern architects, largely defned by themes that he identifed in Utzon’s work, notably a social concern shown by “a conscious regard for the anonymous client,” a concern of architects, that has perhaps diminished in an age of speculative, developer-led housing. That Giedion identifed as an organic approach that allowed “the incorporation of changing conditions as a positive element of the plan” a strong relation to site and context “so that an interplay can arise between architecture and environment, each intensifying the other” and in a particular reference most specifcally to Utzon “an emphasis upon the architectural use of the horizontal planes and different levels. More forceful use of artifcial platforms as urbanistic elements.” Similarly, Giedion also attributes other Utzon characteristics to the entire new Third Generation with regards “A stronger relation to the past; not expressed in forms, but in the sense of an inner relationship and a desire for continuity” and “Further strengthening of sculptural tendencies in architecture. A freer relationship between inner and outer space and between volumes in space.”78 Giedion recognised in Utzon’s generation an appreciation for the past and an interest in anonymous structures, unlike that of the earlier modernists, an interest which was not that of a historian, but is rather concerned with gaining architectonic knowledge from the past, to solve contemporary architectural problems. Giedion saw travel as the best means to gain such knowledge and emphasised that: The attitude of the third generation to the past is not to saw out details from their original context. It is more an inner affnity, a spiritual

Introduction

27

recognition of what, out of the abundance of architectonic knowledge, is related to the present time and is, in a certain sense, able to strengthen our inner security.79 For Giedion, Utzon was the most talented architect of this young generation, who heralded a new architectural sensibility, one which represented an optimistic alternative to the nightmare scenario Giedion described in his book Mechanization Takes Command.80 As the renowned Australian architecture historian Philip Goad has noted: Giedion’s choice of Utzon was carefully calculated. His work, especially the Sydney Opera House, was intended to herald a new period for modern architecture and counter the so-called “pseudo-relations to the Past” of buildings such as the Lincoln Centre in New York. Giedion believed that an appreciation of Utzon’s work would reconnect design to an apparently more authentic relationship with the past, particularly through the so-called Third Generation’s interest in anonymous structures and primitive cultures. Preceding the article was a photomontage of Utzon overlaid onto the upturned wings of an albatross. It was a heroic image, an angelic conception, and not without the hint of an image of salvation.81 While Giedion correctly identifes many of the salient themes within Utzon’s work and has served as a starting point for most of the critical discussion of Utzon, his argument of Utzon alone to represent an entire generation of the time and also his own views calls into question his objectivity.82 Following on from Giedion’s stance, Christian Norberg-Schulz continued to use reference of the work of Utzon as exemplary of a phenomenological understanding of architecture, where Norberg-Schulz argues for an architecture that invokes an image, is concrete, and exudes signifcance. Norberg Schulz proposes that Heidegger’s “thinking on architecture as a visualisation of truth restores its artistic dimension and hence its human signifcance,”83 as an antithesis to a purely functionalist pragmatic approach, that leads to “a schematic and characterless environment, with insuffcient possibilities for human dwelling.”84 However, Norberg-Schulz’s fascination with the fgurative in architecture led him to support the less lasting signifcance of postmodernism, with which Utzon’s work, most particularly the Sydney Opera House, has previously been disingenuously associated with. Perhaps more correctly, Kenneth Frampton has commented that Utzon belongs to that generation of architects whose belief is that: The primary responsibility of the profession was not only to meet the building needs of society on an ad hoc, daily basis, but also to evolve generic types and modes of practice that were appropriate to the unprecedented conditions of modern life – those, who, while no longer believing

28 Introduction in the manifest destiny of modern architecture to engender a new utopian order, were nonetheless still committed to the notion that architects should attempt to provide models and methods that are appropriate to the conditions of daily life.85 These qualities can be clearly experienced in Utzon’s two low-rise, mediumdensity housing schemes built north of Copenhagen; the Kingo houses, near Helsingør, and the housing complex at Fredensborg. According to Frampton, these schemes represent an alternative land settlement pattern that has “never been equalled, neither culturally in terms of an accessible imagery nor environmentally from an ecological standpoint.”86 Frampton initially referred to Utzon and specifcally Bagsværd Church in support of his concept of critical regionalism, in his infuential essay “Toward a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance.” While also infuenced by Heidegger, Frampton builds also upon the writings of Paul Ricoeur to determine a strategy “to mediate the impact of universal civilization with elements derived indirectly from the peculiarities of a particular place” 87 for which Bagsværd Church and Utzon’s profound synthesis of transcultural infuences, tectonic use of metaphor and site-specifc relation to place, provides an outstanding example. As Frampton’s focus evolved from critical regionalism to the tectonics of architecture, he makes more extensive reference to Utzon, devoting an entire chapter entitled “Jørn Utzon: Transcultural Form and the Tectonic Metaphor” in his book Studies in Tectonic Culture (Frampton 1995), that reappraised modern architecture in terms of structure and construction, positing a convincing alternative to the scenographic tendency of postmodernism.

Poetics and phenomenology of architecture Having studied under Sigfried Giedion, the Norwegian architect and theorist Christian Norberg-Schulz, who knew Utzon personally through Arne Korsmo and PAGON group in Oslo, expanded upon Gideon’s understanding of the genius loci or “sense of place” in relation to the work of Utzon, in his seminal book Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture (Norberg-Schulz 1980). Norberg-Schulz continued to use Utzon as a signifcant example, notably in Architecture: Meaning and Place (Norberg-Schulz 1988), to explain a phenomenological understanding of architecture, where he argues for an architecture that invokes an image, is concrete, and exudes signifcance. Norberg Schulz proposes that Heidegger’s “thinking on architecture as a visualization of truth restores its artistic dimension and hence its human signifcance,”88 as an antithesis to a purely functionalist pragmatic approach, that leads to “a schematic and characterless environment, with insuffcient possibilities for human dwelling.”89

Introduction

29

According to Norberg-Schulz, Jørn Utzon represents a true continuation of the “new tradition,” opened up by such pioneers as Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, and Louis Kahn. As Norberg-Schulz says of Utzon: Because of his concrete, phenomenological approach to the world in which we live, he has been able to rescue architecture from the sterile impasse of late-modernism. In his works the basic elements of lived space become present: the earth, the sky and the “between” of human existence.90

The role of critical regionalism, tectonic culture, and transcultural architecture Although the term critical regionalism was introduced by Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre in their article “The Grid and the Pathway” as early as in 1981, it was established as a signifcant concept in architectural discourse by Kenneth Frampton in his several writings on critical regionalism in the 1980s, as one sign of the general post-structuralist paradigm shift in the academe. The term is here used in its Kantian, or rather neo-Kantian, sense as “test of criticism” and simply as “contemporary regionalism in order to distinguish it from former approaches,” to quote Alexander Tzonis in his Preface to the more recent Critical Regionalism: Architecture and Identity in a Globalized World, again co-authored with Lefaivre.91 Almost 30 years ago, in “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance,” Kenneth Frampton stated: Architecture can only be sustained today as a critical practice if it assumes an arrière-garde position, that is to say, one which distances itself equally from the Enlightenment myth of progress and from a reactionary, unrealistic impulse to return to the architectonic forms of the preindustrial past.92 The term arrière-garde, with such connotations as “out-of-date” or “backward,” might appear contradictory, or at least surprising, in the context of Utzon’s highly innovative architecture, though Frampton’s position naturally is its meaning “rear guard,” as opposing to, or following the modernist avantgarde which according to Frampton “can no longer be sustained as a liberative movement.”93 The same is implied by the subheading of Frampton’s second point, “The Rise and Fall of the Avant-Garde,” in which context he argues that modern avant-gardism failed in opposing both the negative impacts of technological expansion and the media-fed consumerism of postmodernism, also revealed by the continuation of the earlier quote: “A critical arrière-garde has to remove itself from both the optimization of advanced technology and the everpresent tendency to regress into nostalgic historicism or the glibly decorative.”94

30 Introduction These types of comments in the 1980s were, of course, closely related to the controversy over postmodern architecture, though also to the growing awareness of the ecological concerns related to building industry. The discourse was reminiscent of the reconstruction of the concept of regionalism in architecture in the early and mid-twentieth century; in the United States, led particularly by Lewis Mumford who, at frst, in his Sticks and Stones: American Architecture and Civilization (1924) reacted against the “imperial” Beaux Art tradition as “non-American,” like the earlier European regionalists did with their ties to movements of emancipation. It is rather remarkable that the critical regionalists, several decades later, in their criticism against the dominance of the so-called International Style found inspiration in Mumford’s writings; in addition to Sticks and Stones, his Technics and Civilization (1934), The South in Architecture (1941), and his post-WW II column “Sky Line” in the New Yorker (11 October 1947), followed by later works such as The City in History (1961) and The Urban Prospect (1968). Also, Paul Ricoeur’s writings on the phenomenon of universalisation, particularly his “Universal Civilization and Natural Cultures” in History and Truth (1965), have served as the philosophical basis of this current discourse on critical regionalism. One of the milestones in establishing the concept of critical regionalism was, without doubt, the Pomona Meeting in 1989 at the College of Environmental Design of the California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California, with the Proceedings published in 1991 and edited by the prime organiser of the meeting, Professor Spyros Amourgis. Among the many conference papers, Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre emphasise that “What distinguishes ‘regionalist’ from the simply ‘regional’ is that it incorporates regional elements into design as a means not only of adapting to local conditions but also of criticizing an architecture of order that claims universal application.”95 Keith L. Eggener was one of the frst scholars who started to critique Critical Regionalism, especially Frampton’s defnition of it as a form of resistance, as well as the Euro-America centralised analyses which “on more than one occasion led to an interpretative fattening of diverse cultural materials, and a misunderstanding or devaluation of their founding intentions and most immediate meanings.”96 By quoting Jane M. Jacobs, he goes even as far as describing critical regionalist rhetoric as “a revisionary form of imperialist nostalgia that defnes the colonized as always engaged in conscious work against the ‘core’.”97 In his article “Placing Resistance: A Critique of Critical Regionalism,” he points out that: If so-called critical regionalist designs exemplifed an “architecture of resistance,” it is ironic that writers discussing the places where these designs appeared so often emphasized one architect’s interpretation of the region over all others: Tadao Ando for Japan, Oscar Niemeyer for Brazil, Charles Correa for India, and Luis Barragán for Mexico.

Introduction

31

[Elsewhere in the article he also lists Jorn Utzon for Denmark, Mario Botta for Ticinese Switzerland, J. A. Coderch for Catalonia, Alvaro Siza for Portugal, Gino Valle for Italy, and Dimitris and Susana Antonakakis for Greece.] In other words, a single correct regional style was implied, or imposed, sometimes from inside, more often from outside “the region.98 In making his point, Eggener refers to Latin America in order to elucidate the meaning of Critical Regionalism from the viewpoint of Argentine Marina Waisman, according to whom “the Latin American version is quite different from that proposed by Kenneth Frampton, or Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre.”99 She goes on to state that the Latin American culture, as part of “the general movement of history,” is a “unifcation of the spirit of times and the spirit of place” and, hence, Latin American contemporary architecture should be “understood as a movement of divergence rather than resistance (the term which Frampton prefers).”100 Thus, this book looks at regionalism specifcally from a transcultural perspective. A counterargument could, however, call attention to the two Nordic architects, Alvar Aalto and Jørn Utzon, who are repeatedly used by Frampton as not only the prime examples of Nordic regionalists but also early critical regionalists (depending on the publishing year). But they also were international designers and global practitioners with infuences from various cultures and regions,101 which Eggener does not mention, though he does emphasise Barragán’s international character, as opposing to his image “romanticized by European and North American – based writers.”102 Actually, also Lefaivre, in explaining what makes Mumford’s regionalism critical, emphasises that it “is seen as an engagement with the global, universalizing world rather than by an attitude of resistance.”103 She further points out that it “stems from his radically critical rethinking of traditional defnitions of regionalism” with which Lefaivre refers to the critical philosophy of Immanuel Kant and the Frankfurt School, though she also acknowledges the differences in thinking of these philosophers.104 In the much more recent Transcultural Architecture: The Limits and Opportunities of Critical Regionalism, Thorsten Botz-Bornstein continues the discourse and compatibly regards Critical Regionalism as a subcategory of transculturalism by analysing various designs in some non-Western contexts: the Sief Palace Complex by Raili and Reima Pietilä in Kuwait City, Kuwait; the National Assembly Complex by Louis Kahn in Dhaka, Bangladesh; a few projects by Wang Shu in China, and those of H-Sang Seung in South Korea; in addition to the impact of the Wahhabism policy on architecture in Saudi Arabia. He also discusses Alvar Aalto’s and Ludwig Wittgenstein’s approaches to design as those relate to Tadao Ando’s architecture in Japan. Regarding the contexts of Kuwait, China, Korea, and Saudi Arabia, Botz-Bornstein states that “Eggener’s (as well as Marina Waisman’s) idea that regionalism is not always a response to the West but more often a consequence of local conditions can well be integrated into my defense of

32 Introduction Critical Regionalism as a form of transculturalism.”105 He goes on to argue that “Transculturalism is more than the arbitrary combination of several cultures but transcends all particular cultures in order to invent a new common culture that is not meant to be new universalism.”106 In addition: Transculturalism is not necessarily critical while Critical Regionalism is. Vice versa, all Critical Regionalism is transcultural because it overcomes one culture by critically refecting it against another culture. As a matter of fact, most of the time, Critical Regionalism has not been seen as a coming to terms with two cultures but rather as coming to terms with the past and the present . . . and it is important to specify differences in order to distinguish transculturalism from multiculturalism and other strategies destined to synthesize different cultural elements.107 Somewhat correspondingly, Pallasmaa considers transculturalism and Critical Regionalism operating on essentially different levels, as he argues in the Foreword of this book. In Pallasmaa’s interpretation, Critical Regionalism, like Regionalism, focuses on unifcation and harmonisation of the impact of regional characteristics, while he sees the role of transcultural strategy as an agent to energise new architectural ideas by creative amalgamation and fusion of distant and even conficting sources. Based on this view, Utzon’s architectural expression defnitely is transcultural, rather than regional, although the site was always a determining factor of his designs. It is useful here to repeat Pallasmaa’s statement in the Foreword: “In principle, regionalism is a culturally focusing or narrowing approach, whereas the transcultural aspiration is confding and opens up to new combinations of formal and tectonic confgurations.” According to Kenneth Frampton, in his Studies in Tectonic Culture, architecture is frst and foremost an act of construction, a tectonic and not a scenographic activity. Building is ontological, a presence or a “thing,” as opposed to a sign. This approach can be seen in relation to other attempts to defne the “essence” of architecture, for example as function or as type. For Frampton, the essence is the poetic manifestation of structure as expressed by the Greek term poesis. Deriving from the Greek term tekton, meaning carpenter, with its origins further back in the Sanskrit taksan that described the craft of the carpenter, the word Tectonic has come with the passage of time to mean more than specifcally carpentry, but more generically a poetic sense of making and the art of construction. This understanding is exemplifed by Utzon’s approach to the act of building and the aesthetic expression of structure as essential to the creation of architecture. Expressed succinctly by the renowned Danish engineer Ove Arup, writing about the Sydney Opera House and that for Utzon the: Concept demanded that the architecture should be expressed through the structure, in fact the structure in this case was the architecture; it

Introduction

33

should be bold, simple, on an impressive scale and of a form which combined sculptural quality with a clear expression of the forces acting on it.108 Accordingly, the critique of the postmodern application of decoration and superfcial semantic meaning has created a renewed interest in tectonics, the poetics of construction, as a means of enhancing the sensual and phenomenological experience of building. The tectonic approach strives to achieve authentic signifcance in architecture through a continuity and integrity between form and construction, with an emphasis on materiality and detail. As Steven Holl states, “The material, detail and structure of a building is an absolute condition. Architecture’s potential is to deliver authentic meanings in what we see, touch and smell; the tectonic is ultimately central to what we feel.”109 This approach to architecture and particularly architectural education refects a renewed phenomenological interest in the “making” of architecture.110 Within this context, the work of Jørn Utzon serves as a signifcant and inspirational paradigm for a tectonic architecture, that derives its signifcance and integrity from the underpinning transcultural essentialism of its design and making, as is further examined in the following chapters.

Notes 1 “The Pritzker Architecture Prize 2003 Announcement,” 13 October 2020, www. pritzkerprize.com/laureates/2003. 2 “The Pritzker Architecture Prize 2003 Announcement,” 13 October 2020, www. pritzkerprize.com/laureates/2003. 3 Carter, Adrian, “Between Earth and Sky: The Work of Jørn Utzon, as an Exemplary Phenomenological Approach to Modern Architecture Made Concrete,” in Architecture and Phenomenology: Second International Architecture Conference, ed. Jin Baek (Kyoto: Ecole francaise d’Extreme-Orient, 2019). 4 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 47. 5 Markku Komonen, “Architecture of the Essential, Foreword,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 5. 6 Markku Komonen, “Architecture of the Essential, Foreword,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 8. 7 Markku Komonen, “Architecture of the Essential, Foreword,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 8. 8 Paul Oliver, “Architecture of the Essential: Sources, Resources and Resourcefulness,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 11. 9 Paul Oliver, “Architecture of the Essential: Sources, Resources and Resourcefulness,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto

34

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18

19

20

21

22 23 24 25

Introduction Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 12. Paul Oliver,“Architecture of the Essential: Sources, Resources and Resourcefulness,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 13. Paul Oliver,“Architecture of the Essential: Sources, Resources and Resourcefulness,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 13. Paul Oliver,“Architecture of the Essential: Sources, Resources and Resourcefulness,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 23. Paul Oliver,“Architecture of the Essential: Sources, Resources and Resourcefulness,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 23. Glenn Murcutt, “Ecological Architecture,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 26. Glenn Murcutt, “Ecological Architecture,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 29. Glenn Murcutt, “Ecological Architecture,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/ Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 40. Juhani Pallasmaa, “Architecture of the Essential: The Ecological Functionalism of Animal Constructions,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 127. Juhani Pallasmaa, “Architecture of the Essential: The Ecological Functionalism of Animal Constructions,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 151. Juhani Pallasmaa, “Architecture of the Essential: The Ecological Functionalism of Animal Constructions,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 152. Juhani Pallasmaa, “Architecture of the Essential: The Ecological Functionalism of Animal Constructions,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 152. Juhani Pallasmaa, “Architecture of the Essential: The Ecological Functionalism of Animal Constructions,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 152. Juhani Pallasmaa, En hyldest til Jørn Utzon/A Tribute to Jørn Utzon, ed. Martin Keiding, Per Henrik Skou, and Marianne Amundsen (Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 2008), 24. Alberto Campo Baeza, “More with Less,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 115. Alberto Campo Baeza, “More with Less,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 115. Alberto Campo Baeza, “More with Less,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 115.

Introduction

35

26 Alberto Campo Baeza, “More with Less,” in Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, ed. Pirkko Tuukkanen (Helsinki/Jyväsklyä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994), 116. 27 Michael Kimmelman, “The Ascension of Peter Zumthor,” The New York Times Magazine (March 11, 2011). www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/magazine/mag13zumthor-t.html. 28 Thomas de Monchaux, “Toyo Ito’s Pritzker Win,” The New Yorker (29 March 2013). www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/toyo-itos-pritzker-win. 29 Kenneth Frampton, “On Jørn Utzon,” in Proceedings of the Utzon Symposium: Nature, Vision and Place, ed. Michael Mullins and Adrian Carter (Aalborg: University of Aalborg, 2003), 6. 30 Kenneth Frampton, “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for Architecture of Resistance,” in Postmodern Culture, ed. Hal Foster, 16–30 (Port Townsend: Bay Press, 1983) and “Jørn Utzon: Transcultural Form and the Tectonic Metaphor,” in Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture, ed. John Cava (Cambridge, MA/London, England: The MIT Press, 1996), 247–298. 31 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 2. 32 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 1. 33 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 4. 34 Donald Schön, The Refective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action (New York: Basic Books, 1983), vii. 35 Donald Schön, The Refective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action (New York: Basic Books, 1983), viii. 36 Donald Schön, The Refective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action (New York: Basic Books, 1983), viii. 37 Donald Schön, The Refective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action (New York: Basic Books, 1983), 18. 38 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 19. 39 Malcolm Gladwell, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfts and the Art of Battling Giants (London: Penguin Books, 2014). 40 Philip Drew, The Masterpiece. Jørn Utzon: A Secret Life (South Yarra, Victoria: Hardie Grant Books, 1999), 15. 41 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 4. 42 Kenneth Frampton, “Jørn Utzon: Transcultural Form and the Tectonic Metaphor,” in Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture, ed. John Cava (Cambridge, MA/London, England: The MIT Press, 1996), 247–298. 43 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration Vision Architecture (Hellerup: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 20. 44 Jørn Utzon, “The Importance of Architects,” in Architecture in an Age of Skepticism: A Practitioners Anthology, ed. Denys Lasdun (London: William Heinemann, 1984), 214–233, quoted in Andersen (2014), 284. 45 Jørn Utzon, “The Importance of Architects,” in Architecture in an Age of Skepticism: A Practitioners Anthology, ed. Denys Lasdun (London: William Heinemann, 1984), 214–233, quoted in Andersen (2014), 288. 46 Jørn Utzon, “The Importance of Architects,” in Architecture in an Age of Skepticism: A Practitioners Anthology, ed. Denys Lasdun (London: William Heinemann, 1984), 214–233, quoted in Andersen (2014), 289. 47 John Fowles, The Aristos (Reading: Triad/Granada, 1981), 7.

36

Introduction

48 Gareth Griffths, “Minimal Information Content in Finnish Architecture,” in Vol. 17, No. 4 (2004): Living in the North – Nordic Refections on Architecture, ed. Kimmo Lapintie (Nordisk Arkitekturforskning/Nordic Journal of Architectural Research 2004: 4), 56. http://arkitekturforskning.net/na/article/view/216. 49 Gareth Griffths, “Minimal Information Content in Finnish Architecture,” in Vol. 17, No. 4 (2004): Living in the North – Nordic Refections on Architecture, ed. Kimmo Lapintie (Nordisk Arkitekturforskning/Nordic Journal of Architectural Research 2004: 4), 57. http://arkitekturforskning.net/na/article/view/216. 50 Gareth Griffths, “Minimal Information Content in Finnish Architecture,” in Vol. 17, No. 4 (2004): Living in the North – Nordic Refections on Architecture, ed. Kimmo Lapintie (Nordisk Arkitekturforskning/Nordic Journal of Architectural Research 2004: 4), 56. http://arkitekturforskning.net/na/article/view/216. 51 Sigfried Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture, 2nd edition (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1949), 455, quoted in Gareth Griffths, “Minimal Information Content in Finnish Architecture,” in Vol. 17, No. 4 (2004): Living in the North – Nordic Refections on Architecture, ed. Kimmo Lapintie (Nordisk Arkitekturforskning/Nordic Journal of Architectural Research 2004: 4), 56. 52 Juhani Pallasmaa, “Culture, Identity, Environment,” in Built Environment – Identity – European Integration, ed. Nina Vakkilainen (Helsinki, Suomen: UNESCO, 1991), 111. 53 Gareth Griffths, “Minimal Information Content in Finnish Architecture,” in Vol. 17, No. 4 (2004): Living in the North – Nordic Refections on Architecture, ed. Kimmo Lapintie (Nordisk Arkitekturforskning/Nordic Journal of Architectural Research 2004: 4), 58. http://arkitekturforskning.net/na/article/view/216. 54 Gareth Griffths, “Minimal Information Content in Finnish Architecture,” in Vol. 17, No. 4 (2004): Living in the North – Nordic Refections on Architecture, ed. Kimmo Lapintie (Nordisk Arkitekturforskning/Nordic Journal of Architectural Research 2004: 4), 56. http://arkitekturforskning.net/na/article/view/216. 55 Juhani Pallasmaa, “Japan in Finnish Architecture – Japanese Infuences on Alvar Aalto and Finnish Rationalism,” English manuscript: published in Japanese in the magazine Kenchiku Nunka (Tokyo, 1999). quoted in Gareth Griffths, “Minimal Information Content in Finnish Architecture,” in Vol. 17, No. 4 (2004): Living in the North – Nordic Refections on Architecture, ed. Kimmo Lapintie (Nordisk Arkitekturforskning/Nordic Journal of Architectural Research 2004: 4), 58. http://arkitekturforskning.net/na/article/view/216. 56 Gail Peter Borden, New Essentialism: Material Architecture (San Francisco, CA: Applied Research and Design Publishing, 2018), 41. 57 Vince Marotta, “The Multicultural, Intercultural and the Transcultural Subject,” in Global Perspectives on the Politics of Multiculturalism in the 21st Century: A Case Study Analysis, ed. Fethi Mansouri and Boulou Ebanda de B’béri (Abingdon/ New York: Routledge, 2014), 14. www.researchgate.net/publication/261216820_ The_multicultural_intercultural_and_the_transcultural_subject. 58 Vince Marotta, “The Multicultural, Intercultural and the Transcultural Subject,” in Global Perspectives on the Politics of Multiculturalism in the 21st Century: A Case Study Analysis, ed. Fethi Mansouri and Boulou Ebanda de B’béri (Abingdon/ New York: Routledge, 2014), 13.www.researchgate.net/publication/261216820_ The_multicultural_intercultural_and_the_transcultural_subject. 59 Gail Peter Borden, New Essentialism: Material Architecture (San Francisco, CA: Applied Research and Design Publishing, 2018), 28. 60 Gail Peter Borden, New Essentialism: Material Architecture (San Francisco, CA: Applied Research and Design Publishing, 2018), 28. 61 Gail Peter Borden, New Essentialism: Material Architecture (San Francisco, CA: Applied Research and Design Publishing, 2018), 44.

Introduction

37

62 Nils-Ole Lund, Nordic Architecture (Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 2008), 106. 63 Nils-Ole Lund, Nordic Architecture (Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 2008), 106. 64 Kenneth Frampton, “Jørn Utzon: Transcultural Form and the Tectonic Metaphor,” in Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture, ed. John Cava (Cambridge, MA/London, England: The MIT Press, 1996), 247–298, 287. 65 In discussing with Utzon possible wide-ranging sources of inspiration for his work, such as Engel’s Helsinki Cathedral, a white building on a podium, as one of the many references for the Sydney Opera House. He agreed it was probably in his mind, but that he could not always say with certainty, from where the sources for his ideas came most specifcally. 66 Tobias Faber, Jørn Utzon: Houses in Fredensborg (Berlin: Ernst and Sohn Verlag, 1991), 6, quoted in Andersen (2014), 126. 67 Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 126–127. 68 Jørn Utzon, “Eget hus I Hellebæk,” Arkitekten, 1 (1953), 8, translated from Danish by Andersen, quoted in Andersen (2014), 237. 69 Stig Matthiesen, Utzons arv (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2015), 38. Translated from Danish. 70 Wolfgang Pehnt, Expressionist Architecture (Westport: Praeger Publishers, 1973), 42. 71 Weston, Richard, Utzon: Inspiration Vision Architecture (Hellerup: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 18. 72 Colin St John Wilson, The Other Tradition of Modern Architecture: The Uncompleted Project (London: Academy Editions, 1995). 73 Although this building is attributed to Reima Pietilä alone, it is important to note that this and other work was the result of a very effective professional partnership between two architects, Reima and his wife Raili. 74 In conversation with Utzon, he explained how he learned from his father the role that different types of timber and their particular properties play in the construction of a sailing boat. 75 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 113. 76 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 113. 77 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 51. 78 Sigfried Giedion, “Jørn Utzon and the Third Generation,” in Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition, 5th edition (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), 668. 79 Sigfried Giedion, “Jørn Utzon and the Third Generation,” in Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition, 5th edition (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), 670. 80 Sigfried Giedion, Mechanization Takes Command (New York: Oxford University Press, 1955). 81 Philip Goad, “An Appeal for Modernism: Sigfried Giedion and the Sydney Opera House,” Fabrications, 8 (July 1997), 129–145, 130. 82 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 2. 83 Christian Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture (London: Academy Editions, 1980), 48. 84 Christian Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture (London: Academy Editions, 1980), 48.

38

Introduction

85 Kenneth Frampton, “On Jørn Utzon,” in Proceedings of the Utzon Symposium: Nature, Vision and Place, ed. Michael Mullins and Adrian Carter (Aalborg: University of Aalborg, 2003), 10. 86 Kenneth Frampton, “On Jørn Utzon,” in Proceedings of the Utzon Symposium: Nature, Vision and Place, ed. Michael Mullins and Adrian Carter (Aalborg: University of Aalborg, 2003), 8, referenced in Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 52. 87 Kenneth Frampton, “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for Architecture of Resistance,” in Postmodern Culture, ed. Hal Foster (Port Townsend: Bay Press, 1983), 16–30. 88 Christian Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture (London: Academy Editions, 1980), 48. 89 Christian Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture (London: Academy Editions, 1980), 48. 90 Christian Norberg-Schulz, Architecture: Meaning and Place (New York: Electa/ Rizzoli, 1988), 230. 91 Alexander Tzonis and Lefaivre Liane, Critical Regionalism: Architecture and Identity in the Globalized World (Munich/Berlin/London/New York: Prestel, 2003). 92 Kenneth Frampton, “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for Architecture of Resistance,” in Postmodern Culture, ed. Hal Foster (Port Townsend: Bay Press, 1983), 16–30. 93 Kenneth Frampton, “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for Architecture of Resistance,” in Postmodern Culture, ed. Hal Foster (Port Townsend: Bay Press, 1983), 16–30. 94 Kenneth Frampton, “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for Architecture of Resistance,” in Postmodern Culture, ed. Hal Foster (Port Townsend: Bay Press, 1983), 16–30. 95 Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre,“Critical Regionalism,” in Critical Regionalism: The Pomona Meeting – Proceedings, ed. Spyros Amourgis (Pomona, CA: College of Environmental Design, California State Polytechnic University, 1991), 3–28. 96 Keith Eggener, “Placing Resistance: A Critique of Critical Regionalism,” Journal of Architectural Education, 55 (4) (2002), 233. 97 Jane Jacobs (1996), 14–15, quoted in Keith Eggener, “Placing Resistance: A Critique of Critical Regionalism,” Journal of Architectural Education, 55 (4) (2002), 234. 98 Keith Eggener, “Placing Resistance: A Critique of Critical Regionalism,” Journal of Architectural Education, 55 (4) (2002), 229, 230. 99 Marina Waisman (1994), 32–33, quoted in Keith Eggener, “Placing Resistance: A Critique of Critical Regionalism,” Journal of Architectural Education, 55 (4) (2002). 100 Marina Waisman (1994), 32–33, quoted in Keith Eggener, “Placing Resistance: A Critique of Critical Regionalism,” Journal of Architectural Education, 55 (4) (2002). 101 Further discussed in Sarvimäki (2011) and (2019). 102 Keith Eggener, “Placing Resistance: A Critique of Critical Regionalism,” Journal of Architectural Education, 55 (4) (2002), 233. 103 Alexander Tzonis and Lefaivre Liane, Critical Regionalism: Architecture and Identity in the Globalized World (Munich/Berlin/London/New York: Prestel, 2003). 104 Alexander Tzonis and Lefaivre Liane, Critical Regionalism: Architecture and Identity in the Globalized World (Munich/Berlin/London/New York: Prestel, 2003).

Introduction

39

105 Thorsten Botz-Bornstein, Transcultural Architecture: The Limits and Opportunities of Critical Regionalism (Abingdon/New York: Routledge, 2015). 106 Thorsten Botz-Bornstein, Transcultural Architecture: The Limits and Opportunities of Critical Regionalism (Abingdon/New York: Routledge, 2015), 37. 107 Thorsten Botz-Bornstein, Transcultural Architecture: The Limits and Opportunities of Critical Regionalism (Abingdon/New York: Routledge, 2015), 37–38. 108 Ove Arup and R.S. Jenkins, “The Evolution of the Concourse at the Sydney Opera House,” in Proceedings: Institute of Civil Engineering (1968), 541 quoted in Andersen (2014), 132. 109 Steven Holl, Juhani Pallasmaa, and Alberto Pérez-Gomez, Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture (Tokyo: A+U, 1994). 110 Adrian Carter, “The Phenomenology and Tectonics of Making: The Utzon Paradigm,” in On Tectonic Terms, ed. Isak Foged (Aalborg: Aalborg Universitetsforlag, 2012), 11–17.

References Andersen, Michael Asgaard. Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014. Baeza, Alberto Campo. ‘More with Less.’ In Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, edited by Pirkko Tuukkanen, 113–126. Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994. Botz-Bornstein, Thorsten. Transcultural Architecture: The Limits and Opportunities of Critical Regionalism. Abingdon/New York: Routledge, 2015. Carter, Adrian. ‘Between Earth and Sky: The Work of Jørn Utzon, as an Exemplary Phenomenological Approach to Modern Architecture Made Concrete.’ In Architecture and Phenomenology: Second International Architecture Conference, edited by Jin Baek. Kyoto: Ecole francaise d’Extreme-Orient, 2009. Carter, Adrian. ‘The Phenomenology and Tectonics of Making: The Utzon Paradigm.’ In On Tectonic Terms, edited by Isak Foged, 11–17. Aalborg: Aalborg Universitetsforlag, 2012. Carter, Adrian. The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy. Ph.D. thesis. Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015. de Monchaux, Thomas. ‘Toyo Ito’s Pritzker Win.’ The New Yorker, March 29, 2013. www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/toyo-itos-pritzker-win. Drew, Philip. The Masterpiece. Jørn Utzon: A Secret Life. South Yarra, Victoria: Hardie Grant Books, 1999. Eggener, Keith. ‘Placing Resistance: A Critique of Critical Regionalism.’ Journal of Architectural Education, 55 (4), 2002, 228–237. Frampton, Kenneth. ‘Jørn Utzon: Transcultural Form and the Tectonic Metaphor.’ In Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture, edited by John Cava, 247–298. Cambridge, MA/ London, England: The MIT Press, 1996. Frampton, Kenneth. ‘On Jørn Utzon.’ In Proceedings of the Utzon Symposium: Nature, Vision and Place, 6–10. Aalborg: University of Aalborg, 2003. Frampton, Kenneth. ‘Prospects for a Critical Regionalism.’ Perspecta, 20, 1983, 147–162. Frampton, Kenneth. ‘Ten Points of an Architecture of Regionalism: A Provisional Polemic.’ Center, 3, 1987, 20–27. Austin, TX: University of Texas.

40

Introduction

Frampton, Kenneth. ‘Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for Architecture of Resistance.’ In Postmodern Culture, edited by Hal Foster, 16–30. Port Townsend: Bay Press, 1983. Giedion, Sigfried. ‘Jørn Utzon and the Third Generation.’ In Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition, 5th edition, 668–695. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997. Giedion, Sigfried. Mechanization Takes Command. New York: Oxford University Press, 1955. Gladwell, Malcolm. David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfts and the Art of Battling Giants. London: Penguin Books, 2014. Griffths, Gareth. ‘Minimal Information Content in Finnish Architecture.’ Nordisk Arkitekturforskning/Nordic Journal of Architectural Research, 17 (4), 2004, 55–63. Living in the North – Nordic Refections on Architecture, ed. Kimmo Lapintie. http://arkitekturforskning.net/na/article/view/216. Holl, Steven, Juhani Pallasmaa, and Alberto Pérez-Gomez. Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture. Tokyo: A+U, 1994. Kimmelman, Michael. ‘The Ascension of Peter Zumthor.’ The New York Times Magazine, March 11, 2011. www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/magazine/mag-13zumthort.html. Komonen, Markku. ‘Architecture of the Essential: Foreword.’ In Architecture of the Essential: The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, edited by Pirkko Tuukkanen, 5–8. Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994. Lund, Nils-Ole. Nordic Architecture. Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 2008. Marotta, Vince. ‘The Multicultural, Intercultural and the Transcultural Subject.’ In Global Perspectives on the Politics of Multiculturalism in the 21st Century: A Case Study Analysis, edited by Fethi Mansouri and Boulou Ebanda de B’béri. Abingdon/ New York: Routledge, 2014. www.researchgate.net/publication/261216820_ The_multicultural_intercultural_and_the_transcultural_subject Murcutt, Glenn. ‘Ecological Architecture.’ In Architecture of the Essential: The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, edited by Pirkko Tuukkanen, 25–40. Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994. Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Architecture: Meaning and Place. New York: Electa/ Rizzoli, 1988. Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture. London: Academy Editions, 1980. Oliver, Paul. ‘Architecture of the Essential: Sources, Resources and Resourcefulness.’ In Architecture of the Essential: The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, edited by Pirkko Tuukkanen, 9–24. Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994. Pallasmaa, Juhani. ‘Architecture of the Essential – The Ecological Functionalism of Animal Constructions.’ In Architecture of the Essential, The 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium, edited by Pirkko Tuukkanen, 127–154. Helsinki/Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1994. Pallasmaa, Juhani. ‘Culture, Identity, Environment.’ In Built Environment – Identity – European Integration, edited by Nina Vakkilainen. Helsinki: Suomen UNESCO, 1991. Pallasmaa, Juhani. En hyldest til Jørn Utzon/A tribute to Jørn Utzon, edited by Martin Keiding, Per Henrik Skou, and Marianne Amundsen, 24–25. Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 2008. Pehnt, Wolfgang. Expressionist Architecture. Westport: Praeger Publishers, 1973.

Introduction

41

‘The Pritzker Architecture Prize 2003 Announcement.’ October 13, 2020. www. pritzkerprize.com/laureates/2003. Sarvimäki, Marja. ‘ANTi-History in Design Research: New Applications and Interpretations.’ In Proceedings of the ARCC 2019 International Conference, The Future of Praxis: Applied Research as a Bridge Between Theory and Practice, 179–187. Toronto, Canada, May 29–June 01, 2019. www.arc_repository.org/ repository/ARCC2019_Ryerson%20Conference%20Proceedings.pdf. Sarvimäki, Marja. ‘Arrière-Garde of Decolonialization: Critical Regionalist Research on an Asia-Pacifc Architecture.’ In ARCC Spring 2011 Conference Proceedings, 245–256. Detroit, MI: Lawrence Technological University, 2011. Schön, Donald. The Refective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York: Basic Books, 1983. Tzonis, Alexander and Liane Lefaivre. Architecture of Regionalism in the Age of Globalization: Peaks and Valleys in the Flat World. London: Routledge, 2011. Tzonis, Alexander and Liane Lefaivre. Critical Regionalism: Architecture and Identity in the Globalized World. Munich/Berlin/London/New York: Prestel, 2003. Tzonis, Alexander and Liane Lefaivre. ‘Critical Regionalism.’ In Critical Regionalism: The Pomona Meeting – Proceedings, edited by Spyros Amourgis, 3–28. Pomona, CA: College of Environmental Design, California State Polytechnic University, 1991. Tzonis, Alexander and Liane Lefaivre. ‘The Grid and the Pathway.’ Architecture in Greece, 15, 1981, 164–178. Tzonis, Alexander, Liane Lefaivre, and Bruno Stagno. Tropical Architecture: Critical Regionalism in the Age of Globalism. Chichester, UK: Wiley and Sons, 2001. Utzon, Jørn. ‘The Importance of Architects.’ In Architecture in an Age of Skepticism: A Practitioners Anthology, edited by Denys Lasdun, 214–233. London: William Heinemann, 1984. Weston, Richard. Utzon: Inspiration Vision Architecture. Hellerup: Edition Bløndal, 2002. Wilson, Colin St John. The Other Tradition of Modern Architecture: The Uncompleted Project. London: Academy Editions, 1995.

2

Craft tradition and embodied knowledge

A desire for experiential understanding Affected as he was by dyslexia, of which there was little comprehension or consideration of at the time, Utzon did not do well academically at school. Despite a lack of formal academic prowess, Utzon’s intellect and curiosity led him to want to experience and understand the world frst-hand. He was keen to learn directly from others, he sought out eminent tutors and practitioners to gain insight, knowledge, and expertise from. He most signifcantly became an inveterate traveller, who gained his profound understanding of architecture not from books and images, but from physically visiting the architectural sites that were to play such an infuential role in his creative inspiration and design methodology. His observational, experiential approach to gaining knowledge informed his ability to understand, transform, and express that knowledge in his architecture.1 As with so many outstanding practitioners, particularly within creative felds of endeavour, Utzon learned much of his understanding and honed his own skills by working together with others with more experience and those who were outstanding practitioners, in their own right. This is especially the case with regard to the learning of physical skills, as Juhani Pallasmaa explains: “Learning is not primarily founded on verbal teaching but rather on the transference of the skill from the muscle of the teacher directly to the muscles of the apprentice through the act of sensory perception and bodily mimesis”;2 this capability for mimetic learning and embodying knowledge and skills, according to Pallasmaa,“continues to be core of artistic learning.”3 Thus, we learn most profoundly and gain tacit knowledge most effectively through an analogous transfer of knowledge from one to another.4 In this regard, Utzon was both fortunate in having access to exceptional mentors, but also instrumental himself in seeking out and gaining tacit knowledge and skills from outstanding teachers and masters.

Craft practice, making, and mastery Going back to Plato and Aristotle, many defnitions of essence of any entity have their origins in a hylomorphic understanding of how things come into DOI: 10.4324/9781003094180-2

Craft tradition and embodied knowledge

43

being, through analogy to the production of an artifact by means of craft skills. Deriving from the understanding of the need for both “hulê,” the timber or other material and an idea or plan in the mind of the artisan, as to how that material is to be given form, “morphê.” Jørn Utzon was infuenced greatly by being the son of a talented boat designer and builder, who believed in the principle of developing his ideas through a process of evolution of design and the making of prototypes, as well as being a very capable model maker, skills and an understanding that he passed on to his son. Utzon also studied architecture, at a time in Denmark, when it was still required to complete an apprenticeship within a building craft, such as a bricklayer or carpenter. This grounding in craft was the foundation for the quality of Danish furniture, industrial design and architecture that reached its zenith and international recognition in the 1950s and 1960s for its noble simplicity, in terms of its aesthetic clarity, structural integrity, sensual materiality, refned detailing, and underlying humanity. In describing his architectural training and what is now missing from an architects’ education, Utzon describes how in his day studying at the Academy in Copenhagen: You had to be a craftsman frst. We had to work as craftsmen for four months of the frst year. . . . I got into the Academy then we made some simple construction drawings and spatial sketches, and we went out and we were carpenters or bricklayers for four months. And the same the next year. In the third year they had bricklayers from the technical school, who could draw and at the same time were craftsmen. I had done carpentry for the frst four months in Elsinore (Helsingør), so I was tired of getting up early in the morning. I had a grandmother who had a plot of land down by the beach and she let me build there. Then I asked my master carpenter: “if I build a wooden house here myself, can I get your signature that I’ve worked for four months?” I could. So I built myself my frst house. And it was a good idea.5 As Juhani Pallasmaa has stated, there is an embodied wisdom that comes from the unity of the mind and the body, that can be best achieved through craftsmanship and direct artistic endeavour, using the hand. Furthermore, craft skills are most profoundly gained by observation and emulation of those who have mastered such skills. Such a mimetic process of gaining skills and knowledge naturally encourages the analogous transference of ideas, even possibly a greater openness to the signifcance of visual metaphor, since the exchange of knowledge from master to apprentice is not necessarily articulated verbally. What then eventually elevates the work of the apprentice beyond that of the master or original source, as in Utzon’s case, is the ability to abstract that knowledge and create something new, so that it is not merely replication, however capable that might be.

44

Craft tradition and embodied knowledge

Utzon’s craft training and fascination with making gave him a deep interest and empathy for vernacular tradition and for the traditional craftsmanship of other cultures, even in the most ancient and exotic forms of architecture that he encountered on his travels. In his own work, he sought to emulate the exceptional craftsmanship that he had experienced, whether his delight at the perfection of the concrete beams at the Sydney Opera House using modern techniques or in his determination to achieve a quality of ceramic tile for the roof shells, comparable to the ceramic tiles of the Friday Mosque in Isfahan, Iran. Utzon’s appreciation of the craft of making is also the basis of his fascination with how building elements are put together and his concern for the integrity of the tectonic expression of his architecture.6

Figure 2.1 Muqarnas, multifaceted ceramic-clad stalactite vaults, Isfahan, Iran. Photo Jørn Utzon. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

Craft tradition and embodied knowledge

45

Parallels to boatbuilding in form and technique Utzon was born in Copenhagen, on 9 April 1918, but shortly afterwards his family moved to Aalborg in Northern Jutland when Jørn Utzon was only 3 months old. His father Aage Utzon, who had trained as a naval architect in England, came to manage the shipyard but also became internationally renowned as a designer of yachts. He made his reputation through the design of a type of boat, known as spidsgatter, a double-ended craft that is pointed at both stern and bow, which owed its origins to the traditional herring and plaice fshing boats that had fshed close to Danish coasts for more than a century. It was through his father that Jørn Utzon was to frst experience the joy of seeing something physically take shape, gain an understanding of the forces and stresses in construction, learn to think of complex three-dimensional forms by means of two-dimensional sections, and appreciate the inherent qualities of different materials. At the initial meeting with him, to discuss the proposed Utzon Center in Aalborg and how the focus on his father’s boatbuilding was an integral part of the vision for a centre for creative learning and making, Utzon recalled, it was a lasting insight for him to realise that in the design of a boat one might use eight different types of timber, each according to their specifc properties and required function in the construction.7 In his architecture, Utzon has always strived to use exactly the right materials and dimension them perfectly, to create the same harmony of construction one experiences in a fnely crafted boat.

Figure 2.2 Jørn Utzon as a child with a model boat made by his father Aage Utzon, Aalborg, 1924. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

46

Craft tradition and embodied knowledge

Figure 2.3 Spidsgatter boat sailing. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

Aage Utzon was a very skilled model-maker, who took considerable pride in making very precise and elegant models of his designs. He was later to make the remarkable initial models of the Sydney Opera House. His personal dictum that one should set aside an early solution if a better one presented itself meant that he continually modifed and tested prototypes, as a means of improving and refning his designs in the quest for perfection. These skills and his approach to design he passed on to Jørn, who as a teenager assisted his father in his work. It is this background that informs Utzon’s singular working methods in the feld of architecture, his extensive use of models and full-scale prototypes, reworking his designs until fully satisfed.8 As Richard Leplastrier, who as a newly graduated architect worked with Utzon and shared a passion for sailing and the making of boats, has expressed:

Craft tradition and embodied knowledge

47

Sailing combines a beautifully crafted artefact with a need to understand the environment, inherently the two factors that also make for a good architecture. You can make very bad building and it will still stand up. But if you over design the mast, that’s not a good thing. Nature doesn’t work by having single structured thinking. If you consider the structure of a bird, it has the fnest bone system, but held together by gristle. It has a fexible structure, as we have also in fact. Without wishing to be disparaging to engineers, if an engineer designed a bird it would never even get off the ground. What you can’t replicate is the experience that’s been gained by someone in making the masts of racing boats for example. Maybe the frst ones made broke, but after three or four, the maker knows exactly where they should be bending, how thick they should be. It is actually an empirical process, not mathematical. A lot of people today use mathematics for all of those things, but I think that if you have been brought up in the other system you don’t need that. You have an embedded understanding. And I think travel to different places as training for Architects is very similar to that. If you’ve been doing it for a while, you pick it up naturally and Jørn had that absolutely. He certainly did with people; he could see people weigh them up and sympathetically understand them. Intuition is embedded knowledge and is the most precious thing.9

Sailing, nature, and the mind of the hunter To fully understand Utzon’s early development and an abiding passion that inspired him throughout his life, one should look to the childhood infuences and experiences that formed his creative understanding. Without overromanticising, the years of his youth and particularly the infuence of his father played a profound role in the development of Utzon’s interests and architectural identity. Utzon’s father was a highly principled and idealistic man, who imbued his son with his love of outdoor pursuits, such as hunting, fshing, as well as sailing on the waters of Limfjorden that fows through Aalborg, and a deep appreciation of nature as a source of insight and inspiration, particularly as a designer. It was Aage Utzon’s study of waveforms and the movement of fsh that inspired improvements to the design of his boats, just as later Jørn Utzon would look to analogies in nature as a source of his architecture. As someone who enjoyed hunting, fshing, and particularly sailing, Jørn Utzon acquired and developed an acute ability to observe and interpret the ever-changing patterns and phenomena within the natural environment, as confrmed by Richard Leplastrier, who as a keen sailor himself sailed together with Utzon when working with him in Sydney.10 On his boat were occasions that stand out. I think it was a time for him when he could be virtually alone. I didn’t speak with him very much. We were just enjoying the breeze and the waves and the motion of the

48 Craft tradition and embodied knowledge boat. It was a beautiful boat, a Yachting World Keelboat from Jack Holt in England, made of plywood like a big box beam, that changed section, of course. It was called Kim, after their youngest son, and painted a very soft, light blue, Danish colour. It was well set up in terms of the headsail and mainsail, but not well set up for spinnakers and extra stuff. I had been sailing also in 5.5 Olympic class boats at that time. So, I set up all the extras for him. That all worked well, and he was so pleased to get the spinnaker up and going. He really loved it. We went out around Barrenjoey Headland often, out to the open sea. There he was in his own mind space, often just sitting comfortably down inside the hull looking – it was an open cockpit, just watching the water and watching things, watching birds. He let me have the helm. Several times things happened that made me realise he saw things that I didn’t. That shook me a bit because, I was not unobservant about natural systems, having raced in sailing boats and been in them since I was eight years of age and I was 24 then. I remember once when he just pointed to Lion Island, and said, “Look at that cloud form there,” and I looked and there was a cloud form that looked like an aerofoil and it went up, expanded, tapered and bent itself over the head of the Lion. I had never seen a lenticular cloud like that before. I hadn’t seen it and he had. When he pointed it out, I thought, how beautiful it was and wondered why I hadn’t noticed it. I’ve since realised why it was and what it was, but I didn’t know then. We both admired it for a while. Another time were we just drifting home. Nor’easter had faded out. It would have been two or three knots of breeze and the gear was slatting around and the boat was just moving gently. We were getting in around the Barrenjoey Headland, near the sand dunes there and I saw a seagull coming low over the water from the dunes and heading west into the setting sun towards the cliff tops of West Head. – Jørn was standing on the stern of the boat holding onto the backstay. He was watching this bird fying, low across the water and passing the stern of the boat, close to where Jørn was. He hesitated for a moment and then said quietly, “Oh, homecoming. If I were that bird, that’s how I’d be moving too.” He was with the bird. He had this ability to be absolutely present, to be in the moment.11

Drawing and the eye of the artist The great Danish modernist architect Arne Jacobsen, of the generation that preceded Utzon and to whose rigid Euclidean approach Utzon and his other colleagues reacted, famously responded to his own rhetorical question “But is architecture art” with the answer “If building becomes architecture, then it is art.”12 Certainly, Utzon also saw a close affnity between art and architecture, stating: Human beings experience their surroundings in different degrees. If you have an extreme sensitivity for the impact of the light and shapes, colour

Craft tradition and embodied knowledge

49

and space which are surrounding you, you have the inborn qualities of an architect and an artist. If you are not just receptive but also have a creative talent and are able to express yourself so that your experience can be understood and enjoyed by your fellowmen, then you have some of the qualities necessary for becoming an architect, an artist. Art is the liberation of the creative forces within you.13 Utzon’s profound understanding of nature in more pragmatic practical terms was complimented by his early exposure to an aesthetic appreciation of nature through art. Through his family’s acquaintances, he came to know a number of artists, including the Danish artist Poul Schrøder and most notably the Swedish painter Carl Kylberg. According to Weston, Utzon, who was already as a teenager an accomplished draughtsman, learned from Schrøder how to draw freehand with soft expressive lines. From Kylberg, Utzon gained a painterly appreciation of nature, understood in terms of the relationship between colour, form, and light. Kylberg’s emblematic expressionistic sun was subsequently to become a recurring feature of Utzon’s own drawings.14 Utzon’s drawing skills were further developed by working briefy with the graphic designer Gunnar Biilmann Petersen and later in life, Utzon’s artistic interests would be further expanded by his friendship with the renowned Danish artist Asger Jorn and also undoubtedly by his marriage to Lis Fenger, a talented graphic artist and linchpin in Jørn Utzon’s subsequent life and career. Due to his talent for drawing and passion for art, Utzon did consider becoming an artist but was persuaded to follow a sounder career. He had entertained ambitions of following a career analogous to his father’s and becoming a naval architect, but poor academic grades due to his dyslexia and possibly his greater interest in outdoor pursuits put paid to that possibility. On the advice of his uncle Aksel Einar Utzon-Frank, a distinguished sculptor and Professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Arts in Copenhagen, he applied to study architecture there and was fortunate to be accepted on the basis of his drawing skills, rather than academic prowess as the last student of 1937 to be enrolled, at the young age of 19.

Becoming an architect As Utzon himself remarked, “around the age of 18, plus or minus 5 years, are the years one becomes an architect.”15 Certainly, the interests, skills, and experiences of his youth played a decisive role in the determination of his subsequent future direction and profound infuence on his achievements, as one of the great architects of the twentieth century. However, initially, Utzon did not distinguish himself at the outset as an architecture student but gradually came to be recognised as a potential architect of remarkable ability. He nevertheless attracted the attention of Professor Steen Eiler Rasmussen, the renowned town planner, architectural writer, and author of Experiencing

50

Craft tradition and embodied knowledge

Architecture, who at Utzon’s request became his tutor and mentor, informing his subsequent thinking in architecture. Jørn Utzon is always remembered by those that knew him, for his humility and as a man of immense warmth and charisma. He had a generosity and openness of personality that was combined with a playful, self-deprecating sense of humour, that no doubt, his tutor and friend Professor Steen Eiler Rasmussen appreciated from the outset. As many years later Rasmussen remarked at the opening of Utzon’s Paustian House that “people who lack humour lack something in their imagination, something beyond what is to be read in textbooks.”16 Utzon, like many who succeed on their own terms, consciously sought out the guidance and mentorship of inspirational teachers and outstanding practitioners. Another leading professor of the time who was persuaded to become Utzon’s teacher was Kay Fisker. A former assistant of architect Sigurd Lewerentz, Kay Fisker was renowned for large-scale housing schemes and his involvement in the design of Aarhus University. In his work and teaching, Fisker extolled the ideal of constructive logic as exemplifed by the work of P.V. Jensen-Klint, architect of the Grundtvig Church, whose total commitment to material honesty established a lasting principle for Utzon. This appreciation of material integrity in construction was reinforced by the wellestablished tradition at the time of requiring the students to gain practical training in building skills, such as bricklaying and carpentry as a prerequisite for becoming an architect, an approach that had been long established at the Academy by earlier master architects and professors, such as Carl Petersen, the esteemed architect of Fåborg Museum and one of Steen Eiler Rasmussen’s teachers. As Carl Petersen observed in one of his infuential lectures: in all the arts it is an advantage that the artist has complete control over his means and their effects. If he consciously uses these means correctly, it will be appreciated by those who understand, even if the artist’s mastery is intuitive and cannot be articulated. I believe the critical observer is attracted to a work where the artist has consciously followed his goal. On the contrary, the observer will be unsure and sceptical, if the artist has been vacillating and made use of unsure or desultory means.17 Carl Petersen had worked a great deal with ceramics and had a high regard for the traditional Chinese techniques of glazing. Likewise, Rasmussen and Fisker became fascinated by China and personally visited what was then a still closed country. Rasmussen later published the collected sketches from his trip as a book in 1935 and together with a book published by Johannes Prip-Møller on Chinese Buddhist monasteries, illustrated with photographs and measured drawings, furthered the infuence of China on Danish architecture at the time. Encouraged by Rasmussen and Fisker, Utzon became familiar with the essential reference works on Chinese architecture, most signifcantly the Yingzao Fashi, the Chinese building manual of the enlightened Song Dynasty

Craft tradition and embodied knowledge

51

Figure 2.4 Grundtvig Church, Copenhagen. Photo by Jørn Utzon. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

(A.D. 960–1279), which was later used by Utzon as an inspiration for the construction of the Sydney Opera House. Among the other publications that played a role in Utzon’s education and that of his fellow students were the early volumes of Le Corbusier’s Oeuvre Complète. Inspired by such sources of inspiration both ancient and the most modern, Utzon and many of the other students were united in their opposition to the austere formal modernism as practised by Arne Jacobsen. That was always so rectangular in form, as if modelled on a box of matches.18 In 1940, Denmark was overrun and occupied by the Germans on what was Utzon’s twenty-second birthday. Just over 2 years later, having completed his fnal design thesis, he left for Stockholm, in neutral Sweden. Here he was amongst other Danish architect friends and was later joined by his future wife Lis Fenger, whom he married in Stockholm later the same year. In Stockholm, Utzon was able to experience frst-hand the work of Erik Gunnar Asplund, whom he greatly admired. Asplund being for many architects, notably also according to Aalto, the father fgure of Scandinavian modernism; an architecture

52

Craft tradition and embodied knowledge

that was humane, socially responsive, and informed by nature. By the time of Utzon’s arrival in Stockholm, Asplund had been already dead for two years, having died at the early age of 55, but his presence was still strongly felt. Briefy, Utzon worked for Hakon Ahlberg, who had just written the frst publication on the works of Asplund. Utzon then went to work for three years at the offce of Paul Hedquist, who had continued Asplund’s practice after his death. It was at Hedquist’s offce that he came to meet Arne Korsmo, who was later to become the outstanding Norwegian modernist architect of his generation. Although Korsmo was 18 years older than Utzon and a much more experienced architect, they immediately found they had much in common. Korsmo’s father was a professor of botany in Oslo, and both Utzon and Korsmo developed their common interest in nature and the logical structures in its forms, as a source of inspiration. They shared an understanding that everything in nature was constantly undergoing change and evolution: there was no form in nature that was fnal. This principle they believed should be extended to architecture, and rather than create buildings as completed works that neither could be added to, or subtracted from, without disturbing their perfection of form, they felt architecture should express growth and change. It is in their collaboration that the genesis of Utzon’s idea of an additive architecture began to emerge. After the war, Korsmo invited Utzon to Oslo, where they worked together on several competitions. Through Korsmo, Utzon came to know Sverre Fehn, Christian Norberg-Schulz, and Geir Grung, all members of the then newly formed Norwegian section of CIAM, known as PAGON (Progressive Arkitekters Gruppe Oslo Norge).19 Living in Stockholm had also signifcantly broadened Utzon’s horizons in other ways. In 1944, he attended a lecture by Alvar Aalto, in which Aalto made the analogy that a group of houses were like the branch of a fowering cherry tree, where all the fowers are essentially the same, yet each is unique, looking this way or that, expanding or retreating, according to its relationship to its neighbours, and to the sun and wind.20 This analogical imagery encapsulated and served as a further catalyst to Utzon’s own evolving thinking on an organic approach to architecture and was to stay with him throughout his career, as later exemplifed by his Kingo and Fredensborg courtyard housing. In 1945, Utzon was to work briefy for Aalto, though he was at his offce for a period of only 6 weeks, returning to Denmark due to the pregnancy of his wife Lis, with their frst child Jan. Despite this very short period of personally working with Aalto directly, Aalto together with Asplund and Korsmo were to remain Utzon’s lasting and most important Nordic mentors. From them, he gained a quintessentially Nordic understanding of the relation between an affnity for nature and the emotional as well as physical needs of the individual. Their humanising approach to modern architecture derived from the inspiration of nature and the appreciation of the natural landscape, as epitomised by the Woodland Crematorium, by Asplund and

Craft tradition and embodied knowledge

53

Lewerentz, just outside Stockholm. From Korsmo, Utzon learned to sense the terrain, as “to build on a sloping site is like skiing toward a certain point without losing your breath,”21 while from Aalto, whose buildings were almost invariably inspired by and often even artifcially recreated the Finnish landscape, Utzon learned to integrate and even emulate the natural context within architecture. Utzon also experienced more exotic and wider international infuences during his time in Stockholm. An example of Japanese architecture, the Zui Ki Tei teahouse, was being built at the Ethnographic Museum by Japanese craftsmen, according to traditional construction principles and methods, which greatly impressed Utzon. This frst-hand experience further encouraged his deep-rooted interest in Japanese and Chinese architecture and culture that infuenced so many architects internationally at this time,

Figure 2.5 Zui Ki Tei Japanese teahouse at the Ethnographic Museum in Stockholm. Source: Flemming Bo Andersen, Utzon Photos

54 Craft tradition and embodied knowledge notably among them Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as Aalto, though he never travelled to Japan and instead learned Japanese architectural principles through books and the Zui Ki Tei teahouse in Stockholm. It was through seeing an exhibition on American architecture Amerika Bygger (“America Builds”) at Stockholm’s National Gallery that Utzon became familiar with the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. Utzon could appreciate that Wright took very seriously into consideration the actual location and surrounding context regarding relation to each specifc project and that Wright clearly sought the unique solution in every case. According to Tobias Faber, Utzon felt a close affnity to Wright’s approach to architecture and it became the basis for Utzon’s own design principles.22 Following his return to Copenhagen in 1944, Utzon began again to work on competitions with his good friend from their student days and subsequent time in Stockholm, Tobias Faber. The frst joint Utzon and Faber competition proposal was for a large housing area at Bellahøj in Copenhagen. A relatively undistinguished project, it was concerned with maximising the amount of sunlight each apartment received and, in its juxtaposition of a mix of highrise and medium-high housing blocks, sought to emphasise the character of the site’s topography. Their second joint competition entry was for a new concert hall in Utzon’s childhood hometown of Aalborg: a more distinctive project comprising a strong formal, fortress-like composition of hexagonally formed building elements. It was complimented by Arne Jacobsen, who was a member of the jury, but was also criticised for not keeping within the given site.23 It was an early portent of Utzon’s ability to both think outside the box and also the site, as was also later to be the case with such success in Sydney. These early competitions were followed by several further projects in 1945, both actual and theoretical, in which Utzon’s humane and pragmatic architectural preoccupations began to emerge more clearly. His fascination with the fexibility and economic benefts of an organic-like additive use of identical prefabricated units underpins Utzon’s proposals to the Dutch government to alleviate the acute shortage of housing in the Netherlands immediately after the Second World War. He proposed the use of prefabricated Swedish sheds on wheels, which could be arranged in various confgurations and with differing interior layouts, to provide temporary accommodation and other amenities.24 The additive organic principle that Utzon was developing in his early work was more literally evoked as an integral part of the ongoing building process underlying a competition proposal he made for a crematorium on a hill outside Copenhagen. In this poetic sketch proposal, free-standing walls radiate from the crematorium building, with a raised folded wing-like roof. The walls emanating from the chapel articulate the contours of the landscape and were intended to be extended over time, as a brick was to be added for each deceased person to be commemorated. This is probably the clearest and certainly most poignant early example of Utzon abstractly translating a poetic metaphoric and analogical idea into an architectural proposal.

Craft tradition and embodied knowledge

55

Figure 2.6 Crematorium proposal, Copenhagen, 1945. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

In 1945, Utzon entered the Royal Danish Academy’s Minor Gold Medal theoretical design competition for an Academy of Music in Copenhagen. In Utzon’s winning proposal he raised the entire building complex one metre above ground level onto a plateau, which afforded it privacy and minimised acoustic disturbance from the surroundings. The use of the raised plateau, the understanding of a building as a landscape, and the organisation of the buildings around courtyards introduced what was to become an essential leitmotiv in Utzon’s architecture. These fedgling ideas would become more articulated following his subsequent trips to Mexico, China, and Japan. Amongst Utzon’s earliest realised works is the Water Tower at Svaneke on the Danish island of Bornholm, designed in 1946 in collaboration with engineer and old school friend Preben Wistisen from Aalborg. The simple tripod structure replicates the form of a sea-marker, which it also serves as, as well as look-out and water tower. According to Richard Weston, Utzon strongly resisted the suggestion of local planners that the water tower be disguised to look like a typical windmill of the island, so as to supposedly blend in more sensitively with the local environment.25

56

Craft tradition and embodied knowledge

Figure 2.7 Water Tower, Svaneke on the Danish island of Bornholm. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

In 1946, Utzon and Faber, together with Mogens Irming, participated in the major international competition for the redevelopment of the Crystal Palace site in London. The project, which was praised at the time, made use of a massive stepped platform, above which the exhibition spaces were contained within horizontal levels of foors and ceilings at differing heights. The impressive spatial organisation of the project owed much to Utzon’s powerful metaphorical use of nature as inspiration. The dimensions and spacing between the columns intentionally evoke the feeling of walking through a beech forest, with this analogy reinforced by an accompanying image; while the roofs of the exhibition halls, were likened by Utzon to “the white foam on the surf” (Arkitekten, Nos. 7–8–9, 1947). The image of the surf was to reappear a year later, in the strongly horizontal emphasis of a project for a sports complex in Århus (Aarhus). The archetypal image of the beech forest was to remain with Utzon, in gestation, however, until many years later, when it was to serve as the catalyst for his design of the Paustian furniture showroom on the waterfront in the Nordhavn docks of Copenhagen, which opened in 1987.

Craft tradition and embodied knowledge

57

Figure 2.8 Sketches of a clearing in a Danish beech forest as the conceptual inspiration for the Paustian furniture showroom, Nordhavn, Copenhagen. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center and Flemming Bo Andersen, Utzon Photos

The nature of architecture The theme of nature as a source of inspiration was very much to the fore when Utzon and Faber presented their thinking on architecture at a lecture in Copenhagen. This became the basis for an illustrated article in Arkitekten in 1947, entitled “Tendenser i Nutidens Arkitektur” [“Trends in the Architecture of Today”], a manifesto, presenting the themes and interests that would become increasingly apparent in later work.

58 Craft tradition and embodied knowledge When one is in nature as with architecture, if one is aware of one’s sensory experiences and impressions – training eye and mind to understand space, form, light, shadow and colour and one may try to determine the very simple rules, that are found in nature. We may see that all elements in a composition whether it is a house or in nature has signifcance and can both enrich and make clear the whole, or to further accentuate the main form and its character – we should understand that very different forms and materials can both accentuate and counteract each other. . . . Continuing ones analysis and looking at growth in nature one sees that this buildup of a mass of small single elements of very different species and type, that in combination with themselves and others creates an infnite richness and grandeur- with respect to the spatial, material, form, colour.26 As were many modernist architects of the time, Utzon was fascinated by the close-up photographs of plants by Karl Blossfeldt, with their visual similarity to exotic oriental architecture. Like Louis Kahn and other architects, Utzon was also greatly inspired by the book On Growth and Form by D’Arcy Thompson, frst published in 1917. D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson, a brilliant polymath, who had been made professor of biology at Dundee University at the age of 24, showed that the shape of all plant and animal life has a physical and mathematical basis, and thus that “form is a diagram of forces.” Most perceptively Thompson pointed out that both man and nature take the most economical course of action prescribed by physical laws. According to his own personal architectural credo entitled in Danish “Arkitekturens Væsen” (“The Essence of Architecture”) written in 1948, Utzon states that “The very essence of architecture can be likened to the seed in nature, and .  .  . the principle of growth as found in nature ought to be a fundamental concept in the architectural process.”27 The idea of organic growth is clearly evoked by Utzon’s highly original design in 1953 for the Langelinie Pavilion competition, for a restaurant on the Copenhagen waterfront, close to the site of the famous Little Mermaid statue. Utzon had realised, by climbing up a nearby ship’s mast, that a tower at this location would provide panoramic views of the city’s skyline and most important landmarks. Although Utzon’s Langelinie Pavilion competition proposal owes much to the inspiration of Chinese pagodas and more specifcally to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Johnson Wax Laboratory Tower in Racine, Wisconsin, that Utzon had seen a few years earlier in 1949, the underlying idea for the proposal was the analogy to a tree and fungi, in terms of the structure and also how it was serviced. A central “trunk” was to provide access and service core, from which foors cantilevered out like leaves. By stepping intermediate foors back as narrower mezzanine levels, Utzon proposed spacious double-height spaces that would have provided the diners with unimpeded views of the water and the city.28

Craft tradition and embodied knowledge

59

Figure 2.9 Utzon’s own photograph of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Johnson Wax Laboratory Tower under construction at Racine, Wisconsin in 1949, and model of Utzon’s competition proposal for the Langelinie Pavilion, 1953. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

Throughout his career, Utzon would continue to fnd inspiration in nature, whether the poetic metaphor of the concrete clouds of the interior ceiling of Bagsværd Church; or the notion of an opening in a beech forest that inspired the spatial and structural design of the Paustian furniture store; or the analogy to the jointing of bird’s wings that provided inspiration for the window mullions of the Sydney Opera House; or the folding of palm leaves as the catalyst for the ribbed under-structure of the Opera House roof shells. This use of nature, Utzon combined with a remarkable ability to make an analogous transfer from the ancient and transcultural architectural experiences he had around the world, into the contemporary context of his own work.29

Notes 1 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 109–110. 2 Juhani Pallasmaa, The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture (Chichester: Wiley, 2009), 15. 3 Juhani Pallasmaa, The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture (Chichester: Wiley, 2009), 15. 4 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 110. 5 Poul Erik Tøjner, “Architecture as Human Wellbeing: Jørn Utzon in Conversation with Poul Erik Tøjner,” in Jørn Utzon: The Architects Universe, ed. Michael Juul Holm (Humlebæk: Denmark: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2004), 15. 6 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 111–112.

60

Craft tradition and embodied knowledge

7 At the initial meeting between Jørn Utzon and Adrian Carter at Can Feliz on Mallorca, on 30 November 2000, to discuss the proposed establishing of the Utzon Center in Aalborg. Utzon was enthusiastic about the vision of integrating a focus on his architecture with his father’s design and the building of wooden boats. As that was how he had learned so much about working with form and materials, and thought that experience would greatly beneft future generations. 8 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 53. 9 Richard Leplastrier in conversation with Adrian Carter to be published in Ethos (Copenhagen: Strandberg Publishing). 10 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 54. 11 Richard Leplastrier in conversation with Adrian Carter to be published in Ethos (Copenhagen: Strandberg Publishing). 12 Poul Erik Tøjner and Kjeld Vindum, Arne Jacobsen (Copenhagen: Dansk Design Center, 1999), 129. 13 Jørn Utzon, “The Importance of Architects,” in Architecture in an Age of Scepticism: A Practitioners’ Anthology, ed. Denys Lasdun (London: William Heinemann, 1984), 214–233, quoted in Andersen, 2014, 284. 14 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration Vision Architecture (Hellerup: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 16–17, 53. 15 Henrik Steen Møller, Living Architecture No. 8 (Copenhagen: Living Architecture Publishing, 1989), 172. 16 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration Vision Architecture (Hellerup: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 18. 17 Carl Petersen, De Gamle Mestre, ed. Jørgen Hegner Christiansen, Finn Monies and Karen Zahle (Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 2000), 121. 18 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration Vision Architecture (Hellerup: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 18. 19 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration Vision Architecture (Hellerup: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 28. 20 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration Vision Architecture (Hellerup: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 26. 21 Henrik Steen Møller, Living Architecture No. 14 (Copenhagen: Living Architecture Publishing, 1995), 108. 22 Faber, Tobias, “Fantasi – Logik og Konsekvens,” Arkitekten, 9 (Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 1998), 5. 23 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration Vision Architecture (Hellerup: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 34. 24 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration Vision Architecture (Hellerup: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 35. 25 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration Vision Architecture (Hellerup: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 44. 26 Tobias Faber and Jørn Utzon, “Tendenser i Nutidens Arkitektur [Trends in the Architecture of Today],” Arkitekten, 7–8–9 (Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 1947), 63–69. 27 Jørn Utzon, “Arkitekturens Væsen [The Essence of Architecture],” 1948. Translation Flemming Bo Andersen. www.utzonphotos.com/philosophy/the-essence-ofarchitecture/ also translated as “The Innermost Being of Architecture” in Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration Vision Architecture (Hellerup: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 10. 28 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 59–60. 29 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 4.

Craft tradition and embodied knowledge

61

References Andersen, Michael Asgaard. Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014. Carter, Adrian. The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy. Ph.D. thesis. Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015. Faber, Tobias. ‘Fantasi – Logik og Konsekvens.’ Arkitekten, 9, 1998. Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag. Faber, Tobias and Jørn Utzon. ‘Tendenser i Nutidens Arkitektur [Trends in the Architecture of Today].’ Arkitekten, 7–8–9, 1947, 63–69. Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag. Møller, Henrik Steen. ‘Can Felix: Architect Jørn Utzon´s Own House on Mallorca.’ In Living Architecture No. 14, 92–117. Copenhagen: Living Architecture Publishing, 1995. Møller, Henrik Steen. ‘Jørn Utzon on Architecture.’ In Living Architecture No. 8, 146–173. Copenhagen: Living Architecture Publishing, 1989. Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture. Chichester: Wiley, 2009. Petersen, Carl. ‘Stofige virkninger; Modsætninger; Farver.’ In De Gamle Mestre, edited by Jørgen Hegner Christiansen, Finn Monies, and Karen Zahle. Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 2000. Tøjner, Poul Erik. ‘Architecture as Human Wellbeing: Jørn Utzon in Conversation with Poul Erik Tøjner.’ In Jørn Utzon: The Architects Universe, edited by Michael Juul Holm, 6–15. Humlebæk, Denmark: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2004. Tøjner, Poul Erik and Kjeld Vindum. Arne Jacobsen. Copenhagen: Dansk Design Center, 1999. Utzon, Jørn. ‘Arkitekturens Væsen [The Essence of Architecture].’ 1948. Translation Flemming Bo Andersen. www.utzonphotos.com/philosophy/the-essence-ofarchitecture/. Utzon, Jørn. ‘The Importance of Architects.’ In Architecture in an Age of Scepticism: A Practitioners’ Anthology, edited by Denys Lasdun, 214–233. London: William Heinemann, 1984, quoted in Andersen, 2014. Weston, Richard. Utzon: Inspiration Vision Architecture. Hellerup: Edition Bløndal, 2002.

3

The experience, inspiration of and work within other cultures

Origins in the Nordic realm “Nordic architecture had a strong clear and specifc architectural context based on three important factors, which were understood and accepted by the population of the region: climatic conditions, potential of place and a common defnition of social consciousness.”1 Per Olaf Fjeld Within the Nordic countries, there is a great preoccupation with the differences that defne each Nordic nation, with regard to their unique cultural identities and the nature of the landscapes that in a large part defne those differences. Yet there are much cultural and most particularly political and social values that unities them, informing the architecture and design most signifcantly of the ordinary home and furnishings. In 1919, Gregor Paulson wrote the Vackrare vardagsvara [“More beautiful everyday objects”], which, as the title infers, implies that everyday things are just as important as large-scale, prestigious architecture. 2 Nils-Ole Lund further states that: The marriage between social engagement and professional quality consciousness is probably the most important feature of the Nordic tradition. Our political and cultural history makes it natural for us to see a connection between form and content, between ideology and society. This political and cultural understanding prevents us from seeing architecture exclusively as surface. We have to ask what the surface covers. We demand meaning, but not a simple, uncomplicated meaning. Architecture is as much about ethics as aesthetics. 3 In Denmark, the East–West relation within the country has historically played a signifcant cultural role, though less distinctively than in the other Nordic countries with their profound North–South differences. As NorbergSchulz describes: DOI: 10.4324/9781003094180-3

Work within other cultures

63

Jutland turns its back to the North Sea with a relatively desolate, windblown coast. Toward the east, conversely, the land is fertile and idyllic; this character, with certain differences of nuance, is typical of the insular region centred in Zeeland. Here the land fattens; space enlarges and attains new power. The plains of Skåne, through centuries Danish territory, continue this image and reinforce Zeeland’s central position. Øresund was thus the major artery of the country, and here Copenhagen developed.4 The capital of what was considered “Europe’s most charming and well-maintained country.”5 As Norberg-Schulz adds “a small country of meagre resources requires a certain order in cultivation and building; thus Danish architecture is simultaneously idyllic and precise.”6 In comparing Denmark to other countries within the Nordic realm he suggests “Denmark distinguishes itself in that the primal forces are tamed: the troll has become nymph and elf. It is no accident that its national symbol has become the little mermaid.”7 Certainly, the writings of Denmark’s renowned author, Hans Christian Andersen refect a humane, curious, and socially concerned mind, who was well travelled. The same applies to another notable Danish cultural fgure, the theologian and educationalist Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig and existentialist philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, who formed the modern Danish socially developed country that it has become and that informed Utzon’s own values. Though Jørn Utzon was born in Copenhagen on the island of Sjælland on 9 April 1918, his family soon after his birth moved some distance from the cosmopolitan capital to the somewhat provincial, industrial harbour city of Aalborg in the far northeast of Jutland, the continental peninsula of Denmark that extends from northern Germany. Located at the narrowing of the Limfjord, the area was settled around 700 CE, becoming a major Viking settlement and port, serving the Viking empire. Trade routes were established to Norway and England and further, with the export of herring a vital part of Aalborg’s early economic success, later becoming the country’s main producer of tobacco products and the nation’s national spirit Aquavit. So that in the latter half of the eighteenth century the town was considered second only to Copenhagen in terms of prosperity. However, by the early twentieth century and the time the Utzon family arrived in Aalborg, the focus had shifted to greater industrialisation and the production of textiles, Portland cement, building materials, and shipbuilding. Many parts of the city were rebuilt, with modern buildings replacing the original half-timbered houses. It became a rough and tough, working-class city, infamous for having Denmark’s longest street of bars and clubs, the perhaps inappropriately named Jomfru Ane Gade (“Virgin Anne Street”). Despite as a port city having a sense of being connected to the wider world, Aalborg was quite a wind-blown and parochial place, compared to the cultivated, classically, culturally orientated, and continentally more connected

64 Work within other cultures Copenhagen. It was not a social environment that the young Utzon felt entirely happy in or fully relished. At school, Utzon was mocked for speaking with a Copenhagen accent acquired from his parents. He did not do well academically due in part to his then unrecognised dyslexia and his preference to escape into nature, to go hunting, fshing, and sailing. This early intense connection with nature, in many ways, gave him a more Nordic perspective later, as compared to his more classically informed Danish peers, who had grown up in Copenhagen. Utzon was fortunate though that this lacking cultural sophistication of northern Jutland was compensated for, when began his studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, by being quickly taken under the wing of the urbane, very cultivated Tobias Faber, with whom Utzon became friends. Tobias Faber, who was later to become a distinguished professor and Dean of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, was already highly erudite, academically welleducated, and socially well-connected within artistic circles, when Utzon met him as a fellow student. Faber recognised in Utzon a creative architect of natural talent. That through his knowledge and connections he helped nurture. Aalborg did infuence Utzon in signifcant and lasting terms, which played a major underlying role in his subsequent development and work as an architect. The affnity and appreciation of nature that he gained there in his youth did engender in him a more organic and Nordic approach to design than his formalist, classically trained Danish peers. The infuence of working with his yacht designing father Aage gave him craft skills and training in working three-dimensionally with complex form. While the experience of seeing the hulls of great ships in dry dock at the Aalborg Shipyard left an indelible memory of form and composition that was translated into the Sydney Opera House. Also, very importantly, as he said, knowing that his father was responsible for the construction of such large vessels gave him the confdence he needed to believe he could realise the Sydney Opera House. It was also perhaps the less positive aspects, the provincialism, and sense of being an outsider in Aalborg that motivated Utzon to travel as far and wide as possible out into the world. At the time that Utzon was in his teenage years, Sweden was playing a pivotal role in introducing sweeping new progressive political, social, and cultural systems, together with signifcant design changes to the Nordic countries. In 1930, Utzon’s father’s interest in modern international design led him to visit the Stockholm International Exhibition of that year. Alvar Aalto wrote of the Stockholm exhibition, “The exhibition speaks out for joyful and spontaneous everyday life” and “propagates a healthy and unpretentious lifestyle.”8 The exhibition was the critical turning point for the acceptance and development of modern design and architecture in the Nordic countries. It was also a profoundly signifcant event for the Utzon family and a catalyst for Jørn Utzon’s later development as an architect. As Utzon has recalled in an interview with Henrik Steen-Møller:

Work within other cultures

65

My parents . . . experienced the new and simple white architecture that demanded light and space, that let the sun shine in and rejoiced in the functional, the unconcealed, Functionalism if you will. It was the Swedish architect Gunnar Asplund’s exhibition building, a lightweight structure with an expression then uncommon in Scandinavia. My parents returned home completely carried away by the new ideas and thoughts. They soon commenced in redoing our home. The concept was space and light, all the heavy, unpractical furniture was moved out and simple things were brought in. We developed new eating habits, healthy green and lean. We began to exercise, get fresh air, cultivate light and the direct, so-called natural way of doing things. We were made to sit upright on good practical furniture. We children had a swimming pool we could visit each day and use our bodies like fsh in water. We got bicycles so we could get out in the fresh air and see what nature had to offer. We learned to admire the workingman. Decent, well-done work was emphasized. Conventions were dropped, it was a question of us as people. There were no longer rules and sets of manners. I believe at this time we learned to see, and this quite naturally was of great importance. The empty, dead museum-like feeling about architecture disappeared and it became a living reality. I repeat that’s how much architects can bring about and it came to infuence our whole society.9 This transformation of the Utzon family’s lifestyle and living conditions clearly made a lasting impression upon the young Jørn Utzon and, at an impressionable age, gave him the understanding of just how signifcant a role an architect can play within society. Unfortunately, Utzon was never to meet Erik Gunnar Asplund as he would have been keen to do, since Asplund had died two years prior to Utzon coming to Stockholm in 1942. However, Utzon’s time in Stockholm did give him the opportunity to fully experience and absorb the lessons of Asplund and also Sigurd Lewerentz’s architecture. Most notably their work Skogskyrkogården, the Woodland Cemetery, and Crematorium at Enskede on the periphery of Stockholm. The result of a competition in 1915, won by the young architects Asplund and Lewerentz, the cemetery was created between 1917 and 1920, with additional chapels, individually designed by Asplund and Lewerentz, being added between 1923 and 1940. The entire complex is one of the most poetic examples of architecture within landscape and evocations of the universal signifcance of death, realised in the twentieth century. Created over such an extended period of time, Skogskyrkogården represents not only a profound transition from classicism to modernity but also a powerful evocation of the metaphors of religious myth, fused with more archaic beliefs in the spirituality of nature, creating a sublime synthesis of landscape and architecture. That both took inspiration from ancient Nordic burial mounds, but also stripped classical architecture to its most essential elements. As Utzon describes:

66 Work within other cultures Among the fnest examples in Scandinavian architecture which make you sense how much devotion the architect has given to your well-being are two buildings by Erik Gunnar Asplund, the Forest Crematorium in Stockholm and his Courthouse in Gothenburg. Asplund was the father of modern Scandinavian architecture. He went beyond the mere functional approach and created a wonderful feeling of well-being in his buildings. He even added a symbolic content which gives each of his buildings a unique personality which very strongly radiates the purpose of the building, completely covering and expressing the function and life-style, the form of life going on in the building.10 From the moment of entering the cemetery, one is drawn upwards, along an ascending path that echoes the ancient Roman road Via Appia, towards a stark granite cross standing out against the sky. In the background is a pagan mound, surmounted by a circle of trees, representing the crown of thorns, a direct allusion to an allegorical painting by Caspar David Friedrich. The romanticism of the landscape is contrasted by the severe abstraction of the crematorium itself, classical in spirit, but modern in its simplifed geometry: its low portico sitting on the crest of the ridge, the slender columns echoing and framing the forest trees, and a sculptural group of fgures rising towards an opening in the roof, symbolising the transition from life to death. The experience of the Forest Cemetery being particularly metaphysical on All Saints Day, in late Autumn, when candles are lit on the gravestones and ficker amongst the trees. That Asplund died just prior to the opening of the cemetery and was amongst the frst to be buried there further adds poignantly to the many layers of metaphoric imagery. As like the myth of the Chinese artist Wu Tao-tzu of the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE), walking into his own newly completed mural painting and disappearing, as beautifully described by the Swedish writer Sven Lindqvist, evoking the notion of an artist striving for perfection and then retreating from the world. Not unlike Utzon’s eventual retreat to his own idyllic home on Mallorca. Of a less dark and melancholic character, Utzon describes his experience of Asplund’s Gothenburg Courthouse, which was an extension of the existing historic town hall. As Utzon writes: The main space of the building is a hall through two storeys with balconies – full of light, fowers and plants – with walls of light natural wood with very comfortable furniture and with refned detailing. This is the waiting hall for a number of courtrooms, and it gives you a feeling of friendliness, warmth and purity. It stimulates expectations of justice and understanding, not just of punishment.11 Utzon’s innate humanity and sense of justice come through clearly, particularly when he makes a comparison to the foreboding Courthouse in Copenhagen, “which – with a sinister closed elevation with heavy columns

Work within other cultures

67

Figure 3.1 Interior perspective of gilded roof shells in Utzon’s submission for the Sydney Opera House competition. The rules of the competition required black and white images only and Utzon’s application of gold leaf to this drawing nearly saw his design excluded. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

and dark spaces – is an awe-inspiring building which seems to equate Law with Punishment.”12 Among other notable works of Swedish architecture, Ragnar Östberg’s Stockholm City Hall, completed in 1923, also made a considerable impression on Utzon, with its large covered piazza and dramatic Golden Hall as well as a wall covered in over 18 million shimmering mosaic tiles. Prominently sitting out into the Stockholm harbour, it would provide a source of reference together with Helsingør Castle, closer to Utzon’s home in Denmark, for his understanding of how the Sydney Opera House would be experienced from all sides in relation to water. While his memory of the Golden Hall no doubt played a role in Utzon’s suggestion of gilding the inner sides of the roof shells in his submission for the Sydney Opera House competition.

68 Work within other cultures Inspired by a lecture given by Alvar Aalto in Stockholm in the summer of 1944, Utzon went to work briefy for him in Helsinki. From Aalto, Utzon gained many of the approaches to design and conceptual ideas that informed and strengthened his own methodology. Aalto emboldened Utzon’s own sense of working spatially, alternating between models and drawings. As Utzon describes, “Aalto never worked in plan. He never cut out pieces of paper to see whether they would ft in plan. He always worked in spaces. He never worried about anything but sections and spaces – and elevations just came.”13 Despite only working with Aalto for less than 2 months, Aalto was to remain an enduring reference for Utzon, as can be evidenced in Utzon’s interpretation of Aalto’s principle of architecture as built landscape, in the design of the Sydney Opera House. A measure of the respect in which Utzon continued to hold Aalto can be seen in the copy of the fnal set of drawings of the Sydney Opera House, “the Yellow Book,” that Utzon sent to Aalto, with a cartoon sketch of a tall slender Utzon bowing down in respect, to a shorter, somewhat corpulent Aalto, presenting him with the book with gratitude and respect. Later in Utzon’s career, Bagsværd Church, with its sensually curving interior (Aalto’s surname in Finnish meaning “wave”) and where Utzon chose

Figure 3.2 Utzon’s sketch of himself presenting a copy of the “Yellow Book” (1962) of the Sydney Opera House drawings to Alvar Aalto, with the inscription “med respekt og beundring fra jørn til alvar” (with respect and admiration from jørn to alvar). Source: Courtesy of Esa Laaksonen

Work within other cultures

69

to include Aalto’s glassware on the altar, can be understood as in part a homage to Aalto. Amusingly, when visiting Utzon on Mallorca to discuss the realisation of the Utzon Center in Aalborg, we talked about how we in part become and continue in the spirit of those who we have worked with and being infuenced most profoundly, for Utzon it was Aalto and myself, Reima Pietilä. (This discussion took place between Utzon and Carter, at Can Feliz on 30 November 2003) As I left, he gave me the postal address of his Mallorcan home so that I should send him further material, written in Aalto’s signature block letter and addressed attention Alvar Aalto, followed by the address of Can Feliz. As he cheerily waved me off, with “goodbye Reima.” Arne Korsmo’s invitation to Oslo after the Second World War brought Utzon in contact with Norway’s leading modern architects and architectural thinkers, most notably Sverre Fehn, Geir Grung, and Christian NorbergSchulz. All members of the short-lived but infuential PAGON (Progressive Arkitekters Gruppe Oslo Norge) sought to continue and develop the functionalist ideals of CIAM (Congrès internationaux d’architecture moderne) founded by Le Corbusier in 1928. These PAGON members were to become close personal friends of Utzon, skiing in Norway and traveling internationally together, mutually inspiring each other in their architectural thinking and working together on competitions.

Early formative travels in Europe and beyond Utzon graduated from the Royal Danish Academy School of Architecture at a time when Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany and the world was at war. A war in large part instigated by a fear of the “other” and a misguided belief in the superiority of the Aryan nation. It was natural that more idealistic and culturally curious Utzon was keen to travel extensively, just as soon as it was possible, following the end of the Second World War. Fired by images of Islamic architecture and the enthusiasm for North Africa that was shared with Sverre Fehn, Utzon set off for Morocco in 1947 for a few months, where he was to work on a project for a paper factory and a housing scheme. Stopping in Paris en route, he met with Le Corbusier and the Cubist painter Fernand Léger, as well as signifcantly the sculptor Henri Laurens, from whom “Utzon learned how one builds forms in the air, and how to express suspension and ascension,”14 according to Sigfried Giedion. Utzon had a reproduction of Léger’s Le Trois Soeurs hanging on the wall of his studio and was later to own an original Le Corbusier tapestry which was hung prominently at his home in Hellebæk. Undoubtedly, Utzon had great admiration for and a sense of empathy with Le Corbusier. As he expressed in a letter to Le Corbusier in 1962, dated November 16: I remember that you told me that when you were opening the Brazilian students’ new home in Cité Universitaire, some minister said that you built not only with your brain but with your heart, and that is why I feel

70 Work within other cultures a personal connection with you as, you could say, an architectural son. Every time I see your new achievements, I feel a great joy in my heart.15 In Morocco, the project he was working on fell through, as son Jan has explained, and Utzon went off on an extensive walk alone in the Atlas Mountains, to get it out of his system and fnd new meaning in having travelled there. On his walk, he met hospitable Bedouins, slept under the stars, and saw beautiful villages.16 He was greatly impressed by the cohesion and architectural integrity of the desert villages of courtyard houses built entirely with local clay, which unifed them with the surrounding landscape. As he recalled: I went on a very long walk in Morocco, from Ouarzazate around the Southern side of the Atlas Mountains, and there I experienced a building tradition that was completely in harmony with the place and materials. They built – now and then – and they sang while they built, stamped out mud houses, you know, in many storeys from clay and grass.17 This unity of material and landscape was what Utzon clearly had in mind when he later designed the Kingo houses and housing at Fredensborg.18 In 1949, Utzon won a travel scholarship, which enabled him and Lis to visit the United States and Mexico. In the United States, Utzon met with Mies van der Rohe, despite the latter’s disdain for the organic approach to architecture. On a second visit to his offce, years later following Utzon’s winning of the Sydney Opera House competition, Mies van der Rohe quite pointedly avoided meeting him, having been offended by Utzon’s sculptural design for the Opera House.19 As Utzon recalled: When I had won the competition for the Opera House a few years later, when I was 37, I arrived in Chicago and wanted to visit him . . . he was sitting right in the middle opposite the entrance in a large room, a giant room, with his students on one side and the town planner Hildeseimer with his people on the other side, and in front of him a secretary was sitting. I thought I’d better talk to the secretary frst. She turned around and said: “There’s man here, he wants to talk with you.” – “Yes, who is it?” – “Jørn Utzon”. So he got up and vanished. He couldn’t stand the Opera House! Then he disappeared round the corner, and I went the opposite way, towards the toilet . . . and we ran into each other, because the house was symmetrical! We all love him for his simplifcation and purifcation.20 Mies, however, made a more positive impression upon Utzon in a number of important ways: Utzon particularly appreciated Mies’ concern for the intrinsic quality of materials and precision of detailing, combined with a use of rational, modular assembly.21

Work within other cultures

71

Perhaps more auspiciously, Utzon also met with and made a positive impression upon Eero Saarinen, who had an offce at Ann Arbor close to Chicago and was later to play such a pivotal role as competition juror in the selection of Utzon’s proposal for the Sydney Opera House. The Utzon’s also travelled to and stayed a week at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin East. As Utzon recalled: The frst time I met Lloyd Wright I walked into a hexagonal or octagonal room in Taliesin East, his residence in Wisconsin. There was a row of columns around the room – I think there was roof lighting – and there was a narrow passage running outside the columns. He noted my size when we said hello, and then he took me all round the place with him and walked so that I always had to go around the columns every time we reached one of them . . . when we had gone all the way around I had become smaller than him! That’s the impression he made. Then he told me that he was the world’s greatest architect, and explained a few things about his work to me.22 Asked about what Utzon had learned from Frank Lloyd Wright, he said, “I learned about a kind of order. Lots of Wright’s houses are based on a module, the hexagon for example. And at the same time, they are mainly inspired by the place. Bold as hell, as in Fallingwater.”23 The infuence of Wright, particularly the open plan concept of his Usonian houses, as well as the work of Charles and Ray Eames and Case Study House programme in California, was to have an impact on Utzon’s subsequent housing design and later development of his timber housing system, Espansiva.24 From the United States, the Utzons then travelled to Mexico, where they met up with the Korsmos and visited the Pre-Columbian temples at Monte Albán, Uxmal, and Chichén Itzá. The Mayan and Aztec architecture he saw made a profound impression upon Utzon, with its great stone platforms and monumental stairs rising above the treetops of the dense jungle to reveal the distant surrounding view and it was to frmly establish a defning element in his later major civic projects.25 As Utzon states in the introduction of his essay “Platforms and Plateaus: Ideas of a Danish architect” (Zodiac 1962): The platform as an architectural element is a fascinating feature. I frst fell in love with it in Mexico on a study trip in 1949, where I found many variations, both in size and idea, of the platform, and where many of the platforms are alone without anything but the surrounding nature. All the platforms in Mexico were positioned and formed with great sensitivity to the natural surroundings and always with a profound underlying idea. A great strength radiates from them. The feeling under your feet is the same as the frmness you experience when standing on a large rock. Let me give you two examples of the brilliance of the underlying idea. In Yucatan, in Uxmal and Chichen-Itza, the same principle is followed, based on identical natural surroundings. Yucatan is fat

72 Work within other cultures lowland covered with an inaccessible jungle, which grows to a certain uniform defned height. In this jungle the Mayans lived in their villages with small pieces of land cleared for cultivation, and their surrounding, background as well as roof, was the hot, damp, green jungle. No large views, no up and down movements. By introducing the platform with its level at the same height as the jungle top, these people had suddenly obtained a new dimension of life, worthy of their devotion to their gods. On these high platforms- many of them as long as 100 meters – they built their temples. They had from here the sky, the clouds and the breeze, and suddenly the jungle roof had been converted into a great open plain. By this architectural trick they had completely changed the landscape and supplied their visual life with greatness, corresponding to the greatness of their Gods.26

Figure 3.3 Mayan temple ruins at Chichén Itzá, Yucatán State, Mexico. The surrounding columns provide Utzon with inspiration for the addition of an external colonnade to the Sydney Opera House, as an entrance to the later creation of a western foyer. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

Work within other cultures

73

Figure 3.4 Teotihuacan, Mexico, 1957. Photo by Jørn Utzon. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

Utzon expanded upon this metaphoric understanding of their signifcance, explaining further: The second example from Mexico is Monte Albán, an ingeniously chosen site for devotion to the Gods. The human regulation or adaptation of the site has resulted in something even stronger than nature and has given it spiritual content. The little mountain, Monte Albán, almost a pyramid, dominates three valleys outside the town, Oaxaca, in Southern Mexico. The top of the pyramid is lacking and leaves a great fat part, approximately 500 meters by 300 meters. By the introduction of the staircase arrangements and step-like buildings on the edge of the platform and keeping the central part at a lower level, the mountain top has been converted into a completely independent thing foating in the air, separated from the earth, and from up there you see actually nothing but the sky and the passing clouds – a new planet.27

Learning from Asia-Pacifc Utzon also found inspiration in platforms elsewhere in the world. As he writes in his essay “Platforms and Plateaus: Ideas of a Danish architect” (Zodiac 1962): In India and the East, not forgetting the Acropolis and the Middle East, many wonderful platforms of various kinds are the backbone of architectural compositions and all of them based on a great concept.

74 Work within other cultures The big mosque in Old Delhi is an outstanding one. It is surrounded by the markets and the bazaar buildings, placed in a pell-mell of traffc, people, animals, noise and nervous buildings. Here, raised approximately 3 to 5 metres above this is an enormous red sandstone platform surrounded by arcades on the outer contours of the platform. These arcades are closed by walls on three sides of the platform, so that you can look through only at the fourth side, and here, from above, have contact to the life and disorder of the town. On this square of platform, you have a strong feeling of remoteness and complete calmness. An effect no client or architect would have dreamed possible in advance has been achieved with so very few means.28 Utzon, describing his experience of Delhi’s Jam Masjid and its platform, states that: Placed in a pell-mell of traffc, people, animals, noise, and nervous buildings. Here, raised approximately 3 to 5 metres above this, is an enormous red sandstone platform surrounded by arcades on the outer contours of the platform. These arcades are closed by walls on three sides of the platform, so that you can look through only at the fourth side, and here, from above, have contact to the life and the disorder of the town.29 By comparing to the European context, extrapolating from the experience he states that: Besides its architectural force, the platform gives a good answer to today’s traffc problems. This simple thing that cars can pass underneath a surface, which is reserved for pedestrian traffc, can be developed in many ways. Most of our beautiful European squares suffer from cars. Buildings that “spoke with each other” across a square, either in axis systems or in balanced composition, are not corresponding anymore because of the traffc fow. The height of the cars, their speed and surprisingly noisy behaviour make us seek away from squares, which used to be restful places for walking.30 As documented by Utzon in his travel photos, now to be found in the collection of the Utzon Archives in Aalborg, he naturally, as an admirer of Le Corbusier’s work, visited Chandigarh in 1959. That was one of the early planned cities in post-independence India, mainly constructed in the 1950– 1960s, and the pinnacle of Le Corbusier’s late career as an urban designer and a brutalist architect. As evidenced by the photographs that Utzon took in India, he was as interested, if not more so, in the people, their everyday lives and activities, as well as the exotic animals, as the architecture. Utzon

Work within other cultures

75

Figure 3.5 Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh, India, 1959. Source: Photo by Jørn Utzon. © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

also travelled to Nepal, visiting the Nytapola Temple, at Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley, a fve-storeyed Hindu temple, that is the tallest temple in Nepal, but was also fascinated by the terraced hill villages. Particularly signifcant sources of inspiration in the Asia-Pacifc context for Utzon originated in East Asia. Much of Utzon’s earliest understanding and fascination with China came from his mentors and tutors in his youth, notably Carl Petersen, Steen Eiler Rasmussen, and Kay Fisker at the Royal Academy. In addition, his uncle, Aksel Einar Utzon-Frank, a well-known sculptor and professor at the Academy, played a vital role by not only urging his nephew to pursue a career in architecture, as a safer, professional option than pursuing his interest within the arts, but he also provided his nephew with examples of Chinese object d’art in his large collection of Chinese artifacts. Although Utzon-Frank never went to China, he had acquired such items as Chinese decorated tiles, statues, ceremonial objects, paintings, and masks in his collection. Most importantly, regarding Jørn Utzon’s subsequent designs, the uncle also had a 1919 edition of the Yingzao fashi that is an ancient Song dynasty (960–1279) manual on Chinese building standards, originally published in 1103 CE. Utzon-Frank had received this copy of Yingzao fashi as a gift from his good friend Osvald Sirén, who had purchased it in Shanghai in the early 1920s. In the late 1930s, Utzon-Frank donated the book to

76 Work within other cultures the Royal Academy’s library where it was available for the academics and students, including Jørn Utzon and his friends Tobias Faber and Else Glahn among many others. Refecting the broad fascination of the time about the “Far East” in the Nordic countries, it is elucidating that the aforementioned Finnish-born and Sweden-based art historian Osvald Sirén published several books on Chinese art, gardens, and architecture, such as the Kinas konst under tre Årtusenden (“Chinese Art over Three Millenia,” 1947). According to Sirén, the roof and the podium were the most important elements of Chinese architecture, which was illustrated by various cross-section drawings in this book,31 and bear a close resemblance to Utzon’s later travel sketches and initial design concepts. Rasmussen, too, introduced the Yingzao fashi to Utzon when the latter was an architecture student, which greatly informed his thinking in terms of additive architecture, besides the roof and the podium. The publication became most signifcant in relation to the construction of the Sydney Opera House, as Utzon’s own copy of the 1925 edition of Yingzao fashi was an important reference source in his Sydney practice, which was expressed by the interplay of small, modularised components of the Opera House ceiling, the roof tiles and other geometric principles of the building elements, similar to the standardised, though varying in size, timber members of the Chinese dougong bracket complexes and the frame structure, between the monolithic roof and the podium. Utzon had bought two copies of the Yingzao fashi manual in Beijing during his trip to China in 1958 depicted more below; one for himself and the other for his then-teenage son, Jan, who wanted to become an architect. Unlike the 1919 monochrome edition, this edition published in 1925 featured reconstructed drawings of the late Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) carpentry, which clarifed and interpreted the earlier drawings of Song-style architecture. Most notably, many drawings of this newer edition were adorned with vivid colours,32 which was to provide Utzon with considerable inspiration especially for the intended colour scheme for the Sydney Opera House’s interiors. Travelling was a signifcant means of acquiring knowledge of East Asian architecture (as with other world traditions as sources of transculturalism), which, in turn, resulted in more publications. In 1922, Kay Fisker, who was to become one of Utzon’s most infuential teachers, was granted a travel scholarship from the East Asiatic Company, with which he spent four months in China and two months in Japan with his wife. Next year Fisker published the article “Peking” in Arkitekten accompanied by his travel photographs. Rasmussen followed the suit in 1923 owing, again, to the EAC scholarship, which allowed him to spend 5 months in China, visiting Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, and Suzhou. Besides his lectures on Chinese architecture, his 1935 book Billedbog fra en Kinarejse (“Pictures from a Journey to China”), which he later edited and published in 1958 as Rejse i Kina (“Travel in China”),33 were invaluable sources of information for the next generation of Nordic architects, including Utzon. In addition, Johannes Prip-Møller’s

Work within other cultures

77

book Chinese Buddhist Monasteries: Their Plan and Function as a Setting for Buddhist Monastic Life (1937) that Utzon bought in Hong Kong at the end of his trip to China in 1958 played an instrumental role in increasing his knowledge of Chinese architecture. As he had just experienced some of the Buddhist monasteries in southern China featured in this book before arriving in Hong Kong, it gave Utzon further insights into the monastic life and theology of Chinese Buddhism, which he much later applied, for instance, in the dualism and courtyard typology of the Bagsværd Church in Denmark.34 As Utzon’s interest in China developed, he became particularly interested in the writings of Lin Yutang (1895–1976), the internationally renowned Chinese philosopher and writer, born in Banzai in the Fujian province of China who went on to study at Saint John’s University, Shanghai, Harvard University in the United States and the University of Leipzig in Germany. Lin Yutang famously stated that “The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.”35 Utzon so admired his writings, that he named his daughter Lin. Regarding architecture, Lin Yutang comments in My Country and My People (1936, translated into Danish as Mit Land Og Mit Folk in 1938), that: Nature is always beautiful, but human architecture usually is not. For unlike painting, architecture is not even an attempt to copy nature. Architecture was originally a matter of stones and bricks and mortar, piled together to give man shelter from the wind and rain. Its frst principle was utility and is often purely so even to this day. Hence the unmitigated ugliness of the best modern factory buildings, school-houses, theatres, post-offces, railway stations and rectilinear streets, whose oppressiveness accounts for the fact that we constantly feel the need to escape to the country. For the greatest difference between nature and these products of the human mind is the infnite richness of nature and the extreme limitations of our ingenuity.36 Lin Yutang blamed the emphasis on utility, which “is not art”37 exacerbated by industrialisation, and speaks of the human yearning for the beautiful. He suggests that: The problem is how to make the bricks and the mortar alive and speak the language of beauty. How can we inform it with a spirit and make it say something to us, as European cathedrals are informed with a spirit and speak a silent language of the greatest beauty and sublimity to us?38 Having posed this question, Lin Yutang explains how Chinese architecture by taking a very different approach has sought to resolve this problem. Chinese architecture, he says, seems to have developed along a line different from that of the West. Its main tendency is to seek harmony with nature. In many cases it

78 Work within other cultures has succeeded in so doing. It has succeeded because it took its inspiration from the sprig of plum blossoms – translated frst into the moving, living lines of calligraphy and secondarily into the lines and forms of architecture.39 He beautifully evokes the translation of the essential nature of the sprig of plum blossoms to the context of architectural form via the intermediary medium of expression of the calligraphers sweeping brushstrokes. As Lin Yutang states, the infuence of calligraphy in Chinese architecture is seen in the bold use of skeleton structures, like pillars and roofs, in the hatred of straight, deadlines, notably in the evolution of the sagging roof, and in the general sense of form and proportion and grace and severity of temples and palaces.40 He further compares the revealing of skeletal structures, to the outlining strokes in Chinese painting, that instead of serving merely to indicate the contour of shapes of things, acquire a bold freedom of their own, so in Chinese architecture the pillars in walls, or rafters and beams in roofs, instead of being hidden in shame, are frankly glorifed and become important elements in giving structural form to the buildings.41 According to Lin Yutang the revealing of the wooden framework in Chinese architecture arises from the principle of chien-chia or framework in calligraphy. Within the various strokes that constitute each character, there is invariably a horizontal or a vertical stroke, or sometimes an enveloping square, which is regarded as giving support to the rest, and this stroke we must make powerfully and make longer, more obvious than the others. Having obtained support in this main stroke, the other strokes will cluster round it or take their point of departure from it. Even in the design of a group of buildings, there is a principle of axis, as there is an axis in most Chinese characters. The whole city-planning of Peiping, old Peking [Beijing], one of the most beautiful cities of the world, is due very largely to an invisible axis of several miles running north and south from the outermost front gate, right across the Emperor’s throne to the Coal Hill central pavilion and the Drum Tower behind.42 Signifcant as the straight axis is, Lin Yutang suggests that even more important is “the use of curves, wavy lines, or irregular rhythmic lines to contrast with the straight lines” as seen most clearly in traditional Chinese roofs. He says that “every Chinese temple or palace building or mansion is based, in its

Work within other cultures

79

essence, upon the combination or contrast of the straight vertical lines of the pillars and the curved lines of the roof” and that “the roof itself contains a contrast between the straight line at the ridge and the sagging line below.”43 As Lin Yutang comments, it is often presumed that the sagging roof has its origins in the primitive tents of earlier nomadic times, but the connection to calligraphy is obvious.44 This interpretation of nature through calligraphy to form in Chinese architecture is, according to Lin Yutang, supplemented “by the constant use of symbolic motives. And it has through the prevalent superstition of geomancy, introduced the element of landscape. Its essential spirit is the spirit of peace and contentment.”45 In 1958, Utzon fnally had a chance to visit many of the Chinese sites he had studied in books. He travelled in China with the Norwegian architect Geir Grung, whom Utzon admired for his technical competence and innate talent for design.46 The infuence of their China research tour that included the Yungang Grottoes can be seen, for instance, in Grung’s design of the Suldal Power Station, in the west of Norway, as a part of Norsk Hydro’s huge hydroelectric development, that was in part built into cavernous spaces carved out of the mountain. This trip took place after Utzon had presented his detailed design proposal “Sydney National Opera House,” known as the “Red Book,” to the state government of New South Wales in March 1958 during Utzon’s second visit to Australia (the frst time was in July 1957 when Utzon accepted the Opera House commission). On his way back to Denmark, Utzon arrived in Beijing via Hong Kong in April 1958 and travelled in China for two months, which was now fnancially viable thanks to the Opera House competition winning prize (5,000 pounds) and the frst design fee (10,000 pounds) paid by the NSW government earlier that year. According to the lively description of this trip by Chen-Yu Chiu, there were various obstacles, however, as foreigners’ travels in China were strictly controlled those days. First of all, Utzon’s China visa that he had obtained in 1956 for a trip he planned while preparing the Opera House competition proposal two years earlier had expired. As the story goes, Utzon apparently “lied to the Chinese offcials that ‘he was the architect of the Sydney Opera House and personally invited by Mao’.”47 Furthermore, after being given the permit to enter the People’s Republic of China, based on this partially fabricated narrative, Utzon had to rescue Grung from a Chinese prison with the help of the Norwegian Embassy, since his friend had been arrested as a “spy” due to his somewhat adventurous way of travelling by train to Mongolia and then fying to Beijing on a cargo plane, which was deemed suspicious. Nonetheless, the trip ensued more smoothly afterward, mainly following their pre-described itinerary. In Beijing, Utzon and Grung savoured Peking duck, rode on jinriksha carriages, and strolled along the city streets and hutong lanes along which they experienced the Chinese courtyard houses (siheyuan) that was such an important typology for Utzon – not only those in China but also in many other cultures. Among many sites in Beijing and its surroundings, they visited the Palace Museum of the Forbidden City,

80 Work within other cultures the Tiananmen Square, the Beihai Park as the former Imperial Gardens are known with its White Dagoba (Baita), the so-called Temple of Heaven including the Altar of Heaven, or Tiantan, the Summer Palace in the northwestern part of the city, as well as the Luzu Temple and Miaoying and Biyun monasteries, in addition to the Great Wall. While in Beijing, Utzon and Grung also succeeded in buying copies of Yingzao fashi with the help of professor Liang Sicheng48 (Liang Ssu-ch’eng) whose lifelong research study was posthumously published and edited by Wilma Fairbank as A Pictorial History of Chinese Architecture: A Study of the Development of Its Structural System and the Evolution of Its Types (MIT Press, 1984). It was the frst comprehensive publication in English on traditional Chinese architecture by a Chinese author, including descriptions of the principles of Yingzao fashi and the so-called Chinese Order. As Liang’s book was published much after Utzon’s studies and China trip, Utzon still had to rely on the illustration only, since he could not read Chinese. Next, Utzon and Grung headed for Henan province stopping at the Songyue Monastery and Mt. Songshan, on their way to the city of Datong in Shanxi province. In Datong, they visited the Shanhua and Huayan monasteries, the Screen of Nine Dragons of the former prince’s palace, the Drum Tower, as well as remaining parts of the city walls and gates. However, the most signifcant for both architects in Datong were the Yungang Grottoes that so profoundly infuenced their subsequent designs, such as Utzon’s Silkeborg Museum49 and

Figure 3.6 Yungang Buddhist cave temples. Source: Photo by Jørn Utzon. © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

Work within other cultures

81

Grung’s Suldal Power Station. It should also be noted, especially with regard to the term pagoda in some later analyses on Utzon’s concepts, that alongside the Buddhist sculptures and carvings the grottoes feature the earliest known relief of a Chinese-type pagoda, which serves as evidence of the Indian stupa having been transformed into a multistorey timber structure in China by the Northern Wei dynasty (386–534 CE).50 From Datong, Utzon and Grung proceeded southward to Xi’an, the former capital city of the Western Han dynasty (206 BCE – 9 CE) that was those days named Chang’an, meaning “eternal peace.” As peace was not eternal, there is not much left of the original city, except for the impact of its layout on all subsequent capital cities in China, Korea, and Japan. Xi’an is now better known for its thousands of terracotta warriors, though those have been excavated only since 1974 and, thus, not in Utzon and Grung’s itinerary, whereas many of the current “old town” and city walls are rather recent reconstructions. What they did see in Xi’an were the Cien Monastery and the Wild Goose Pagoda, before they continued their tour to Chongqing and Chengdu, then, further to Nanjing, as well as Suzhou where they visited many gardens described by Johannes Prip-Møller in his Chinese Houses and Gardens (1940). The last stops were Guangzhou and a few other places in southern China, included in Prip-Møller’s Chinese Buddhist Monasteries: Their Plan and Function as a Setting for Buddhist Monastic Life (1937) that Utzon bought in Hong Kong at the end of this trip. Yet, before these two travel companions could reach Hong Kong, there were more problems at the border. Not only had Utzon’s visa expired, again, but no private documentation was to be exported from P. R. China before a review process and acceptance by the Chinese government. This included their 16-mm flms and photo negatives. As described by Chen-Yu Chiu: So Utzon apologized with two handwritten penitent letters: one for the offcial process, the other as “souvenir” for one particular offcial due to Utzon’s position with the Sydney Opera House. . . . Finally, after a few more photos, the Chinese customs offcials allowed them to take everything out without more inspection.51 Soon after Utzon’s return to Denmark, the package of the “souvenirs” he had mailed from Hong Kong arrived in Hellebæk, including his copies of the Yingzao fashi and Prip-Møller’s Chinese Buddhist Monasteries.52 Following their successful exit from P. R. China and entry to the British colony of Hong Kong, Grung continued his study tour to Japan, while Utzon returned to Denmark to continue with the Sydney Opera House design. Utzon never went back to China, although the impact of Chinese culture remained strong in his designs, as can be seen in the courtyard typology of the Kingo and Frendensborg housing projects (1957–1960 and 1965, respectively), the spatial articulation of the Bagsværd Church, and many works, not least the frst design proposal for the unrealised Silkeborg Museum.

82 Work within other cultures As became customary for Utzon, he stopped in various destinations while commuting between Denmark and Australia, which in the mid-twentieth century was by no means as straightforward as today and was made more convenient by these breaks en route, in addition to trips from Sydney, such as the family vacation in Tahiti in late February 1963. Utzon travelled in Japan already in August 1957 on his way back to Denmark via Japan and the United States after his frst trip to Sydney and a year before his only trip to China depicted earlier. In Tokyo, he visited the offce of Kunio Maegawa, who was one of the leading early modernists in Japan. Le Corbusier’s infuence was strong in Japan those days, as Maegawa had worked at his atelier in Paris at the end of the 1920s, followed by another Japanese modernist, Junzo Sakakura, who was Le Corbusier’s apprentice in the late 1930s. Utzon also visited Japanese temples and saw Frank Lloyd Wright’s Tokyo Imperial Hotel that was completed in 1923 (demolished in 1967 when some parts were reconstructed in the Meiji Mura outdoor museum in Inuyama, Aichi prefecture). In the United States, Utzon visited several concert halls and Minoru Yamazaki’s St. Louis Airport observing its intercepting barrel vaults. In order to discuss shell-vault construction, Utzon also met with Saarinen in Detroit. In 1965–1966, Utzon was back in Japan tracing his sources of Japanese architecture, which corresponded to his long-term interest in Japan, similar to many modernist architects. Already Wright – who, in turn, inspired Utzon – was greatly inspired by Japanese culture in general, resulting in his collection of hundreds of Japanese woodblock prints (many now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City). Japanese impact was expressed by Wright’s design concepts as well, including open foor plans, indoor–outdoor connections, horizontality of deep eaves, attention to detail and craftsmanship (also apparent in the Arts-and-Crafts movement that infuenced Wright as well) and so many other aspects of the Japonisme phenomenon in the turn of the twentieth century. In addition to the frst world fairs with Japanese as well as Chinese and Korean pavilions (the 1867 and 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris and the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago as most signifcant), such books as Das Japanishe Haus (1903) by Franz Baltzer and Osvald Sirén’s travel memoirs Den Gyllene paviljongen, minnen och studier från Japan (“The Golden Pavilions, Memories and Studies from Japan”) published in 1919, were in an essential role in disseminating information of Japanese culture in the “West.” Moreover, of the early European modernists, Bruno Taut, who stayed in Japan three years in 1933–1936 with his wife when escaping from Nazi Germany, published his remarks on Japanese architecture containing descriptions of the Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto (e.g., Fundamentals of Japanese Architecture in 1936, and Houses and People of Japan, frst published in 1937, posthumously edited in 1958). Taut’s writings were accompanied by a plethora of publications on Japanese architecture, such as Das Japanishe Wohnhaus by Tetsuro Yoshida (1935, published in English as The Japanese House in 1955), and most importantly for the “Third Generation” architects the Katsura: Tradition and Creation

Work within other cultures

83

in Japanese Architecture (1960) by Walter Gropius, Kenzo Tange, and Yasuhiro Ishimoto. Consequently, Katsura Villa, constructed in the early and mid-1600s, became regarded as the quintessential Japanese building complex and garden, although an imperial summer palace is hardly a typical house.53 In the heat of the turmoil surrounding the Sydney Opera House design and the disagreements with the Minister for Public Works, Davis Hughes, Jørn Utzon with wife Lis and their 8-year-old son Kim, left Sydney for a 6-week holiday to Japan and Hawaii for Christmas Day 1965, following the two eldest children, Jan and Lin, who were already in Japan and travelled there for 4 months. Jan, who was studying architecture at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, was naturally interested in the traditional Japanese architecture and crafts, while Lin, a frst-year art student eager to pursue a career in ceramics and textiles, learned “about the techniques in weaving, textile painting, lacquer work and ceramics.”54 In addition to Kyoto, the Utzon family’s itinerary took them to the ancient capital city of Nara, where they experienced the early Buddhist art and architecture of Japan. As evidenced by Utzon’s travel photos at the Utzon Center archives in Aalborg, they also visited Itsukushima Shinto Shrine off Hiroshima marked by the so-called “foating” torii gate standing on the shallow waters in front of the shrine. Judging by Utzon’s travel photos, he also visited the famous rock garden of the Ryōan-ji Temple in Kyoto with its 15 rocks arranged on gravel

Figure 3.7 Todai-ji, Nara, Japan. Source: Photo by Jørn Utzon. © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

84 Work within other cultures

Figure 3.8 Itsukushima Torii Gate, Japan. Source: Photo by Jørn Utzon. © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

raked as waves, symbolising the earth and the seas – an ultimate example of an essentialist expression of the whole universe. Before returning to Sydney in early February 1966, Jørn, Lis, and Kim had a 1-week break in Honolulu, Hawaii, where Utzon’s former classmate in the Royal Academy, Peer Abben, had established his architectural practice.55 Besides travelling, publications on Japanese architecture were important sources of information for Utzon, too. In 1945, he received Yoshida’s Das Japanishe Wohnhaus as a departing gift from Aino and Alvar Aalto56 with whom Utzon stayed in contact after briefy working in their Helsinki offce that year, since they all shared an interest in Japanese architecture.57 In addition to some other publications listed earlier, this book and its illustration seems to have been particularly valuable for Utzon, as his sketch of a traditional Japanese house in “Platforms and Plateaus” (1962) bears close resemblance to Yoshida’s drawings of Japanese houses. As Chiu, Goad, Myers, and Kilinçer point out, both Utzon and Yoshida’s drawings stressed “a horizontal emphasis” of the Japanese house by indicating its raised foor with large horizontal sliding doors and windows. In Das Japanishe Wohnhaus, Yoshida conceptualized the symbiosis between architecture and landscape, especially represented by the numerous illustrations of Katsura Imperial Villa and Japanese Houses.58

Work within other cultures

85

It goes without saying that Utzon visited the Katsura Villa when in Kyoto. Its staggering layout, the so-called fying geese foorplan that provided various views of the surrounding garden, has apparent refections in many of Utzon’s housing schemes in particular, in which the buildings and the landscape are integrated as an organic whole. Another notable book in Utzon’s library, besides Yoshida’s Das Japanishe Wohnhaus, is The Japanese House: A Tradition for Contemporary Architecture (1964) by Heinrich Engel, who extended Yoshida’s study especially in terms of the modular systems specifc to the column distances of the timber frame, opposing the common view of the tatami mat as the module of Japanese architecture.59 When interviewing Jan and Kim Utzon in the latter’s offce in Copenhagen, Kim suddenly walked to the bookcase, containing many of their late father’s publications, and picked up Engel’s The Japanese House. It was quite fascinating to see the blank frst page on which Jørn Utzon had scribbled sketches, so similar to his Espansiva house system that it was impossible to miss the connection. Like in Japanese architecture, the tectonic idea of Espansiva was to create a modular, standardised timber frame structure with various foorplan options and potential for future extensions, refecting Utzon’s concept of additive architecture as well. Although Espansiva was intended as a prefabricated, mass-produced housing system that allows customised options for the clients, only one prototype was built in Hellebæk, Denmark, in 1969, which Utzon used as his studio and later

Figure 3.9 Export College in Herning, a further development of Espansiva. Source: Flemming Bo Andersen, Utzon Photos

86 Work within other cultures became his daughter Lin Utzon’s home in Denmark. The additive principles established with Espansiva were further developed in his proposals for the Export College in Herning. Though the project was not realised, a combination of prototype college modules was commissioned by the Uno-X company and built,60 subsequently becoming the home of the director of the nearby Herning Art Museum. More than 30 years later, the Japanese-infuenced additive architecture of the Espansiva and Herning Export College were again to provide the essential inspiration for the Utzon Center in Aalborg, as modular pavilions gathered around a central courtyard. Exemplifying Utzon’s enduring view of the applicability of Japanese architecture in contemporary settings worldwide. The two Utzon sons, who both had become architects, also mentioned that their father did not only endorse visiting the Zui-Ki-Tei teahouse in Stockholm but also recommended another teahouse much closer at the Tokai University campus north of Copenhagen for command of Japanese carpentry.61 The Zui-Ki-Tei teahouse was built in 1935, as a sign of the friendship between Japan and Sweden, in the garden of the Museum of Ethnography in the outskirts of Stockholm, Sweden, and it proved to be a signifcant source of information for many Scandinavian modernists, without the need to even go to Japan. The teahouse was at frst built temporarily by Japanese carpenters in Tokyo in March 1935 – even the garden was laid out there – then dismantled and shipped to Sweden, where it was re-erected within the Japanese teagarden at the Museum’s grounds. Unfortunately, the teahouse burned down 34 years later, though it was reconstructed in 1990, again, by prefabricating it in Japan and reassembled in Sweden.62 In other words, the many Scandinavian modernists saw the original Zui-Ki-Tei, including Utzon who visited Zui-Ki-Tei in 1942.63 All in all, interest in Japanese culture and architecture has deep roots in Scandinavia. Already early in the twentieth century, there was a wellestablished affnity between the work of leading Nordic architects and the inspiration of Japan. According to the Finnish architect and professor of architecture history, Nils Erik Wickberg, the study of Japanese architecture encouraged architects “to let materials speak for themselves without the burden of ornamentation.”64 Further, Gareth Griffths states that architectural isomorphisms can be “discerned between traditional and modern Finnish and Japanese architecture and likewise between Danish and Japanese approaches.”65 In Denmark, this was particularly apparent from the 1930s onwards in the work of close colleagues to Utzon, Erik Christian Sørensen, and Ebbe and Karen Clemmensen, who drew extensively on sources in Japanese architecture. As Juhani Pallasmaa has noted with reference to similar aesthetic aspirations in Finland, in Japan there is “the preference for visual reduction and restraint, appreciation of natural materials and subdued colours, the interplay between elements and rhythms of nature and manmade geometry and a distinct sense of humility.”66

Work within other cultures

87

Figure 3.10 Exploded axonometric drawing and Utzon playing with models of Espansiva Housing system. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

88 Work within other cultures Asplund, who was such a profound and formative infuence on Utzon early in his career, was also fascinated by Japanese culture and its architecture, writing: The dissolution of space and its variability clearly indicates a fundamental change in our basic perceptions; in the West we are perhaps approaching the Japanese idea of building as not too solid, heavy and long-lasting object. We are perhaps fnding ways to vary our rooms, as has long been the Japanese practice, from season to season, from tenant to tenant according to their needs. As the Japanese do by removing entire walls to allow circulation of air during the summer.67 Frank Lloyd Wright, another early infuence on Utzon, was also inspired by Japanese traditional architecture and noted its signifcance for the standardised production of contemporary Western architecture, by stating that: The modern process of standardizing . . . was in Japan known and practiced with artistic perfection by freedom of choice many centuries ago . . . The shape of all the houses was determined by the size and shape of the assembled mats.68 The Norwegian PAGON group of architects to which Utzon was introduced and actively engaged with on competitions were similarly inspired by “Japan which with its highly developed standardisation nevertheless displays an extraordinary variety. The Japanese managed to produce a fexible form of housing in favour which we now must make a dedicated effort to liberate ourselves.”69 In the housing competitions that Utzon made with Korsmo and Fehn at this time, one can see the antecedents for Utzon’s own house at Hellebæk, in which he applied the idea of traditional Japanese shoji and fusuma sliding panels, as well as the later Kingo and Fredensborg courtyard housing.

The unfulflled dream of Australia As the noted Australian architect and preeminent architectural critic Robin Boyd states in his introduction to his book The Australian Ugliness published in 1960, Under the veneer, practically all the impulses that lead to the culture of Australia are familiar in other prosperous parts of the world. Abstract art, prefabrication, mass-production and perverted Functionalist ethics provide the moulds that shape things in Australia, as they do wherever English-speaking people build communities. The extroverted fair of the Latin countries and the introverted refnement of Scandinavia are not to be expected.70

Work within other cultures

89

He perhaps did not appreciate Utzon’s Sydney Opera House in terms of the introverted Scandinavian refnement that he admired, though that is precisely what had characterised Utzon’s earlier domestic architecture. Boyd, who was an outspoken critic of visual pollution and a vulgar decorative tendency he called “Featurism,” however, saw in Utzon’s Opera House a form that apparently seemed not to have a basis in geometry, a common misconception then and still now “and yet still manifestly controlled by an idea comprehensible to the observer an of architecture of poetic expression, made by an architect as artist striving for perfection.”71 Utzon travelled to Australia with a great deal of hope and optimism, as had other modern architects that had emigrated from a Europe still recovering from the effects of the Second World War. For many at the time, Australia was an escape from the then relatively recent trauma of war and an opportunity to realise a new life in a dynamic, young, and exotic country, where the sun shone brightly and everyone spent time at the beach. The family established themselves at Palm Beach, on the Northern Beaches coastal region of Sydney and purchased land at Bayview with the intention of building a family home for their envisaged permanent stay in Australia. Sadly, the remarkable house that Utzon designed and redesigned was repeatedly dismissed by the local authorities, who presumed that the separated pavilions intended to provide a degree of autonomy to the two eldest Utzon children, Jan and Lin, in itself a beautiful idea, was actually intended to be separate dwellings on a site where it was only permitted to build one. The Bayview House, which would have showcased the potential of the innovative use of locally produced plywood beam, provided the genesis for Can Lis, the house that Utzon later built on the southern coast of Mallorca. The Australia that Utzon and his family encountered was a combination of their high expectations, but also that which Boyd described in The Australian Ugliness, where he humorously, but scathingly criticised the cultural values or lack of them in the built environment, being particularly disparaging

Figure 3.11 Sketch of elevation of proposed Bayview House, Sydney, 1963. Illustrating the conceptual idea of terracing, massing, and roofng. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

90 Work within other cultures about the spreading Australian suburbia and housing, with its inherent ugliness, as he saw it. This lack of beauty in the built environment and broader cultural values, though particularly endemic in Australia, characterised all cultures of English origin, as he wrote: Among the English-speaking nations with which Australia likes to compare herself she is very high on the list of conspicuous ugliness. And then, as everyone recognizes, English-speaking nations top the world list. A consistent vandalistic disregard for the community’s appearance runs through them all.72 When writing about Sydney, Boyd describes the then relatively recent suburban growth away from the city. To the west from Liverpool to Parramatta, he describes it as a fairly typical Australian working class development, repeating the dreary, ill-considered housing growth on the outskirts of every Australian town: the same cold comfort conservatism of villa design with the regular sprinkling of primary-tinted features. The Housing Commission of New South Wales, speculative builders and private owners compete with one another to reduce the bush to a desert of terra cotta roofs relieved only by electric wires and wooden poles.73 Yet, Boyd reserved his most damning indictment for Sydney’s Northern Beaches, as The really depressing parts of Sydney, however, are in the North Shore Executive Zone. Here some of the most dramatically beautiful country available to suburban commuters anywhere in the world seems to draw out a delinquent streak in nearly everyone who builds. Out through French’s Forest and along the spine above Pittwater one can fnd three or four of the most notable modern houses in Australia. They are nationally, and to an extent internationally known by their photographs. But the photographs do not show their neighbours. The few thoughtful buildings of the area are all but lost in a wild scramble of outrageous Featurism clearly planned for the express purpose of extracting a gasp of envy from each passing sports car.74 Undoubtedly, Utzon’s own planned house at Bayview would, had it been built, have joined the select ranks of those notable modern houses to garner international attention, and Utzon himself was so concerned at the potential visual encroachment of future neighbouring houses that he purchased a large enough plot of land to ensure that his future house would remain surrounded by natural bushland. The preservation of the existing natural vegetation was very much a concern of Utzon’s in the purchase of surrounding land

Work within other cultures

91

and design of the intended family home at the Northern beach’s suburb of Sydney at Bayview. The topography, quality of daylight, and the visual aspect were also of paramount consideration. The house was intended to be realised on a sunny, north-facing slope overlooking the bay of Pittwater with a view towards Scotland Island. Utzon revised and altered the design for his home, submitting a total of four proposals to the local council for permission to build without success. As he wrote in the letter accompanying the last submitted application. “The idea behind the scheme was to avoid making one big connected house of 3 separate functions and to make such a big unit, thus destroying the landscape, cutting down trees and so on.”75 Utzon developed his argument further saying, I have even bought more land from my neighbours and put a covenant on a big portion of that to protect vegetation, and to protect the silhouette of the hilltop seen from Pittwater and coming from Mona Vale. This of course is an expense which I have loaded upon myself, in order to keep the beauty of the hilltop. . . . I have done this because I sincerely feel that lack of planning and lack of co-operation between neighbours has destroyed a typical Sydney silhouette in many places. I have myself, as a town planner in Scandinavia, made several sub-divisions in which the guiding motive has been a landscape feature, a hilltop for instance, a lake, or a little river, and by respecting these existing natural elements, the sub-division when it was fully developed had a charm and character of its own, and the necessary co-operation of the different inhabitants by introducing various types of covenants, added to the pleasure of living there.76 Utzon was also keen that his two eldest children, Jan and Lin, should have a degree of autonomy, by having their own separate dwellings, but the local authorities were not accepting of this more progressive idea and cynically thought he was over developing the site for speculative fnancial gain. It was poetic justice that Utzon’s reluctance to sell the land when he left Australia in anticipation of being invited to return rose signifcantly in value subsequently and its eventual sale helped fnance the purchase of the sites and realisation of his beautiful homes on Mallorca. In his daily journey from Palm Beach along the Northern Beaches into the site offce for the Opera House at Bennelong Point, Utzon would have been conscious of a less than harmonious relationship between placing of houses and the topography of the landscape, between the competing desire for views and privacy; and despite the pressing demands of the Opera House gave this matter his consideration, as he had done so admirably with his courtyard housing projects back in Denmark. An invitation to write for the 15th year anniversary issue of Australian House and Garden provided Utzon with an opportunity to formulate and publicly express his opinion of what would be a more ideal approach to suburban housing development in Australia, based

92 Work within other cultures

Figure 3.12 Sketch by Utzon of himself serenading his wife Lis, on the deck of their proposed Bayview House, 1963. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

upon the understanding he had developed in his housing projects in Denmark. Under the heading “JOERN UTZON TALKS ABOUT HOUSING. Joern Utzon (sic), internationally famous architect of the Sydney Opera House, gives us his impressions of Australian domestic architecture and ideas for the future development,”77 echoing less explicitly Boyd’s sentiments regarding Featurism, Utzon wrote, Looking at the fast growing suburbs of Sydney with a critical eye, the result as a whole is not happy, in spite of a wonderful landscape, nature and climate. Everywhere we see houses built looking into one another, of any style, any color and material and with no attempt at harmony. This tendency for every family to be independent is in itself a very good thing and is possible if one has very large lots of some acres each then you can play around with any building form without being in disharmony with your neighbour. However, this is only possible far away from the city centre, and as developments are for economic reasons generally concentrated and with relatively small lots, we must not forget the fact that everybody is dependent on his neighbour when it comes

Work within other cultures

93

to noise, views and privacy. On the slopes of the hills the buildings are very bare, so even though everybody gets a beautiful view, there is the disadvantage that it is also possible to see at the same time many illrelated houses.78 Here, Utzon addresses the competing essential human desires for independence, views, and privacy for each home, with the social responsibility of maintaining those qualities for all. Utzon’s comments in this regard could be as pertinent today and perhaps more so, given the tendency to expand, rebuild, and create new ever larger homes on increasingly smaller sites, with diminishing spaces between. The tendency towards the creation of McMansions, the new Featurism, is though not a particularly Australian or even exclusively Anglo-Saxon phenomena but is increasingly universal. An essentialist approach based upon a critical transcultural understanding of global best practices, according to similar environmental conditions and resources, would serve as a more sustainable and life-enhancing alternative to the insidious spread of this tendency. Utzon was not a person to be critical or negative, without considering how to concretely improve a situation. As he continues, As an architect, I cannot make this criticism without trying to be positive. If the land around Sydney had been built on in the same way as around the Mediterranean in France and Italy hundreds of years ago, one would see small harmonious village groups completely blending in with and supporting, the contours of the hillsides. The question is, is it possible within today’s economy to create something as good as the old European villages?79 This might appear to be an almost wistful, nostalgic, and romantic Eurocentric yearning for the old country that would tap into what Philip Drew has described as an Australian tendency to visit a beautiful European village and want to bring it back home, which he compares to being as though you walk into a feld of beautiful fowers and you pluck off the fowers, leaving the roots behind. You put it in the ground here and expect to get the thing growing. Real culture springs out of the soil.80 This was Utzon’s viewpoint precisely and the sources for this understanding did not come from Europe alone, but also from his experiences seeing the villages of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, made of rammed earth that were as one with and grew out of the landscape and similarly the Pueblo settlements he saw in Mexico. The profound inspiration of North Africa, the Middle East, and Mexico, combined with Utzon’s fascination with courtyard houses of China and

94 Work within other cultures elsewhere, as well as the traditional Danish farmhouses built around courtyards that he was familiar with from his youth, were the catalyst for Utzon’s enduring enthusiasm for the beautiful idea of the courtyard house; a housing arrangement that provided both a high degree of privacy, that the retiring Utzon valued highly, while at the same time when built together engendering a cohesive, harmonious sense of community. The courtyard typology also appealed to the pragmatic side of Utzon’s character, by being a rational, effective, and effcient use of resources and also the site. This had the considerable beneft that not only could more dwellings be built densely together, which was economically benefcial, but also actually more of the site could be retained in its natural form, as common ground and a shared amenity. With reference to his courtyard housing in Denmark and his own proposed Bayview house in mind, together with an implied critique of disharmonious ad hoc individualism of Australian suburbs, Utzon describes in his article as The basis for a successful community group is that one idea should dominate a large enough portion of land to make it undisturbed by other existing buildings. The landscape could be divided into districts where one should build and plan according to one style, and these divisions should follow natural lines.81 Utzon’s model of suburban courtyard housing developments is as valid today, as when he was proposing them in Australia in 1963, not only as a more sensitive, harmonious, and beautiful antidote to the ugliness that Boyd described but also as a more land-effcient and thus more economic means of developing suburbia, while at the same time creating a strengthened sense of community and a built environment that demonstrated a heightened appreciation for the remarkable Australian landscape. As Karsten Harries concludes in his essay “The Ethical Signifcance of Environmental Beauty,” Perhaps appreciation of the beauty of the environment can build a common sense strong enough to replace the type of thinking that seeks to master and to possess the environment – the type of thinking that, if left unchecked, would be destined to mutilate and destroy both it and us.82 It is pity, therefore, and surprising, given both the economic and environmental benefts of such an approach to housing, that Utzon’s beautiful proposal has not been as yet fully developed. Perhaps it is because as Drew suggests “Despite 200 years of colonisation, we are still to come to grips with the land on which we live”83 and possibly because more poignantly, as Brit Andresen has expressed, the inability to build with respect and in harmony with the landscape is in part a consequence of the still prevailing ambivalence towards the land from colonial settlement onwards, “the underlying national guilt – guilt that breeds crass

Work within other cultures

95

disrespect for such easily stolen goods.” 84 Utzon’s courtyard housing would have provided a discreet sense of belonging in the landscape, with one’s own sheltered outdoor space in the sun, while allowing more of the natural landscape to remain. Naturally, if Utzon would have had the opportunity to have developed housing projects in Australia, then he would have approached the task differently in the manner he did in his native Denmark, where despite the many transcultural references his Kingo and Fredensborg houses, are appropriate to a Danish tectonic tradition and culture. Just as one can see a continuity and development from Aalto in Utzon’s work, so can one see a development and evolution of similar ideas appropriate to the Australian landscape and conditions in the work of Glenn Murcutt and Richard Leplastrier, who like Utzon have strived and succeeded in creating some of the most beautiful architecture in Australia. Richard Leplastrier’s house at Avalon is a wonderful evocation and translation of beautiful ideas that Utzon himself was fond of, the raised platform, the gathering and opening up around an inner, more private courtyard-like sanctum, into which the landscape and nature are brought in.85

Figure 3.13 Jan Utzon and members of Utzon’s offce relaxing in a cave at Palm Beach. The naturally formed seating provided inspiration for the Utsep furniture system, now realised in the Utzon Park in Aalborg. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center and Flemming Bo Andersen, Utzon Photos

96 Work within other cultures Utzon, with his considerable openness to other cultures, was like the artists he admired, such as Matisse and Picasso, greatly fascinated by Indigenous Aboriginal culture and arts, and would have followed that interest more fully, had his stay in Australia not been cut so short. There are a number of subtle, tantalising intimations of reference to and possible inspiration from indigenous culture, in Utzon’s unrealised projects made while still in Sydney. These include his designs for a curvaceous seating system, Utsep, inspired in part by the forms of an earlier Aboriginal cave at Palm Beach, that had been formed by the natural elements and human usage through millennia, to become a comfortable place of prospect and refuge looking out to sea, where Utzon and his offce would on occasions go to relax. The Utsep furniture system was eventually realised by the Barcelona-based urban furniture, Escofet, to celebrate their 125th anniversary and donated to Utzon’s hometown of Aalborg, to furnish the Utzon Park, by the Utzon Center. Sadly, not realised was the intended Utzon family home, at Bayview, on which Richard Leplastrier worked with Utzon, who proposed creating a roof of hollow U-shaped bent plywood beams, similar to those used in the corridor ceilings of the Opera House and which in some of the sectional sketches for the house abstractly evoke the Aboriginal bark canoes, that would have been so common in that area in earlier times. It can only be imagined how Utzon might have contributed further to the development of a uniquely Australian architecture attuned to both its ancient culture and contemporary multicultural society. Despite the vocal support of the leading Australian modernist architect Harry Seidler, who clearly recognised Utzon’s genius from the outset and many other architects and the general public alike, it was not possible to persuade the authorities in power to keep Utzon engaged in the Opera House as its lead architect. Once Jørn Utzon had left Sydney under the well-known and distressing circumstances of his forced resignation from the Opera House project, he experienced additional disappointments in the late 1960s, such as rejection of the Zürich Schauspielhaus project after years of design, in addition to his father’s death in 1970. Delightful, in turn, must have been designing his own house Can Lis in Mallorca, Spain, the Kuwait National Assembly in Kuwait City, and the Bagsværd Church in Denmark. That is also when he started teaching at the School of Architecture at the University of Hawaii at Manoa from 1971 till 1975 in a few separate shifts, before that Utzon had visited Hawaii several times in the 1960s while commuting between Denmark and Sydney.86 Because this less-known period of Utzon’s career coincides with the Bagsværd Church design, we interviewed his former colleagues and students in Hawaii, which sheds light on his emotional state during this important design process. As expressed by Leighton Liu, one of Utzon’s colleagues at the UHM School of Architecture, “he came to Hawaii partly to ‘hide out’

Work within other cultures

97

and heal the wounds he suffered in Australia, as he was a kindly gentleman who had no stomach for politics – or fame, for that matter.”87 Moreover, one of Utzon’s designs, namely Bagsværd Church, has an interesting connection to Hawaii. It is unarguably among Utzon’s masterpieces, but the design also gained recognition from Kenneth Frampton’s analyses in the 1980s, which re-established Tzonis and Lefaivre’s concept of Critical Regionalism. In many of his writings on the topic, Frampton uses Bagsværd Church as an example of Critical Regionalism in Scandinavia (more inclusively the Nordic Countries), in addition to Alvar Aalto’s Säynätsalo Town Hall in Finland.88 When analysing the famous undulating ceiling of the church, Frampton primarily makes references to Oriental infuences. Yet, it has been an “oral lore” at the UHM School of Architecture that a beach on the windward side on the island of Oahu was the true source of inspiration for Utzon. This fact had not been published at the time Frampton made his analyses on critical regionalism, but it is included in some sources published later, most notably in the Utzon biographies by Philip Drew (1999) and Richard Weston (2002), further confrmed by Torsten Bløndal’s conversations with Utzon in October 2004.89 Utzon’s work, perhaps even more than that of any other great master of modern architecture, has been associated with transcultural infuences from different geographic regions, world cultures, vernacular traditions, and

Figure 3.14 Conceptual sketches for Bagsværd Church. Translating the notion of a procession towards the horizon, beneath rolling clouds into built form. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

98 Work within other cultures historic periods. Among others, Frampton emphasises this issue by stating that Critical Regionalism “as a cultural strategy is as much a bearer of world culture as it is a vehicle of universal civilization.”90 In this context, Frampton refers to Utzon’s extensive travels of which the early ones are described in his seminal essay “Platforms and Plateaus.” On the basis of this essay, Frampton analyses the Bagsvaerd Church ceiling and claims that “the only precedent for such form, in a sacred context, is Eastern rather than Western – namely the Chinese pagoda roof” and that the “intent of this expression is, of course, to secularize the sacred form.”91 Frampton further expands this interpretation in his “third point” by pointing out that “paradoxically, this desacralization at Bagsværd subtly reconstitutes a renewed basis for the spiritual, one founded, I would argue, in a regional reaffrmation – grounds, at least, for some form of collective spirituality.”92 On the other hand, Utzon’s often-published sketch of a Chinese building that, at frst, appeared in “Platforms and Plateaus” does not bear much resemblance to a pagoda, since it is not a multi-storey structure with a minimum of three layers. As a matter of fact, Utzon does not describe the sketch as a pagoda and does not even use the word pagoda anywhere in the essay. Instead, the drawing seems to depict a Chinese one-storey building with double eaves that appear in the Yingzao fashi. Because that kind of eminent halls with the diantang structure were always elevated on podiums, the most important ones on three-layered foundations (zumizuo), the sketch naturally makes sense in the context of platforms and plateaus. An alternate interpretation of the sketch should take into account the fact that Utzon was much too well versed in Chinese architecture to call it a pagoda. Owing to his instructors at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, especially to professors Kay Fisker and Steen Eiler Rasmussen who knew Chinese architecture very well, Utzon had not only seen the Song dynasty building manual Yingzao fashi (some sources on Utzon use the older transliterations Ying Tsao Fa Shi or Ying-tsao fa-shih) in his study years, but later he also owned a copy of it. Among the hundreds of drawings included in this manual that itself is a treasury of the principles of traditional Chinese architecture, most relevant to the drawing in question are the section drawings of eminent double-eave halls. There are countless of these types of structures in China, including both temples and palatial buildings, and Utzon observed many of them during his trip to China in 1958. To compare Utzon’s sketch with a Chinese building, Weston features a photograph with a caption that describes it as a “Chinese temple abstracted to the interplay between a heavy, but apparently foating roof and stone platform.”93 However, the building in the photograph is not a temple but a corner pavilion of the Meridian Gate (Wu men) leading to the Forbidden City in Beijing that Utzon also saw during his China trip. Nevertheless, this only underlines the fact that the sketch can illustrate either a temple or a palace hall/pavilion, though not a pagoda. Indeed, with regard to Utzon’s precedents, those can be either sacred or profane buildings regardless of the type and/or function of his design. Paralleling Frampton’s view of desacralisation, Michael Asgaard

Work within other cultures

99

Andersen states that the “references in Utzon’s projects and writings to both geographically and temporally distant cultures made them transcend their immediate context.”94 As for other sources of inspiration for the Bagsværd Church, and that for its ceiling, in particular, yet another much-published sketch by Utzon has been used in interpreting the design. It features a beach on the windward shore of the Hawaiian island of Oahu where the Utzon family lived in a rented house in Mokulua Drive, next to the Lanikai Beach, and later nearby in Kaimalino Street, closer to the Kailua Beach.95 The sketch illustrates the clouds brought to the Hawaiian Islands by the regular trade winds from the northeast and the effect of the sunlight falling through the clouds down to the sand. According to Utzon, It’s a natural space that gives a profound spiritual peace. . . . So the natural space that gripped me has been turned into the body of the church, though there are also a number of other rooms, and together they form a complex that can be compared to a monastery.96 As mentioned previously, the Hawaiian connection is rather recent information, and, for example, Christian Norberg-Schulz in his 1981 analysis on the Bagsværd Church regards the ceiling as “the curved vault which recalls the clouds of the Danish sky.”97 Regarding the transcultural infuences in Utzon’s work, the geographic location of course is irrelevant, although especially the Lanikai Beach most certainly does evoke a feeling of spiritual peace as described by Utzon with its afternoon trade winds that form high vertical cumulus clouds off the coast. Also, Lanikai is an appropriate source of inspiration for a church, meaning “heavenly sea” in Hawaiian. Utzon likened the experience of these towering, evenly spaced, cylindrical cloud formations “like a colonnade on its side,”98 while the dramatic manner in which the light penetrated as divine rays between the clouds provided Utzon with a visual metaphoric image for a church, an image that Utzon combined with a conceptual metaphoric image of Danish cumulus clouds and horizontal landscape. In Utzon’s conceptual sketches of people gathered on the Lanikai beach, as if a wedding ceremony beneath rolling clouds, translates to a sacred procession towards the cross, within an opening between columns that are like trees and cloud-like ceiling vaults: an evocative return to an almost pagan form of worship of natural phenomena and being outside within nature, akin to Reima Pietilä’s Kaleva Church, but without being dismissive of overt Christian symbolism. In the Hawaiian context, it also is signifcant to take into account the strong Asian infuence in Hawaii. As East Asian architecture in general and Japanese architecture in particular, in turn, was such an important source of inspiration for many modernists, including Aalto to whom Utzon often refers, one can analyse the layout of the Bagsværd Church from that perspective as well. In the Nordic countries, the built Japanese precedent was the

100 Work within other cultures Zui-Ki-Tei teahouse in Stockholm, supplementing the many books published on Japanese architecture in the twentieth century, but unlike Aalto and many other Scandinavian modernists, Utzon had personal experience of buildings in both Japan and China. Especially the foor plan of Bagsværd Church with atrium gardens, refecting the Chinese courtyard house (siheyuan) typology, is a concept Utzon applied to many other projects as well, such as the Kingo and Fredensborg houses just to mention two. It is actually rather surprising that Utzon taught only in one architecture programme during his long life (not including guest lectures and other visits) – and in Hawaii of all the places. While interviewing Utzon’s former colleagues and students in Honolulu, approximately 40 years later, it became apparent that everyone had only fond memories of him. According to Leighton Liu, “he was a true gentleman and I remember him as a kind human being rather than just as an architect.”99 Liu was hired at the UHM School of Architecture right after his graduation from the Art Department and “found out that I am sharing an offce room with a world-famous architect. We talked about everything and anything, as he was very interested in people and cultures.”100 According to Liu, one of the things Utzon did not talk much about was the Sydney Opera House, though he did give one public talk on its design, as “he pretty much had to.”101 In summer 1974, when Liu visited Denmark, Utzon also took him to the construction site of the Bagsværd Church where the vaults had just been cast and Utzon mentioned the inspiration coming from a beach in Hawaii.102 Another colleague, Architect John Hara, recalls that “Utzon was passionate about other cultures. In many ways I consider his work a continuation of Aalto’s.”103 Although a “local boy” from Hawaii, Hara himself has lived in various places across the world, including architecture studies at the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania under Louis Kahn and many years in Europe, together with travels to Japan and Australia, among other places. “Arriving in Pennsylvania from Hawaii was a cultural shock at frst, but fortunately I got good friends there, including Louis Kahn’s daughter.” He continues that “my European experience was largely generated by the

Figure 3.15 Conceptual sectional sketch for Bagsværd Church inspired by Arabic calligraphy, 1973. Source: Flemming Bo Andersen, Utzon Photos

Work within other cultures

101

instructors at Penn. In addition to working in Zürich, I was in correspondence with Aalto and met him in Paris, when I almost got hired by him.”104 Besides being a studio instructor at the UHM School of Architecture back in Hawaii, Hara knew Utzon through Danish architect Peer Abben with whom both Utzon and Hara worked on several projects. Abben had been Utzon’s classmate at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen and, after working on projects in Africa until the Mau-Mau rising made living in Kenya unbearable, he moved to Honolulu on Utzon’s recommendation. Utzon’s former students in Hawaii, where he taught graduate-level design studios and a class in climatology, were of course extremely lucky to have an instructor of such calibre. “Utzon emphasized natural forms and repetition,”105 (i.e., his idea of additive architecture) remembers Architect Dwight Mitsunaga who had Utzon as an instructor in his last design studio in spring 1973. Of course, we knew something about Utzon, but he didn’t come across like a famous man, as he was very casual and relaxed. . . . Having always believed the Sydney Opera House to be inspired by sails, I was surprised one day when he expressed that his design was inspired by the sectioning of an orange.106 At that time, the UHM School of Architecture included landscape architecture, urban and regional design, interior design, building technology, and environmental design, besides architecture, and functioned in temporary wooden buildings with louver windows and without air conditioning. According to Mitsunaga, “they were pretty comfortable buildings with natural ventilation.”107 Those could also have functioned examples of climatically appropriate and/or climate-specifc design for Utzon. Of all Utzon’s former students in Hawaii, Kelvin Otaguro turned out to be a real treasury of information. Not only did he remember many anecdotes of his famous teacher, but he had also saved magazines, photographs, and drawings from those days. “Utzon didn’t talk much about his own projects and gave us free range to do anything we wanted with the studio projects. He helped with many things but wasn’t too critical,” reminisces Otaguro. “I do remember, though, that one day he was explaining skylights and drew me a sketch of a building he had designed. I think I still have it somewhere.”108 Fortunately, Otaguro did, indeed, fnd the drawing that is obviously a section of the Melli Bank in Tehran. In this sketch, one can see Utzon’s often recurring themes of courtyard layout and indirect, diffuse lighting from skylights above. And as far as Utzon as a teacher is concerned, Otaguro among others emphasised that he was a very inspiring person, though sometimes quiet and less approachable than at other times. He was funny, too. I remember one day in studio when he was talking about Louis Kahn and started to mimic Kahn’s way of explaining things

102 Work within other cultures with his hands. He taped a poster that read ‘The mind of Louis Kahn’ on his shirt and made the same hand movements.109 Sure enough, Otaguro managed to fnd both the poster and the photo in his archive. Otaguro met Jørn Utzon, and later also Jan, outside of the university as well, because he worked for Peer Abben, at frst, as an intern, and after the graduation as a draftsman for more than two decades until Abben closed his frm. But why did Utzon decide to live and work in such a remote location as Hawaii? It might have been because Hawaii is a very healing environment, as Liu suggested. Drew expresses similar stance by the subheading “Laying Low” in his biography The Masterpiece: Jørn Utzon – A secret Life, which describes Utzon having time to relax, contemplate his career, and overcome the oil crisis that followed the Arab–Israeli war in October 1973, which resulted in the lack of architectural commissions in Europe, but not in the

Figure 3.16 Utzon with image “The mind of Louis Kahn” attached to his shirt, teaching at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa School of Architecture. Source: Photo courtesy of Kelvin Otaguro

Work within other cultures

103

Middle East. Architect John Hara, in his part, pointed out that “Utzon was optimistic about being invited back to Sydney,”110 which refects a common view among those who knew Utzon in Hawaii. Also, besides the relative proximity between Sydney and Honolulu, Utzon was familiar with Hawaii, since he and the family often had stop-overs there when commuting between Denmark and Australia.111 In addition, a contributing factor might have been that his former classmate, Peer Abben, had his architectural practice in Honolulu and he and Utzon even designed a few projects together in the early 1970s, such as the Kama’aina Apartments. In any case, Utzon clearly knew how to choose wonderful places for his family to live in, judging by his residences in Sydney and the intended site of his own house in Bayview north of the city, the rentals at the picturesque windward coast on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, and his houses in Denmark and Mallorca.

A profound affnity to the Arab world Utzon, like Le Corbusier earlier, to whom Utzon owes much of his early formative inspiration, was greatly inspired by the accomplishments of ArabIslamic architecture. Starting from his early trip to Morocco in North Africa, he later travelled in the Middle East in West Asia (that Europeans call Near East for an obvious reason), where he witnessed the great domes of the mosques, the refective qualities of the ceramic tiles, the skylights of the grand bazaar, and other Islamic features that left a profound impact on him. The most signifcant of these places was Isfahan, one of the ancient capitals of Persia, in addition to his later trips to Kuwait. Utzon had the opportunity to visit Isfahan when he was working on the Melli Bank project in Tehran (1958–1960) that is a branch offce of the Iran National Bank. This Melli Bank next to the Tehran University Campus was Utzon’s frst real opportunity to build in an Arab context and its design

Figure 3.17 Sectional sketch of Melli Bank, Tehran, Iran, illustrating the natural daylighting through skylights.

104 Work within other cultures

Figure 3.18 The Bazaar, Isfahan, Iran. Source: Flemming Bo Andersen, Utzon Photos

development benefted greatly from his collaboration with the architect Hans Munk Hansen, an expert in Islamic architecture. Similar to Aalto, Utzon examined skylights in many projects as a method of allowing diffused, natural light to enter the interior, like from the openings in the vaults of the Grand Bazaar in Isfahan, which he applied almost literally in his Farum Town Centre composition entry (1966). Also, the skylights of the Khan Murjan building (from 1358) in Baghdad, Iraq, that Utzon visited en route to Tehran, inspired his design of the Melli Bank.112 This can be regarded as a reference to the continuity in relation to the past, listed by Giedion as one of the defning characteristics of architects of the Third Generation. And natural light is what brings to life the sculptural features, which Giedion lists as another of the trends among the Third-Generation architects. The relation to the past also applies to Utzon’s respect for the earlier generations of modernists, and to his interest in monumental and vernacular architecture in North Africa and the Middle East in particular. Of Utzon’s built projects, The Melli Bank Tehran University Branch building exemplifes this approach, as one among many, while also intensifying the sculptural features of the bank hall ceiling, in terms of both tectonic and poetic expression. On the dense urban site of the Melli Bank, a logical solution was to provide illumination from above, but it also is reminiscent of the bazaars and mosques Utzon visited in Islamic countries and was particularly

Work within other cultures

105

inspired by in Isfahan. One approaches the Melli Bank Tehran from an entry plaza and a platform on a monumental staircase, which Utzon created by a setback from the façade line of the neighbouring buildings and separated from the busy street by a row of trees. (The monumentality of the staircase has now been compromised by a ramp, but the trees are still there, though grown so big that it is hard to see the building from the street.) The frst spatial sequence inside is compressed under the two administrative foors above the entry, after which the three-storey high banking hall on a fourstep lower level opens as a dramatic contrast. The skylights between several parallel, post-tensioned concrete beams create an almost rhythmical pulse of musical notations in the high ceiling – or the Bank’s name in the fow of its Arabic script, as Weston among others has suggested – crossing the 20 metres free span of the bank hall between the fank walls on both sides, clad with lines of travertine. These walls protrude to the sidewalk and include the “servant spaces,” to use Kahn’s terminology, such as offces and other utilitarian rooms. As Utzon describes, The elegant, load-bearing concrete structure between the two gables along the boundaries of the site left us with complete freedom of design and allowed us to choose variable lighting and story heights. Everything has been done in order to give the bank staff a pleasant environment. A world has been created within the bank that connects both to the present-day life and to the ancient Persian tradition.113 According to Weston, “Utzon designed the hall as a ‘landscape’ of desks and small cubicles, inspired by the interview spaces of Aalto’s Pensions Institute.” He continues pointing out that the play of shade and light was, of course, not new, referring to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Johnson Wax Building and Aalto’s art gallery project in Baghdad, but also states that “the top-lighting was inspired by the Isfahan bazaar,” while the light enters “through narrow slits of glazing between the beams and then [is] refected off the deep V-shaped throughs . . . like ‘light through clouds’,” as the project architect Munk Hansen recalled Utzon’s concept.114 The infuence of Islamic architecture with repetitive units illuminated from above is even more clearly apparent in Utzon’s competition entry for the Farum Town Centre in 1966 with his trademark additive architecture and skylights in the vault-covered mall. Weston, who states that “The Islamic inspiration in Farum is almost too obvious to need comment,” nevertheless emphasises that Utzon used the word bazaar in his descriptions of the design.115 Likewise, in Utzon’s Kuwait National Assembly (1971–1984), the skylights are in a signifcant role, in addition to the tectonics of the thin, almost fabric-like, post-tensioned concrete shells, which are reminiscent of the Arab Bedouin tents. In the Utzon Logbook IV, Utzon is quoted as saying that “All departments of the building (offces, meeting rooms, library, Assembly hall,

106 Work within other cultures

Figure 3.19 Farum Town Centre, competition 1966. Source: Flemming Bo Andersen, Utzon Photos

Work within other cultures

Figure 3.20 Interior sketch, Kuwait National Assembly, 1972. Source: Flemming Bo Andersen, Utzon Photos and © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

107

108 Work within other cultures etc.) are arranged along a central street, similar to a central street in an Arab bazaar”116 with which he was now familiar after his frst trip to Morocco in 1948, when Utzon lived in the desert nomads’ tents,117 and then to Iran in connection to the Melli Bank project, among his other trips in the Middle East. As for the skylights of the Kuwait National Assembly, Utzon refers to shade rather than to light, by stating that “The dangerously strong sunshine in Kuwait makes it necessary to protect oneself be (sic) seeking refuge in the shade” and also points out that the covered square “connects the building complex with the site completely and creates a feeling that the building is an inseparable part of the landscape,”118 which corresponds to Giedion’s description of the interplay of architecture and environment.119 The Kuwait National Assembly building design was a result of an architectural competition Utzon was invited to participate in 1969 to create a governmental centre for the then less than 10-year-old independent city-state of Kuwait on the Arabian Gulf. At the time, Utzon was living in Hawaii, where he was teaching at the University of Hawaii and he did the competition entry together with his son Jan in Denmark and Oktay Nayman, who was living in London and had worked with Utzon on many of the most signifcant projects. Utzon would air-mail sketches to London for Oktay Nayman to draw up and to Hellebæk for his son Jan to make the presentation models. That it was possible to realise such a large and complex building under these circumstances was due entirely to Utzon’s mastery of the programme and the clarity of its spatial and structural organisation. With his knowledge and passion for traditional Islamic architecture, Utzon looked to Isfahan and the local precedent of the walled city that grows around inner courtyards within its boundaries and the central street, or souk meaning “bazaar,” that provides the collective spine as the organisational principle for his own design. Utzon’s appreciation and respect for Arabian architecture come across in his own description of the project, Traditional Arabian architecture will have an enormous infuence on the future architectural development of the world and it is therefore, a natural thing that this concept of [the] Kuwait National Assembly Complex has been based on some of the major elements of traditional Arabian architecture, such as the covered street (the bazaar street), the interior courtyards, the succession of structural arches.120 As Utzon describes further, The central street provides inter-communication between the various departments and expresses the whole organisation of the complex very clearly. . . . The arrangement around the central street makes it a meeting place for all persons concerned, government offcers, politicians, visitors, the public. It is a lively street. . . . Architecturally speaking, it is the backbone of the complex from which all accesses and corridors radiate.121

Work within other cultures

109

Located on the waterfront, overlooking the sea and with the city behind, Utzon saw the central street as a link between the two. The main entrance on the south eastern side of the building facing the city is well shaded and articulated by an overhanging canopy. At the other end of the street is the monumental ceremonial entrance, which Utzon refers to as a Covered Square, where he optimistically imagined the Amir could publicly address his people. The idea to make the structural elements round rather than rectangular came very late in the design process but was the result of a long process of thinking about the tectonic expression of construction. The resulting rounded hollow columns create spatial quality similar to a hypostyle hall that reminds one of Karnak and Louis Kahn, in its contemporary evocation of ancient archetypical architectural form. For Utzon, it was intended to evoke the purity of Islamic construction, as he has himself said that: All elements are designed to express the load they are carrying, the space they are covering – there are different elements for different spaces. They are all meant to be left visible, contrary to the ‘cardboard architecture’ of most modern offce and administration buildings where hidden structure, lowered ceilings and gypsum walls give you an impression of being in a cardboard box.122 Utzon’s Kuwait National Assembly, born out of a genuine appreciation and understanding for Islamic architecture, is perhaps the most evocative and outstanding of all the buildings designed by Western architects in the Middle East. It also certainly belies the widely held belief, following the politically motivated slurs that instigated his leaving Sydney, claiming that Utzon was incapable of building on a monumental scale. It would be natural to assume that the grand seemingly billowing canopy of the Kuwait National Assembly building is designed to replicate the forms of Bedouin tents of the desert, as it is seen in many analyses, but for Utzon such an approach would be too directly literal and banal. For him, the dramatic curvature of this vast white concrete baldachin is intended to be like a surf, expressing the celebration of the meeting between sea and land, as the evocation of a great wave crashing onto the beach. This defning iconic architectural feature, in fact, was not originally part of the brief for the Kuwait National Assembly building competition, but Utzon, with his enormous charm and appreciation of the power of metaphor, succeeded in convincing the speaker of the assembly of its necessity. As Utzon explained (to Carter), and as he has told to others, that he shook the speaker’s hand, not normally a custom in the Arab world and explained that he was aware of an Arab saying that when a great leader dies their shadow disappeared and explained that if this canopy was built, then the speaker’s shadow would never disappear.123 Utzon with a smile said that within weeks he was given the permission and full economic support to go ahead with the canopy. What Utzon wisely did not tell the speaker was that in his own mind he saw the canopy as

110 Work within other cultures

Figure 3.21 Entrance canopy of the Kuwait National Assembly under construction. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

representing eventual democracy, with the canopy providing a shaded public plaza where the people could meet and discuss their needs with their political representatives. As with Aalto’s sheltered courtyard space at the Säynätsälo Town Hall, the great canopy of the Kuwait National Assembly is a strongly idealistic political metaphoric statement. The main body of the Kuwait National Assembly building is modelled on the spatial organisation of traditional courtyard dwellings and the covered Bazaar streets, particularly as Utzon experienced those in Isfahan, Iran. The large round columns that support the canopy and mark the entrance are intended to evoke the monumental scale of the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak in Egypt, providing a sense of historic connection to the grandeur of the world’s longest surviving civilisation and source of Arab pride. Utzon took the normally highly organic form of the Arab city evolved over centuries and millennia, with its low rise, highly dense compacted form, punctured by meandering streets and interior courtyards, and translated

Work within other cultures

111

Figure 3.22 Plan sketches, Kuwait Assembly Building, 1972. Source: Flemming Bo Andersen, Utzon Photos and © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

it into a regularly ordered, modular grid-based system. Utzon’s modular approach allowed for an additive architecture of prefabricated building elements, while still retaining and embodying the essential organisational principles and spatial hierarchy of the traditional Arab city. Similarly, to be true to the possibilities of contemporary building construction and materials, the Karnak-like dimensioned columns are not massive like their original counterparts but are hollowed out and cut according to calculated structural necessity, further reducing the amount of material required. The redesigned columns more sculpturally express the actual transfer of forces and have a more contemporary tectonic integrity, while still retaining the overall dimensions of the ancient columns they allude to. Utzon’s Kuwait National Assembly building is an uncompromisingly modern building, but also an evocation of the regional vernacular tradition in synthesis and combined with Utzon’s own poetic metaphor that gives the building its own unique identity and more site-specifc sense of place. Khaled al-Sultany in his book Architectural Intertextuality explains at some length, how he had presumed that there had clearly been communication between Iraqi architect Rifat Chadirji and Jørn Utzon, because their submissions to the competition for the Kuwait National Assembly Building were so remarkably similar in plan, if not in overall form. After much investigation, he realises that there was no communication, but that through his distinctive plan and its compositional elements so well known to the local architects, Utzon has designed a work that transcends the mechanisms

112 Work within other cultures of intertextuality with the culture of “the other”, to achieve an early breach of the system of European centralisation that has often resorted to justifying the exclusion and alienation of “the other” and the rejection of his cultural achievements.124 To this day Utzon remains one of the very few western architects to have successfully built in the Arab world, having designed buildings that are both contextually appropriate, without resorting to cultural cliché, and contemporarily modern at the same time, through an innate transcultural appreciation and assimilation of the essential qualities of the local culture into his architectural design approach.

A Mediterranean homecoming At the beginning of the 1970s, with little work in Denmark and also having become accustomed to the Mediterranean-like climate of Sydney, and then in Hawaii with their possibilities for an outdoor way of life, it became less appealing for the Utzons to endure the long winter gloom of Denmark or Sweden where they also had a summer house. Thus, they made Mallorca their home, purchasing two extraordinary sites for their future homes. Initially a rural site on a steep hillside with a broad panoramic view overlooking the south of the island and also a dramatic cliff edge site, near Porto Petro directly overlooking the Mediterranean. It was on this site with its connection to the sea that Utzon built the frst of their Mallorcan homes, in timeless harmony with its context, using the humblest of traditional materials, most notably sandstone from the local quarry.125 Approached from the street side, Can Lis presents a very unassuming facade, a low wall of local sandstone blocks that seems as one with the terrain. As with Bagsværd Church, it is the modesty of the exterior that dramatically enhances the experience within. The general plan form is similar in spirit to the home Utzon had intended to build earlier at Bayview, near Sydney, where respect for the independence of individual members of the family was articulated as a community of buildings much to the vexation of the Australian local planning authorities, who refused to give permission for more than one house. At Can Lis, the different buildings are individually aligned at right angles to the contours of the site and spatially connected by the wall. The collective outdoor focus of the complex centres on a colonnaded courtyard of a modern, yet timeless vernacular character, overlooking the Mediterranean. Adjacent to it is the almost sacral interior of the living room, where each afternoon a divine shaft of light enters the room momentarily through a small opening high up on the west wall. All other openings are shaded by deep stone recesses that, undisturbed by visible frames, defne views of sea and sky as abstract, Rothko-like compositions in shades of blue. As Utzon’s own home, designed and built after the debacle of the Sydney Opera House, it is possible to see Can Lis, as his retreat from the world on

Work within other cultures

113

Figure 3.23 Conceptual plan and section sketches of Can Lis, Mallorca. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

the island of Mallorca, as a transcultural essentialist architectural statement, pregnant with poignant metaphoric associations and connotations; it is the cave where the great lion retired to lick the wounds of the injustices meted out to him in his professional career. Certainly, Can Lis represents a profound evocation of Utzon’s much-loved metaphor of the cave but is also about so much more. It is about notions of prospect and refuge, about architecture that seems to grow out of its landscape, in terms of its materiality and in accordance with the topography, prevailing climate, and the framing of views. Can Lis is also essentially an expression of Utzon’s ideas of the contemporary family, with individual dwelling units separated from the main body of the house. As originally intended at Bayview in Sydney, but frst realised in

114 Work within other cultures

Figure 3.24 Plan drawing of Can Lis, Mallorca. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

Figure 3.25 Can Lis, Mallorca. Source: Photo by Adrian Carter

Work within other cultures

115

Mallorca. With the design of Can Lis, Utzon had the opportunity to realise the intentions of the Bayview House and articulate the different functions of the house, as a kind of domestic Acropolis, according to the contours and views from a cliff edge site on the south-eastern coast of Mallorca. That Can Lis is experienced as an ancient archaic site is due to Utzon’s contemporary reinterpretation of local vernacular and classical architecture; but also, his poetic notion that architecture should have the potential to become a beautiful ruin. In keeping with the metaphoric allusion to a cave or more massively built traditional structure, Utzon is concerned with the experience of thickness and depth in architecture, as well as its role in framing its surroundings, at least as perceived from within looking out. While the underlying transcultural metaphors at Can Lis are essentially conceptual and poetic, Utzon does allow himself the introduction of a witty, almost whimsical visual metaphor to confrm the building’s specifc location, in the form of the crescent-shaped window at the entrance to the house, since the road on which Can Lis is located, before it was named Avenida de Utzon in his honour, was originally Avenida de la Media Luna or Avenue of the Crescent Moon. In designing Can Lis, Utzon was very conscious of reinterpreting the local vernacular architecture of Mallorca in a contemporary manner. The use of local stone, terracotta arches, ceramic roof pantiles, tile-downpipes, and other traditional building elements, together with the means of construction, are analogous to local building tradition, but incorporate an untraditional double course of stone from Utzon’s own Danish background, to improve insulation. The colonnaded courtyard, which echoes the pared-down classicism of Asplund’s Woodland Crematorium, transforms the humble vernacular character of the house complex to a place of understated nobility and sacred sense of place that evokes the ancient classical world of the Mediterranean region. The use of the triangular chimneys that are characteristic of Mallorcan houses locates Can Lis more specifcally on the island. In all of the component elements of Can Lis, there is an underlying modularity and governing geometry, which is subtly adjusted in the overall composition according to the site, effectively creating the sense of an architecture that has occurred organically. Similarly, the strict precision of the stone blocks is softened by leaving the saw marks and imperfections untreated; otherwise, the architecture remains free of embellishment and ornament. The revealing of these imperfections illuminated by a narrow band of afternoon light entering through a narrow slit of a window high up in the living room is one of the defning phenomenological experiences of Can Lis, together with the abstract quality of the framing of sea and sky, like a Rothko canvas come to life. The abstract experience of the view is achieved through a lack of distraction from lintels and window frames, as Utzon with reference to Sigurd Lewerentz’s St. Peter’s Church in Klippan, Sweden, places the frames externally. As Alberto Campo Baeza commented while participating at the Utzon International Meeting Mallorca held in 2008 at Can Lis, Utzon created one

116 Work within other cultures of the great houses of the Mediterranean but using the most humble, local materials and technology. As Baeza suggested, no self-respecting Spanish architect could build a house for themselves so cheaply. That Utzon could be so pragmatic and economic and still achieve such a profound and outstanding work of architecture is due to a humble yet sophisticated interpretation of appropriate metaphoric and analogical references, sensitivity to site, and tectonic clarity. That the very basic, inexpensive, but sensually tactile standard Spanish taps at Can Lis have been replaced in the recent renovation by

Figure 3.26 Section and plan drawings of Can Feliz, Mallorca. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

Work within other cultures

117

expensive, unergonomic Arne Jacobsen designed Vola fttings indicates that there still is not a deeper appreciation of the poetic humility and humanity of Utzon’s approach.126 While the essential character of Can Lis evokes a timeless sense of homecoming and dwelling, it was originally intended as a holiday home, but as it became a permanent residence, the challenges of its exposed coastal location proved to be demanding, particularly as Lis and Jørn Utzon’s became more elderly. During storms, waves would crash over the more than 20-metre-high cliffs and despite Utzon’s foresight in building with cavity walls to provide insulation, the prevailing winds in winter caused the house to be very cold. Also, the Utzon’s tired of the increasing curiosity of architects and architecture students, peering through their windows. These factors, combined with being made aware that the land they owned further inland would soon be rezoned and would no longer able to have a private house built on it, prompted Utzon to design and realise Can Feliz. Somewhat more conventional in its interpretation of local building tradition and intended to provide a more comfortable place of gathering for the extended Utzon family, Can Feliz nevertheless expresses many of the essential motifs that defne Utzon’s work. There is the tectonic clarity of structure and material expression, the clear framing of the views to the greater landscape, the capturing of light that joyously flls the interior127 and most particularly in the dynamic sequence of platforms, that lead out and down from the elevated main plateau of the house,“that hovers over the landscape.” From this elevated position, Utzon could to his great delight and satisfaction survey the south of the island, all the way to the sea and the distant horizon in the direction of Africa. While in his mind’s eye on occasions returning perhaps to the Sydney Opera House, not as it was fnally built, but as he so more perfectly intended.

Notes 1 Olaf Fjeld, Sverre Fehn – The Pattern of Thoughts (New York: The Montacelli Press, 2009), 10. 2 Nils-Ole Lund, Nordic Architecture (Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 2008), 21. 3 Nils-Ole Lund, Nordic Architecture (Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 2008), 21. 4 Christian Norberg-Schulz, Nightlands: Nordic Building (Cambridge, MA/London, England: The MIT Press, 1996), 27–29. 5 Christian Norberg-Schulz, Nightlands: Nordic Building (Cambridge, MA/ London, England, The MIT Press, 1996), 29. 6 Christian Norberg-Schulz, Nightlands: Nordic Building (Cambridge, MA/ London, England: The MIT Press, 1996), 30. 7 Christian Norberg-Schulz, Nightlands: Nordic Building (Cambridge, MA/ London, England: The MIT Press, 1996), 30. 8 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration Vision Architecture (Hellerup: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 16. 9 Henrik Steen Møller, Living Architecture No. 8 (Copenhagen: Living Architecture Publishing, 1989), 172. 10 Jørn Utzon, “The Importance of Architects,” in Architecture in an Age of Scepticism: A Practitioners’ Anthology, ed. Denys Lasdun (London: William Heinemann, 1984), 214–233, quoted in Andersen (2014), 284.

118 Work within other cultures 11 Jørn Utzon, “The Importance of Architects,” in Architecture in an Age of Scepticism: A Practitioners’ Anthology, ed. Denys Lasdun (London: William Heinemann, 1984), 214–233, quoted in Andersen (2014), 285. 12 Jørn Utzon, “The Importance of Architects,” in Architecture in an Age of Scepticism: A Practitioners’ Anthology, ed. Denys Lasdun (London: William Heinemann, 1984), 214–233, quoted in Andersen (2014), 285. 13 Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 82. 14 Sigfried Giedion, “Jørn Utzon and the Third Generation,” in Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition, 5th edition (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), 672. 15 Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 73. 16 Stig Matthiesen, Utzons arv (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2015), 38. 17 Jørn Utzon in conversation with Poul Erik Tøjner, in Michael Juul Holm (ed.), Jørn Utzon: The Architects Universe (Humlebæk, Denmark: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2004), 10. 18 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 61. 19 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration Vision Architecture (Hellerup: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 114. 20 Jørn Utzon in conversation with Poul Erik Tøjner, in Michael Juul Holm (ed.), Jørn Utzon: The Architects Universe (Humlebæk, Denmark: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2004), 9. 21 Jørn Utzon in conversation with Poul Erik Tøjner, in Michael Juul Holm (ed.), Jørn Utzon: The Architects Universe (Humlebæk, Denmark: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2004), 9. 22 Jørn Utzon in conversation with Poul Erik Tøjner, in Michael Juul Holm (ed.), Jørn Utzon: The Architects Universe (Humlebæk, Denmark: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2004), 8. 23 Jørn Utzon in conversation with Poul Erik Tøjner, in Michael Juul Holm (ed.), Jørn Utzon: The Architects Universe (Humlebæk, Denmark: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2004), 8–9. 24 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 61. 25 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 62. 26 Jørn Utzon, “Platforms and Plateaus: Ideas of a Danish Architect,” Zodiac, 10 (Milan: Edizioni Comunità, 1962), 114. 27 Jørn Utzon, “Platforms and Plateaus: Ideas of a Danish Architect,” Zodiac, 10 (Milan: Edizioni Comunità, 1962), 116. 28 Jørn Utzon, “Platforms and Plateaus: Ideas of a Danish Architect,” Zodiac, 10 (Milan: Edizioni Comunità, 1962), 115–116. 29 Jørn Utzon, “Platforms and Plateaus: Ideas of a Danish Architect,” Zodiac, 10 (Milan: Edizioni Comunità, 1962), 117. 30 Jørn Utzon, “Platforms and Plateaus: Ideas of a Danish Architect,” Zodiac, 10 (Milan, Edizioni Comunità, 1962), 117. 31 Chen-Yu Chiu, “China Receives Utzon: The Role of Jørn Utzon’s 1958 Study Trip to China in His Architectural Maturity,” Architectural Histories, 4 (1) (2016), 12, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.5334/ah.182. 32 Chen-Yu Chiu, Nur Yildiz Kilinçer, and Helyaneh Aboutalebi Tabrizi, “Illustrations of the 1925-edition Yingzao fashi: Jørn Utzon’s Aesthetic Confrmation and

Work within other cultures

33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53

54

119

Inspiration for the Sydney Opera House Design (1958–1966),” Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, 18 (3), 2019, 159–169. https://doi.org/1 0.1080/13467581.2019.1604357. See also Jiren Feng, Chinese Architecture and Metaphor: Song Culture in the Yingzao fashi Building Manual (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2012). Chen-Yu Chiu, “China Receives Utzon: The Role of Jørn Utzon’s 1958 Study Trip to China in His Architectural Maturity,” Architectural Histories, 4 (1) (2016), 12, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.5334/ah.182. Chen-Yu Chiu, Philip Goad, Peter Myers, and Nur Yildiz Kilinçer, “Jørn Utzon’s Synthesis of Chinese and Japanese Architecture in the Design for Bagsværd Church,” Arq, 22 (4), 2018, 357. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1359135518000696. D.W. Brown, 2500 Years of Wisdom (Studio City, CA: Divines Arts, 2013), 21. Lin Yutang, My Country and My People (London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936), 294–295. Lin Yutang, My Country and My People (London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936), 295. Lin Yutang, My Country and My People (London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936), 296. Lin Yutang, My Country and My People (London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936), 296. Lin Yutang, My Country and My People (London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936), 296. Lin Yutang, My Country and My People (London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936), 296. Lin Yutang, My Country and My People (London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936), 297. Lin Yutang, My Country and My People (London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936), 297. Lin Yutang, My Country and My People (London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936), 298. Lin Yutang, My Country and My People (London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936), 296. Torbjörn Goa, “Geir Grung’s UFO-like Hydroelectric Station in the Norwegian Mountains,” Wallpaper* 129 (December 2009). www.wallpaper.com/ architecture/suldal-power-station-complex-geir-grung-norway. Chen-Yu Chiu, “China Receives Utzon: The Role of Jørn Utzon’s 1958 Study Trip to China in His Architectural Maturity,” Architectural Histories, 4 (1) (2016), 4. Chen-Yu Chiu, “China Receives Utzon: The Role of Jørn Utzon’s 1958 Study Trip to China in His Architectural Maturity,” Architectural Histories, 4 (1) (2016), 5. Chen-Yu Chiu, “China Receives Utzon: The Role of Jørn Utzon’s 1958 Study Trip to China in His Architectural Maturity,” Architectural Histories, 4 (1) (2016), 6–7. Marja Sarvimäki, Structures, Symbols and Meanings: Chinese and Korean Infuence on Japanese Architecture (Espoo, Finland: Helsinki University of Technology Research Series 11/2000), 33. Chen-Yu Chiu, “China Receives Utzon: The Role of Jørn Utzon’s 1958 Study Trip to China in His Architectural Maturity,” Architectural Histories, 4 (1) (2016), 7. Chen-Yu Chiu, “China Receives Utzon: The Role of Jørn Utzon’s 1958 Study Trip to China in His Architectural Maturity,” Architectural Histories, 4 (1) (2016), 7, 9. Marja Sarvimäki, “Japanese Module Interpreted: De-quotations of Re-quotations on Katsura Villa,” in 2017 SAHANZ Conference Proceedings Quotation, Quotation: What Does History Have in Store for Architecture Today?, 619–627. www. sahanz.net/wp-content/uploads/sarvimaki-m-japanese-module-interpreted.pdf. Philp Drew, The Masterpiece. Jørn Utzon: A Secret Life (South Yarra, Vitoria, AU: Hardie Grant Books, 1999), 334.

120 Work within other cultures 55 Philp Drew, The Masterpiece. Jørn Utzon: A Secret Life (South Yarra, Vitoria, AU: Hardie Grant Books, 1999), 334. 56 Chen-Yu Chiu, Aino Niskanen and Nur Yildiz Kilinçer, “Aalto Through Young Utzon’s Eyes: The Role of Alvar Aalto in Developing the Artistic Maturity of Jørn Utzon,” Nordic Journal of Architectural Research, 1 (2020), 48. 57 As Japanese impact on the Aaltos’ designs has been extensively covered in recent studies, it is not discussed further here. See, for example, Chen-Yu Chiu, Aino Niskanen, and Ke Song, “Humanizing Modern Architecture: The Role of Das Japanishe Wohnhaus in Alvar Aalto’s Design for His Own House and Studio in Riihitie,” Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, 16 (1), 2017, 1–8. Also see Hyon-Sob Kim, “Alvar Aalto and Humanizing of Architecture,” Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, 16 (May 2009), 9–16; “Cross-Current Contribution: A Study on East Asian Infuence on Modern Architecture in Europe,” Architectural Research, 11 (2) (December 2009), 9–18; and Tuntematon käyttövoima: Japanilainen tokonoma-käsite ja Alvar Aallon Villa Mairea, 1937–39/ The Unknown Wheel: Japanese Tokonoma Concept in Alvar Aalto’s Villa Mairea, 1937–39 (Pori: Pori Art Museum Publications, 2007), 87. 58 Chen-Yu Chiu, Philip Goad, Peter Myers, and Nur Yildiz Kilinçer, “Jørn Utzon’s Synthesis of Chinese and Japanese Architecture in the Design for Bagsværd Church,” Arq, 22 (4), 2018, 347. 59 Heinrich Engel, The Japanese House: Tradition for Contemporary Architecture (Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Co, 1964). For more, see also Marja Sarvimäki, “Japanese Module Interpreted: De-quotations of Re-quotations on Katsura Villa,” in 2017 SAHANZ Conference Proceedings Quotation, Quotation: What Does History Have in Store for Architecture Today?, 619–627. www.sahanz.net/ wp-content/uploads/sarvimaki-m-japanese-module-interpreted.pdf. 60 Jaime J. Ferrer Forés, Jørn Utzon: Obras y proyectos/Works and Projects (Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gilli, 2006), 258. 61 Personal discussion with Jan and Kim Utzon in Copenhagen, 27 September 2016. 62 Ulla Wagner, “The Zui-Ki-Tei Teahouse,” in Tehuset Zui-Ki-Tei: Det löftesrika ljusets boning (Stockholm: Folkens Museum Etnografska, 1996), 26–29. It should also be noted that the photograph of the original Zui-Ki-Tei on page 19 of “Carter/Sarvimäki” book indicates that the new, current teahouse designed by the prominent Professor Masao Nakamura is somewhat different from the old one that was a source of inspiration for many Scandinavian modernists. 63 Chen-Yu Chiu, Philip Goad, Peter Myers, and Nur Yildiz Kilinçer, “Jørn Utzon’s Synthesis of Chinese and Japanese Architecture in the Design for Bagsværd Church,” Arq, 22 (4), 2018, 346. In this source, the museum (Etnografska museet) is incorrectly called “the Museum of Anthropology.” 64 Nils Erik Wickberg, “Thoughts on Architecture,” (1943) in Abacus 3: (Helsinki: Museum of Finnish Architecture, 1983), 152, quoted in Andersen (2014), 200. 65 Gareth Griffths, “Minimal Information Content in Finnish Architecture,” in Vol. 17, No. 4 (2004): Living in the North – Nordic Refections on Architecture, ed. Kimmo Lapintie (Nordisk Arkitekturforskning/Nordic Journal of Architectural Research 2004: 4), 58. http://arkitekturforskning.net/na/article/view/216. 66 Gareth Griffths, “Minimal Information Content in Finnish Architecture,” in Vol. 17, No. 4 (2004): Living in the North – Nordic Refections on Architecture, ed. Kimmo Lapintie (Nordisk Arkitekturforskning/Nordic Journal of Architectural Research 2004: 4), 58. http://arkitekturforskning.net/na/article/view/216. 67 Erik Gunnar Asplund, “Our Architectonic Perception of Space,” (1931) in Nordic Architects Write, ed. Michael Asgaard Andersen (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2008), 333, quoted in Andersen (2014), 114. 68 Frank Lloyd Wright, “Modern Architecture, Being the Kahn Lectures,” (130, publ. 1931) in The Essential Frank Lloyd Wright: Critical Writings on Architecture, ed.

Work within other cultures

69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84

85

86 87

121

Bruce Brooks (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008), 176 quoted in Andersen (2014), 114. PAGON (attributed to Arne Korsmo), “The Meccanno of the Home,” (1952) in Nordic Architects Write, ed. Michael Asgaard Andersen (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2008), 333, 245 quoted in Andersen (2014), 116. Robin Boyd, The Australian Ugliness, frst published 1960 (Melbourne: The Text Publishing Company, 2012), 3. Robin Boyd, The Australian Ugliness, frst published 1960 (Melbourne: The Text Publishing Company, 2012), 211. Robin Boyd, The Australian Ugliness, frst published 1960 (Melbourne: The Text Publishing Company, 2012), 11. Robin Boyd, The Australian Ugliness, frst published 1960 (Melbourne: The Text Publishing Company, 2012), 101. Robin Boyd, The Australian Ugliness, frst published 1960 (Melbourne: The Text Publishing Company, 2012), 103. Jørn Utzon letter dated July 14, 1964, reproduced in Content 1 (1995), 38 in Andersen (2014), 36. Jørn Utzon letter dated July 14, 1964, reproduced in Content 1 (1995), 38 in Andersen (2014), 36. Jørn Utzon, “Joern Utzon Talks about Housing,” Australian House and Garden (Sydney, December 1963). Jørn Utzon, “Joern Utzon Talks about Housing,” Australian House and Garden (Sydney, December 1963). Jørn Utzon, “Joern Utzon Talks about Housing,” Australian House and Garden (Sydney, December 1963). Philip Drew in Stephen Lacey, “The Triumph of Ugliness,” The Sydney Morning Herald (March 22, 2008). www.smh.com.au/national/the-triumph-of-ugliness20080322-gds6cw.html. Jørn Utzon, “Joern Utzon Talks about Housing,” Australian House and Garden (Sydney, December 1963). Karsten Harries, “The Ethical Signifcance of Environmental Beauty,” 134–150, in Architecture, Ethics, and the Personhood of Place, ed. Gregory Caicco (Hanover and London, University Press of New England, 2007), 149. Philip Drew in Stephen Lacey, “The Triumph of Ugliness,” The Sydney Morning Herald (March 22, 2008). www.smh.com.au/national/the-triumph-of-ugliness20080322-gds6cw.html. Brit Andresen quoted in Adrian Carter, “Utzon’s Beautiful Ideas: An Antidote to ‘The Australian Ugliness’?” in Unpublished paper for the 4th Utzon Symposium, What would Utzon Do Now?, March 7–9, 2014, Sydney Opera House, 6. www. be.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/fles/upload/UtzonSymposium/CARTER.pdf. Adrian Carter, “Utzon’s Beautiful Ideas: An Antidote to ‘The Australian Ugliness’?” in Unpublished paper for the 4th Utzon Symposium, What would Utzon Do Now?, March 7–9, 2014, Sydney Opera House, 6. www.be.unsw.edu.au/sites/ default/fles/upload/UtzonSymposium/CARTER.pdf. Email from Jan Utzon, 21 January 2014. Email from Leighton Liu, 15 October 2013. Drew and Weston also interviewed Professor Liu who shared an offce with Utzon at the UHM School of Architecture, though Weston incorrectly calls him Laurence Liu. Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 421. In addition, it is worth noting that Drew also makes a mistake by calling the Dean who hired Utzon as Bruce Heatherington. Philp Drew, The Masterpiece. Jørn Utzon. A Secret Life (South Yarra, Vitoria, AU: Hardie Grant Books, 1999), 420. The Dean of the UHM School of Architecture at that time was Bruce Etherington.

122 Work within other cultures 88 Kenneth Frampton, “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance,” in The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Post-Modern Culture (Seattle: Bay Press, 1983), 16–30; “Prospects for a Critical Regionalism,” Perspecta: The Yale Architectural Journal, 20 (1983), 147–162; and Modern Architecture: A Critical History, 3rd edition (London, UK: Thames and Hudson, 1992), 314–327. See also Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre, “The Grid and the Pathway,” Architecture Greece, 15 (1981), 164–178. 89 Philip Drew, The Masterpiece. Jørn Utzon: A Secret Life (South Yarra, Victoria, AU: Hardie Grant Books, 1999); and Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002); and Jørn Utzon Logbook Vol. II, Bagsværd Church (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2005). 90 Kenneth Frampton, “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance,” in The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Post-Modern Culture (Seattle: Bay Press, 1983), 21. 91 Kenneth Frampton, “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance,” in The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Post-Modern Culture (Seattle: Bay Press, 1983), 23. Probably because of Frampton’s interpretation, several authors have later referred to the sketch as a pagoda. See, for example, Francoise Fromonot, “Jørn Utzon: Un ricordo delle Hawaii,” Casabella, 649 (1997), 24–37, 28. 92 Kenneth Frampton, “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance,” in The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Post-Modern Culture (Seattle: Bay Press, 1983), 23. 93 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 221. 94 Michael Asgaard Andersen, “Embedded Emancipation: The Field of Utzon’s Platforms,” Fabrications, 15 (1) (July 2005), 27–37. 95 Email from Jan Utzon, January 21, 2014. 96 Jørn Utzon Logbook Vol. II, Bagsværd Church (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2005), 116. 97 Christian Norberg-Schulz, “Church at Bagsværd,” Global Architecture, 61 (1981), 5. 98 Utzon in Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 281. 99 Interview of Leighton Liu on February 2, 2014. 100 Interview of Leighton Liu on February 2, 2014. 101 Interview of Leighton Liu on February 2, 2014. 102 Interview of Leighton Liu on February 2, 2014. 103 Interview of John Hara on February 15, 2014. 104 Interview of John Hara on February 15, 2014. 105 Email from Dwight Mitsunaga, 27 January 2014, and interview with him on 19 February 2014. 106 Interview of Dwight Mitsunaga, 19 February 2014. 107 Interview of Dwight Mitsunaga, 19 February 2014. 108 Interview of Kelvin Otaguro on 1 February 2014. 109 Interview of Kelvin Otaguro on 1 February 2014. 110 Interview of John Hara on 15 February 2014. 111 Email from Jan Utzon on 21 January 2014. 112 Khaled al-Sultany, Architectural Intertextuallity: Architecture as Acceptance of ‘The Other’ (Copenhagen: The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture Publishers, 2012), 146–149. 113 Jørn Utzon quoted in Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 212.

Work within other cultures

123

114 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration Vision Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 225–227. 115 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration Vision Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 255. 116 Markku Komonen, “Elements in the Way of Life,” (interview of Jørn Utzon), in Jørn Utzon Logbook IV/ Kuwait National Assembly, ed. Torsten Bløndal, Børge Nissen, and Jørn Utzon (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2008), 8–11. 117 Hans Munk Hansen, “The Place Is the Partner,” in Jørn Utzon Logbook IV/ Kuwait National Assembly, ed. Torsten Bløndal, Børge Nissen, and Jørn Utzon (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2008), 18. 118 Markku Komonen, “Elements in the Way of Life,” (interview of Jørn Utzon), in Jørn Utzon Logbook IV/ Kuwait National Assembly, ed. Torsten Bløndal, Børge Nissen, and Jørn Utzon (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2008), 8–11. 119 In addition to the earlier notes, parts of this information are published in Adrian Carter and Marja Sarvimäki, “Utzon: The Defning Light of the Third Generation,” ZARCH, 10 (2018), 88–99. https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_zarch/ zarch.2018102933. It is based on the authors’ feldwork in Iran (November 2017) and Kuwait (March 2007 and September 2018). During the feldwork in Kuwait, it became apparent that many changes have been applied to the interior of the Assembly building, which took place when the building was renovated after the Iraqi occupation in 1990 that left the building partially burned. However, most additions seem rather superfcial and have not compromised the structural or aesthetic integrity of the building, would these additions be removed. 120 Jørn Utzon, Kuwait National Assembly, the ‘Blue Book’ (1973, n.p.) in Andersen (2014), 102. 121 Jørn Utzon, Kuwait National Assembly, the ‘Blue Book’ (1973, n.p.) in Andersen (2014), 105. 122 Utzon, Jørn, “The Importance of Architects,” in Architecture in an Age of Skepticism: A Practitioners Anthology, ed. Denys Lasdun (London: William Heinemann, 1984), 214–233, 219. 123 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 305. 124 Khaled al-Sultany, Architectural Intertextuallity: Architecture as Acceptance of ‘the Other’ (Copenhagen: The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture Publishers, 2012), 141. 125 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 99. 126 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 99–103. 127 Christina Norberg-Schulz in Martin Keiding and Kim Dirchinck-Holmfeld (eds.), Utzon and the New Tradition (Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 2005), 256.

References al-Sultany, Khaled. Architectural Intertextuallity: Architecture as Acceptance of ‘The Other’. Copenhagen: The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture Publishers, 2012. Andersen, Michael Asgaard. Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014.

124 Work within other cultures Bløndal, Torsten, Børge Nissen, and Jørn Utzon (eds.). Jørn Utzon Logbook IV/ Kuwait National Assembly. Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2008. Carter, Adrian and Marja Sarvimäki. ‘Utzon: The Defning Light of the Third Generation.’ ZARCH, 10, 2018, 88–99. https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_zarch/ zarch.2018102933. Chiu, Chen-Yu. ‘China Receives Utzon: The Role of Jørn Utzon’s 1958 Study Trip to China in His Architectural Maturity.’ Architectural Histories, 4 (1), 2016, 12, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.5334/ah.182. Chiu, Chen-Yu, Philip Goad, Peter Myers, and Nur Yildiz Kilinçer. ‘Jørn Utzon’s Synthesis of Chinese and Japanese Architecture in the Design for Bagsværd Church.’ Arq, 22 (4), 2018, 339–360. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1359135518000696. Chiu, Chen-Yu, Aino Niskanen and Nur Yildiz Kilinçer. ‘Aalto Through Young Utzon’s Eyes: The Role of Alvar Aalto in Developing the Artistic Maturity of Jørn Utzon.’ Nordic Journal of Architectural Research, 1, 2020. Chiu, Chen-Yu, Nur Yildiz Kilinçer, and Helyaneh Aboutalebi Tabrizi. ‘Illustrations of the 1925-edition Yingzao fashi: Jørn Utzon’s Aesthetic Confrmation and Inspiration for the Sydney Opera House Design (1958–1966).’ Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, 18 (3), 2019, 159–169. https://doi.org/10.1080 /13467581.2019.1604357. Drew, Philip. The Masterpiece. Jørn Utzon: A Secret Life. South Yarra, Victoria, AU: Hardie Grant Books, 1999. Engel, Heinrich. The Japanese House: Tradition for Contemporary Architecture. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Co, 1964. Feng, Jiren. Chinese Architecture and Metaphor: Song Culture in the Yingzao fashi Building Manual. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2012. Fjeld, Olaf. Sverre Fehn: The Pattern of Thoughts. New York: The Montacelli Press, 2009. Forés, Jaime J. Ferrer. Jørn Utzon: Obras y proyectos/Works and Projects. Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gilli, 2006. Frampton, Kenneth. Modern Architecture: A Critical History, 3rd edition. London, UK: Thames and Hudson, 1992. Frampton, Kenneth. ‘Prospects for a Critical Regionalism.’ Perspecta: The Yale Architectural Journal, 20, 1983, 147–162. Massachusetts: Yale Architectural Journal and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA. Frampton, Kenneth. ‘Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance.’ In The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Post-Modern Culture, 16–30. Seattle: Bay Press, 1983. Giedion, Sigfried. ‘Jørn Utzon and the Third Generation.’ In Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition, 5th edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997. Griffths, Gareth. ‘Minimal Information Content in Finnish Architecture.’ Nordisk Arkitekturforskning/Nordic Journal of Architectural Research, 17 (4), 2004, 55–63. Living in the North – Nordic Refections on Architecture, ed. Kimmo Lapintie. http://arkitekturforskning.net/na/article/view/216. Harries, Karsten. ‘The Ethical Signifcance of Environmental Beauty.’ In Architecture, Ethics, and the Personhood of Place, edited by Gregory Caicco, 134–150. Hanover/ London: University Press of New England, 2007. Lund, Nils-Ole. Nordic Architecture. Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 2008. Matthiesen, Stig. Utzons arv. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2015.

Work within other cultures

125

Møller, Henrik Steen. Living Architecture No. 8, 146–173. Copenhagen: Living Architecture Publishing, 1989. Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Nightlands: Nordic Building, Cambridge, MA/London, England: The MIT Press, 1996. Sarvimäki, Marja. ‘Japanese Module Interpreted: De-Quotations of Re-Quotations on Katsura Villa.’ In 2017 SAHANZ Conference Proceedings Quotation, Quotation: What Does History Have in Store for Architecture Today?, 619–627. Canberra, Australia, July 5–8, 2017. www.sahanz.net/wp-content/uploads/ sarvimaki-m-japanese-module-interpreted.pdf. Sarvimäki, Marja. Structures, Symbols and Meanings: Chinese and Korean Infuence on Japanese Architecture. Espoo, Finland: Helsinki University of Technology Research Series 11/2000. Utzon, Jørn. ‘The Importance of Architects.’ In Architecture in an Age of Scepticism: A Practitioners’ Anthology, edited by Denys Lasdun, 214–233. London: William Heinemann, 1984. Utzon, Jørn. ‘Joern Utzon Talks about Housing.’ Australian House and Garden, December 1963, Sydney. Utzon, Jørn. ‘Platforms and Plateaus: Ideas of a Danish Architect.’ Zodiac, 10, 1962, 114–117. Milan: Edizioni Comunità. Wagner, Ulla. ‘The Zui-Ki-Tei Teahouse.’ In Tehuset Zui-Ki-Tei: Det löftesrika ljusjets boning, 26–29. Stockholm: Folkens Museum Etnografska, 1996. Weston, Richard. Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture. Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002. Yutang, Lin. My Country and My People. London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936.

4

Thematic analysis

An inductive analysis of Utzon’s work is inherently complex, including his background, mentors, sources of inspiration, and evolution of his design thinking, combined with empirical case studies of actual works and their sources. Together with these features, insights gained from personal conversations with Utzon and those who knew him form the thematic analysis of his work in this book, added with analyses of architects and their work infuenced by Utzon. It is possible to identify a consistent essentialist abstraction of transcultural themes of analogous and metaphoric transfer within Utzon’s conceptual approach, design methods, and resulting work which defne Utzon’s methodology and work as an outstanding paradigm of transcultural essentialism at many levels of operation. The notion of transcultural essentialism, as with the nature of Utzon’s own methodology and work itself, both transcend, but also encapsulate theory in the understanding of infuences, methods, and intuitive poetic synthesis. So, to effectively examine Utzon’s oeuvre, a methodology is required that is appropriate to Utzon’s non-theoretical approach. The frame of investigation not only embraces Utzon’s intellectual positions but also captures more subtle elements of infuence such as transcultural sources of inspiration, Utzon’s formative experiences, and his consistent attitudes of humanity and humility. The background for Utzon’s work can, as a result, be understood according to the role of mentors and the craft tradition, combined with the beneft of travel and transcultural infuences, with the consistent abstract essentialist use of metaphor and analogy the overarching connection between these differing, but closely linked thematic components. According to Geoffrey Broadbent, in his seminal book Design Methods in Architecture, The nearest we shall ever get to a “theory” of architecture will be a theory of design-behaviour which predicts – with probabilities – the ways in which architects, or anyone else who tries to generate 3-dimensional built form will act whilst they are trying to design. Certain mechanisms seem to have been used, in this context, by designers throughout history, starting long before there were any professional architects.1 DOI: 10.4324/9781003094180-4

Thematic analysis

127

In his subsequent publication Design in Architecture: Architecture and the Human Sciences Broadbent proposed that there are four basic modes of designing or types of design, which in chronological and ascending order of sophistication are Pragmatic, Iconic, Analogic, and Canonic Design. Going back to the very origins of building and architecture, The earliest designers seem to have taken a highly practical view of their task, using whatever materials lay to hand, establishing by trial and error what the materials could do until a form emerges which seems to serve the designer’s purpose.2 Thus, effective shelters were created from otherwise unpromising, but readily available materials, the basic aim being to provide protection from or at least modify the prevailing climate for, in any case that part of the year when it was not conducive to human habitation. Broadbent states that, “All buildings, fnally do this – they effect a reconciliation between man’s needs and the climate as offered by a particular piece of ground.” However, Broadbent adds that “There is more to it now than modifcation of the physical climate. The building also whether we like it or not, will modify, and be modifed by certain cultural climates – social, political, economic, moral, aesthetic and so on.”3 Broadbent suggested that this early tendency of letting the available materials dictate the eventual form of the structure still occurs today whenever we use new materials and techniques. Utzon was invariably pragmatic and interested in using the most readily available materials, but very open to innovation in terms of new techniques and methods of utilising those materials. Then through prototyping, and often making full-scale mock-ups, Utzon would determine the most qualitative and effective means of realising his architecture. Utzon’s cost-effective pragmatism can be seen for example in his use of traditional brick and standard dimensions of materials in his housing projects in Denmark, in his proposed use of locally produced large plywood sheeting for the interiors of the Sydney Opera House, and in his fascination with the effciencies of pre-fabrication. A notable exception to this is his insistence to manufacture the ceramic tiles for the Sydney Opera House by Höganäs in Sweden because he believed they alone could achieve the unique glazing he strived to achieve. A decision that was not appreciated in Sydney at that time and fed into the provincially minded criticisms that eventually led to his removal from the project, particularly after he rejected the frst shipment of tiles from Sweden as being unsatisfactory.

Learning from global vernacular For Utzon, as for many of his contemporaries, the fascination with the natural form also encouraged an interest in original indigenous and traditional vernacular architecture. Such early primordial and long-established

128 Thematic analysis architecture, like any structure in nature, is the result of having invariably been developed and refned through a continual process of evolution. This results in what Broadbent describes as Iconic Design, which occurs “when the members of a particular culture share a fxed mental image of what the design should be ‘like’.”4 He suggested that this takes place when there is a match between the local climate that needs to be controlled and the available resources. Once a design solution has been proven to work it leads to repetition. There are also other signifcant reasons for maintaining an established way of building, most notably the fact that A craftsman spends long years acquiring the skills and aptitudes of his craft. . . . Once he has become a master of his craft these traditional ways will be built deep into his consciousness; he will have acquired patterns of co-ordination between hand, eye and brain which he will not wish to abandon; his interest will be in passing on these secrets to another generation. Given this tendency for individual crafts to remain fairly constant, there will be strong pressures for the entire pattern of building to remain constant too.5 Appropriately Broadbent makes reference to the work of the architectural theorist Christopher Alexander and his major publications, Community and Privacy (1963) written with Serge Chermayeff, Notes on the Synthesis of Form (1964), A Pattern Language (1977) written with Sarah Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein, and The Timeless Way of Building (1979). These books echo Utzon’s own approach developed earlier and have made a signifcant impact upon architectural thinking since. While Alexander’s approach came to be seen by many as being overly romantic and nostalgic, at its core it remains a potent basis for achieving a profound experiential quality in architecture. As Peter Buchanan wrote in The Architectural Review in 2012, Even architects not immune to the charms of the places depicted, are loath to pursue the folksy aesthetic they see as implied and do not want to engage with such primitive construction – although the systemic collapse now unfolding may force that upon them. The daunting challenge for architects then, if such a thing is even possible to realise, would be to recreate in a more contemporary idiom both the richness and quality of experience suggested by the pattern language.6 Certainly, Utzon was not immune to the kind of places to which Christopher Alexander later refers and actively sought inspiration in traditional forms of building. With a background in his youth in boat building, an architectural education at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, which in Utzon’s time still encompassed learning building trades frst-hand, Utzon maintained throughout his life a fascination with ancient vernacular cultures of the world, that preceded long before the popularity of such interest

Thematic analysis

129

generated by the publication of Bernard Rudofsky’s Architecture Without Architects in 1964 and continued throughout his life. Utzon who was not one to collect many books on architecture, preferring books on art, was however particularly delighted by the publication in 2003 of Dwellings, Paul Oliver’s comprehensive documentation of informal domestic world architecture. Utzon was a rare modern architect who did dare and succeeded in translating ancient and more recent vernacular architecture from many diverse world cultures, into contemporary architecture that was neither pastiche or kitsch, but modern and timeless. Utzon was interested and able to extrapolate the essential qualities of the transcultural and traditional vernacular and other architecture he experienced, rather than merely replicate it in some other form, because he was very astutely conscious of the circumstances in which it was created. As Utzon said himself, If we want to further enhance our perception of architecture, we must understand that architectural expression under all changing conditions emerges in accordance with the structure of society. Studying the architecture before us must consist in letting ourselves be immediately affected by it and make clear the dependency of the solutions and details upon the time in which they were created.7 Broadbent suggests that Analogic Design, the “the drawing of analogies – usually visual – into the solution of one’s design problems” began when early cave painters identifed stains and forms within rock formations that reminded them of bison and deer and “reinforced the outlines of these forms in pigment, thus intensifying their analogic qualities and making them obvious to others. This method of generating new forms does seem fundamental to the human mind.”8 The frst formal application of this process within architecture, as far as is known, is according to Broadbent, Imhotep’s design for King Djoser of the Step Pyramid and funerary complex at Saqqara near Memphis around 2800 BCE. He writes that “given the problem of building, for the frst time, in large blocks of stone, he drew visual analogies with existing brick tomb-forms, timber-framed and reed-mat houses, for the overall building forms” and that “Imhotep’s use of analogy extends from the forms of the buildings themselves to applied decorations, such as capitals carved in the forms of lotus buds or fowers, crestings in the form of cobra heads and so on.”9 Analogy, according to Broadbent, still seems to be the mechanism of “creative architecture” as with Wright’s use of water lily forms in the Johnson Wax Administration Building (1936) that Utzon visited while under construction, or the inspiration of hands at prayer as evoked by Le Corbusier in the sculptural roof of Ronchamp. These are direct analogies. Much of twentieth-century architecture has drawn on painting and sculpture as sources of analogies, (Constructivism, Purism, de Stijl); but analogies can also be drawn with one’s own body and with abstract, philosophical concepts.10

130 Thematic analysis An Analogic Design approach, of which Utzon is an exemplary master, is a fundamental basis for creative endeavour and for the creation of architecture, that is, buildings that go beyond the basic utilitarian provision of shelter and protection from the elements. Once it became the practice to prepare drawings prior to beginning construction on site, the actual process of drawing and simulating the eventual construction took on its own signifcance, with an increasing fascination for pattern, order, and regularity, which was invariably expressed by an underlying grid. As a result, the notion developed that Broadbent describes as the basis for Canonic Design that “art and design could be underpinned by abstract proportional systems,”11 which was further strengthened by Greek mathematicians such as Pythagoras and philosophers as, most notably Plato, who believed that the universe itself was constructed of cubes, tetrahedra, icosahedra and dodecahedra and that these in turn were made up of triangles. The Platonic triangles underlay Gothic design. Whilst much 20th century design has been on similar precepts; it is the basis of all modular systems, dimensional co-ordination, prefabricated systems building and so on.12 According to these aforementioned terms, it can be understood that what raises Utzon’s work to the highest levels of architectural achievement is that the poetic dimension of his work achieved through Analogic Design is translated and abstracted through the rational flter of geometry. Though his masterpiece the Sydney Opera House is considered by many to be a work of sculptural expressive architecture, it is clearly governed by its adherence to an underlying spherical geometry and constructed using a relatively limited range of prefabricated elements and components. His geometric abstract interpretation of universal analogies and metaphors is the key to the timeless, poetic quality of Utzon’s work and underpins the iconic status of the Sydney Opera House

A cross-cultural sense of dwelling As the German Romantic poet Friedrich Hölderlin wrote “poetically man dwells” which was later expanded upon by Martin Heidegger in Poetry, Language, Thought, confrming that the poetic is not merely desirable in architecture, but that it is essential to dwelling, as without it we do not have an innate connection to place. A poetic approach to design ensures that architecture remains humane and meaningful, with an inherent narrative that contributes to our collective culture and individual need to be able to dwell within the built environment. This we tend to take for granted within an environment that is familiar to us, but it is an understanding that becomes more explicitly clear when we travel and experience exotic contexts in which others dwell.

Thematic analysis

131

Following his brief but extensive travels through Europe and Morocco, then later to the United States and Mexico in the late 1940s, Utzon returned to Denmark, and despite uncertain economic circumstances and the demands of a young family, the Utzons decided to build their own house on a wooded site at Hellebæk, in 1952. Inspired by traditional Japanese vernacular architecture, Wright’s Usonian houses, and the open plan clarity of Mies van der Rohe’s houses, Utzon’s Hellebæk house introduced the open plan concept to Danish domestic architecture and came to defne the epitome of the modern Danish house. The house is raised on a low brick platform and designed as parallel wall-planes. Approaching the house one meets a long wall of yellow brick, which provides protection from the north winds and is only broken by the main entrance, while facing south is an entirely glazed facade that overlooks the gently falling terrain of a clearing in the woods. The house was built using modulor elements that have allowed the house to be substantially extended and, though built using traditional materials, the house incorporated such technical innovations as the frst, under-foor heating system built in Denmark. The completion of his own house was followed by his design of the Middelboe House on the edge of Lake Furesø in Holte, in which he took his ideas of prefabrication further. Due to diffculties of access to the site and the risk of fooding, as well as to gain a better appreciation of the distant view,

Figure 4.1 Utzon’s own house, Hellebæk, 1952. Source: Flemming Bo Andersen, Utzon Photos

132 Thematic analysis Utzon decided to raise the house on pilotis: an ingenious frame construction of precast concrete columns and beams simply resting on each other. The construction principle owed much to Le Corbusier’s modernism, yet also to Utzon’s understanding of Chinese timber construction, which is emphasised by the painting of load-bearing elements according to the traditional Chinese colour scheme. In one of his few ventures into the design of high-rise housing, Utzon together with Erik and Henry Andersson won the competition in 1954 for Elineberg, overlooking the sea in Helsingborg, Sweden. To take advantage of the views, Utzon organised the housing in tower blocks rising from a single continuous platform that contained the parking. To individualise the apartments and maximise the experience of the sea below, the foor plans were staggered, and the internal section of the upper apartment foors stepped down towards the balcony and the view. A further refnement and decorative feature on the facade was an incremental increase in the number of fullheight balustrades, on which climbing plants might grow, towards the upper foors provided an increased sense of enclosure. This scheme was realised, but without Utzon to oversee it and lacked the fnesse he had intended. He was to use a similar approach to Elineberg in his winning design entry for a large-scale urban planning competition for the Frederiksberg district of Copenhagen. It was however not developed further due to a political desire for a greater density of development. As Weston has commented “despite the inventive thinking he brought to its design, Utzon’s heart did not really lie with high-rise housing. His preference, exemplifed by the house at Hellebæk, was for a secure, private domain in close contact with nature.”13 In 1954, he participated in a Swedish low-cost housing competition in Skåne, the southernmost region of Sweden. Here he proposed a courtyard form of housing that allowed for adaptation and expansion according to specifc family needs. The arrangement of the individual units was further inspired by Chinese and Islamic village settlement patterns. The courtyard-house principles that were established in the low-cost housing competition proposal for Skåne were further developed by Utzon, in the Kingo housing complex, near Helsingør. A major housing development, that still more than 50 years later is considered one of Denmark’s most successful and visited by countless architects and urban planners from all over the world seeking inspiration to more successful low-rise higher density suburban developments in their own countries. The Kingo Houses were the result of Utzon’s own initiative and was his most ambitious realised project prior to the Sydney Opera House. Having demonstrated his earlier Skåne houses as a model, for what he proposed could be built as low-cost, state-supported housing; he was provided with a site by the municipality of Helsingør. Based again upon the courtyard, as the inner focus for each house, the design of the enclosing walls was determined on-site, according to the needs of privacy, the direction of the prevailing wind, exposure to the sun, and to frame certain views.14

Thematic analysis

133

Essentially, the courtyard represents a sense of community of gathering around a common shared space. This notion of community gathered around a courtyard is further developed and articulated with reference to Aalto’s metaphoric idea of a group of houses being like a branch of a fowering cherry tree: where all the fowers are essentially the same, yet each is unique, looking this way or that, expanding or retreating, according to its relationship to its neighbours, and to the sun and wind.15 Thus, the almost identical Kingo courtyard houses, which are all individually orientated to maximise sunlight and protect from the prevailing winds and optimise views to the natural focal points of the site, are clustered in smaller groupings along the spines of access roads that act like the veins of a leaf. To this architectural expression of community, Utzon added the notion of an unbroken natural landscape fowing between the houses as common shared land, from which the buildings grow metaphorically as if as one with the landscape. The stepping of the gable and courtyard walls evokes both the character of traditional Danish vernacular brick architecture and also Chinese infuence. The transcultural understanding of the courtyard Utzon derived from many different cultures and specifc sources that he personally experienced, were expressed notably among the traditional Danish farmhouse gathered around a central yard, the traditional siheyuan courtyard houses along the hutong alleyways of Beijing and most particularly the traditional housing with internalised courtyards that Utzon experienced on his travels in Morocco in 1947 and later in Iran. With its closed, unbroken exteriors, the sandy-coloured brickwork and distinctive chimneys, reminiscent of Arab wind-catchers, the similarities to traditional Arabian and North African housing led to the Kingo Houses being given the epithet of “Arab City” and, more lastingly, “Romerhusene” (the Roman Houses).16 Designed to look like more traditional dwellings that had been hand crafted and built organically over time, Utzon promoted the Kingo courtyard housing typology as being much more effcient in terms of land use and a more cost-effective form for suburban housing development. Consequently, Utzon very pragmatically designed the housing according to the dimensions of the standard prefabricated building components, while the housing units were designed to meet very stringent size and cost restrictions for gaining state mortgages. For example, the opening between the kitchen and dining area in the Kingo Houses is determined by the dimensions of a standard sheet of plywood, to save labour costs in terms of cutting it to another size. In the later Fredensborg Houses the individual prospective owners could choose from a limited option of courtyard wall heights, according to the degree of privacy that they required, but also according to the costs they were prepared to pay. As a shy, private individual, who could be very outgoing and sociable

134 Thematic analysis in the company of family and close friends, Utzon fully appreciated that to create a strong sense of community, though he was also aware that providing a high degree of individual privacy was being a part of the wider community as an active personal choice. This is something that many of the subsequent Danish “Bofællesskab” collective housing communities that were inspired particularly by the Kingo Houses failed to fully appreciate and incorporate in their design. The Kingo Houses were widely publicised and emulated in Denmark, and, together with their exotic character, attracted the attention of Danske Samvirke, an organisation concerned with the needs of Danes working abroad, who approached Utzon in 1962 with a project to build houses for Danes who wished to return to Denmark to retire. The resulting development was located in Fredensborg. The design of this housing development, together with a large communal building, is a thorough reworking of the principles previously employed at the Kingo houses to take into account the sloping site

Figure 4.2 Fredensborg Houses. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

Thematic analysis

135

Figure 4.3 Site plan of Fredensborg Houses. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

and views to an open pastoral landscape. With Fredensborg, Utzon achieved a noble vernacular quality with the ambience of distant sun-kissed lands that served the particular needs of the residents, achieving a perfect balance between individual privacy and a strong sense of community. According to Kenneth Frampton, Utzon, like Alvar Aalto before him, “strove for a building culture that would be more accessible to the society at large. For him there ought to be no inherent division between modernity and the continuity of architecture as a universal culture.”17 Frampton goes further to suggest that The validity of this “popular” approach would never be more convincingly demonstrated than in the compact low-rise housing schemes that

136 Thematic analysis Utzon built in North Zealand. Remarkably, Fredensborg was being designed at the same time as Utzon was already working on the Sydney Opera House, a measure of Utzon’s rare ability to design both outstanding ordinary buildings and simultaneously the most inspired and iconic architectural monument of the twentieth century.18

Universal themes of courtyards, podiums, and foating roofs Many of the numerous international projects that Utzon worked on simultaneously with the Sydney Opera House and after his departure from Sydney demonstrate a continuing critical reinvestigation and development of certain timeless essential transcultural themes in his work: the courtyard, the raised platform, and foating roofs, combined with a fascination with an openended “additive architecture” based upon the potential possibilities afforded by advanced industrial pre-fabrication. The courtyard typology is certainly one of the most enduringly essential and transcultural formats for human habitation. Deriving from a vernacular tradition of building up of dwellings around a common protected space, generation by generation. But also, from notions in many ancient cultures of the enclosed garden, the hortus conclusus, as somewhat abstracted and idealised recreation of the natural world, as a paradise on earth. This is exemplifed by the Moorish garden courtyards of the Alhambra, or the enclosed Japanese stone gardens, such as at Ryōan-ji in Kyoto, but also in the many varying courtyard typologies of traditional housing and collective dwellings, in which a courtyard provides a communal outdoor living space, while also spiritually and metaphorically connecting the earth with the heaven, providing an existential sense of dwelling. While the enclosed garden within a courtyard transcended its ancient humble vernacular origins and evolved in many parts of the world. Emerging within a Western context from the Renaissance onwards, its application was diminished early in the twentieth century by Modern architecture’s emphasis on the building as an object within the landscape in contrast, rather than in conjunction with nature. The architects of the “Other Tradition” and “Third Generation” in Modern architecture resisted and countered this approach and in the works of Aalto and subsequently Utzon and others, in whose works the courtyard re-emerges as an essential feature. Utzon’s recurring use of the courtyard in his work owes its origins to the inspiration of Danish traditional farmhouses gathered around a common area and parallels Aalto’s fascination with the organic growth of Karelian farmhouses in Eastern Finland that developed over time and generations, around a central outdoor space. Utzon found further vernacular references for his analogous use of the courtyard in his own work during his travels in Morocco and the Middle East, his experiences of the traditional Chinese siheyuan multigenerational courtyard houses and in the layout of many temples in China and Japan, as well as in the infuence of his contemporaries, such as Aalto.

Thematic analysis

137

Kenneth Frampton has considered Utzon, pre-eminently amongst modern western architects of the twentieth century, as an architect notable for the extensive range of his inspiration from non-western sources, particularly the Chinese courtyard houses. These transcultural infuences informed the design of his Kingo and Fredensborg Houses, which are his highly regarded courtyard housing projects in Denmark, among many other projects interpreting the courtyard typology. These are an outstanding, modern translation of the enclosed garden, taking inspiration from the traditional Danish farmhouses built around a central courtyard and also the courtyard houses along the hutongs of Beijing. Not only were Utzon’s courtyard housing projects highly effcient in terms of land use, compared to typical suburban housing, but they were also highly successful in providing a great degree of privacy within the hortus conclusus, like a Chinese siheyuan, while at the same time engendering a considerable sense of community, through the creation of an extensive area of interstitial green common areas that fow between the fngers of the connected courtyard house units. Still, more than half a century since their realisation, they remain greatly admired and held up as a model for further future development. According to Frampton, Utzon “strove for a building culture that would be more accessible to the society at large. For him there ought to be no inherent division between modernity and the continuity of architecture as a universal culture” and goes further to suggest that the validity of this approach “would never be more convincingly demonstrated than in the compact low-rise housing schemes that Utzon built in North Zealand, Denmark between 1956 and 1963.” Furthermore, “no other architect in the West has demonstrated more convincingly the land conserving, socially cohesive and socially accessible virtues of this model.”19 In Utzon’s architecture the courtyard, most signifcantly within his housing, metaphorically represents a gathering space and provides an intimate, semi-private interstitial space, between the private domain of the home itself and the shared domain of the common landscape beyond. Undoubtedly the enduring success of the Kingo and Fredensborg courtyard houses is due largely to the clear demarcation between the private and the public, while still instilling a clear sense of a close-knit community. Certainly, Utzon’s courtyard houses and own houses on Mallorca, most particularly Can Lis are perhaps amongst the most profound evocations of Jay Appleton’s theory of “Prospect and Refuge”20 within architecture.21 Parallel to Utzon’s use of the courtyard, particularly within domestic scale projects, there is a recurring use of the plateau, both in relation to houses, but most signifcantly with regard to his more monumental public works. Whereas the courtyard is concerned with providing enclosure, shelter, and an inner focus, the plateau provides a public platform to ascend to, in a manner analogous to the sacred pre-Columbian sites Utzon visited in Mexico and a vantage point from which to view the surrounding landscape. In metaphoric terms, it is the evocation of a spiritual procession from the mundane

138 Thematic analysis everyday world to a heightened consciousness, in preparation for the experience within the building.22 In the year following his winning of the Sydney Opera House, Utzon submitted the winning but not realised entry for a Trades Union High School at Højstrup, near Helsingør. This was a project that encapsulated much of his thinking at the time, a platform with a central courtyard, an almost classical amphitheatre-like auditorium covered by a cloud-like shell roof and controversially counter-pointed by the student accommodation tower, which echoed the earlier Elineberg housing project. The motif of the platform and foating roof came to the fore on a far grander scale, in Utzon’s proposal in 1959 for the competition for Copenhagen’s World Exhibition complex near Kastrup airport, a vast mountain-like landscape of a building with a cavernous interior. In his 1962 essay Platforms and plateaus: Ideas of a Danish architect, Utzon explained that Some of my projects from recent years are based on this architectural element, the platform. Besides its architectural force, the platform gives a good answer to today’s traffc problems. The simple thing that cars can pass underneath a surface, which is reserved for pedestrian traffc, can be developed in many ways. Most of our beautiful European squares suffer from cars. Buildings that “spoke to each other” across a square, either in axis systems or in balanced composition, are not corresponding anymore because of the traffc fow. The height of the cars, their speed and surprisingly noisy behaviour make us keep away from squares, which used to be restful places for walking. In some of the schemes shown there are various traffc layers under the platform – for covered pedestrian intercommunication, for car traffc and for parking. The buildings stand on top of the platform supporting each other in an undisturbed composition. In the Sydney Opera House scheme, the idea has been to let the platform cut through like a knife and separate primary and secondary functions completely. On top of the platform the spectators receive the completed work of art and beneath the platform every preparation for it takes place. To express the platform and avoid destroying it is a very important thing, when you start building on top of it. A fat roof does not express the fatness of the platform. The schemes for the Sydney Opera House and the High School, you can see roofs, curved forms, hanging higher or lower over the plateau. The contrast of forms and the constantly changing heights between these two elements result in spaces of great architectural force made possible by the modern structural approach to concrete construction, which has placed so many beautiful tools in hands of the architect.23 In 1958, Utzon gained his frst opportunity to actually build in a part of the world that had fascinated and inspired him for so long, when he was

Thematic analysis

139

Figure 4.4 Sketch of proposed Trades Union High School near Hellebæk, Denmark. First prize in a Danish competition, 1958. Source: Flemming Bo Andersen, Utzon Photos and © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

given the task of designing the Melli Bank in Tehran, Iran. The project gave him the opportunity to experience frst-hand the incredible architecture of Isfahan and become more familiar with the character of traditional Islamic settlements, which, with their focus around courtyards and use of repeating units, infuenced the development of his thinking on Additive Architecture. With the image of the diffuse top-lighting of bazaars in Tehran and Isfahan in mind, Utzon decided to light the interior of the banking hall indirectly from above. In a manner that is a precursor to Utzon’s Bagsværd Church 15 years later, light enters through glazed slits and is refected off the undersides of the deep post-tensioned beams that impressively span the 20-m width of the hall, like “light through clouds.”24 The cloud motif was to undergo a process of metamorphosis to an elongated calligraphic S-shaped form, like a character from Arabic script, in a

140 Thematic analysis competition proposal in 1960 for a large commercial centre at Elviria on the Mediterranean coast of southern Spain. A large-scale yet sensitive development, it made extensive and dramatic use of platforms in relation to the mountainous terrain. These principles of the platform and articulation of a sloping terrain were further explored on a far more modest scale in Utzon’s winning entry for a residential housing project in Birkehøj, where the housing units relating explicitly to the contours were loosely gathered around a common platform, to create, according to Utzon, “a peaceful protected atmosphere in a relatively open landscape, not unlike the feeling in small Italian villages.”25 Not surprisingly, with the recognition he garnered with the Sydney Opera House, Utzon was invited to participate in a number of competitions for similar projects in Zürich, Madrid, and Wolfsburg. In his winning proposal for the Zürich Theatre in 1964, Utzon demonstrated unequivocally that he could adapt the idea of the platform very successfully to a complex and demanding urban site, in this case, one surrounded by distinguished neoclassical and baroque buildings. The vast foating roof, with its rippling surface of sinusoidal beams that fully spanned the varying widths of the building, provided a modern cohesive element on a grand scale, with an abstractly sculptural fy-tower rising as a distinctive landmark above the sea of beams. The interior of the auditorium seemed to be carved out of the solid mass of the platform, according to Utzon like water-worn caves, as if eroded by the very fow of the audience themselves. In his design for the Madrid Opera House, Utzon added to the platform a more diverse and dynamic set of architectural elements, the most distinctive of which is a vast folded roof that is suspended by cables from a single tall mast asymmetrically located to one side of the stage, accentuated by a swirling vortex of steps at its base. The design elements of the Zürich Theatre and Madrid Opera House were later reworked within the context of a more severely rectangular platform in the design of the Wolfsburg Theatre competition entry in 1964, as Utzon continued to evolve his architectural vocabulary, working again with S-formed cloud-like canopies and introducing a sequence of courtyard spaces that anticipates Bagsværd Church. In the design of the Wolfsburg Theatre, one entered at the highest level of the building and moved down into the auditorium. This principle was also adopted for the design of the Art Gallery for the University of California at Berkeley where having entered the orthogonal platform-like building above ground, one was led down three levels of curvilinear terracing, analogous to the rice-paddy terraces of China and also, Aalto’s Savoy vase.26 While seemingly free-form and organic in character, the plan was nevertheless determined according to Utzon’s refned use of simple geometry to create complex, yet harmonious forms. The 1950s had been a period of considerable economic growth, urban redevelopment, and technological innovation. In 1959, an international architect’s congress was held in Otterloo in the Netherlands, to discuss new ways of creating large-scale building complexes. Among the relatively few

Thematic analysis

141

Figure 4.5 Rice paddy feld-inspired tiered section and plan of proposed Art Museum, Berkeley, California, 1965. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

participating were such architects as Louis Kahn, Kenzo Tange, Alison and Peter Smithson, Aldo van Eyck, and Oskar Hansen. Structuralism emerged as a dynamic alternative to the earlier functionalist approach that was dependent upon a fnitely determined programme and therefore considered too static to cope with the ever-changing needs of society. A key feature

142 Thematic analysis of this new approach to architectural design was the “open plan,” as promoted by the Polish architect Oskar Hansen, the inspiration for which had come largely from Japan, in part indirectly via Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie Houses. Such structuralist thinking was further developed by avant-garde architects, town planners, and artists in Japan at the time, that defned themselves as Metabolists. For Utzon, the infnite variations and permutations of a few elements that occurred in nature provided the model for an additive approach to architecture using standard units that promoted an open-plan and open-ended means of building. Utzon’s knowledge of traditional Chinese and Japanese building traditions and his appreciation of the eleventh-century Chinese building manual the Yingzao Fashi had long given him the idea of creating a kit of building parts. It was the need to resolve the shells of the Sydney Opera House that focused his attention on the potential of prefabrication and serial production of standardised elements, particularly with regard to large-scale constructions and urban developments. It was in Sydney that he defned this approach as “Additive Architecture,” which came to infuence much of his subsequent design thinking. An additive system of precast concrete building components was proposed as the basis for his second design for the Silkeborg Museum, which had been relocated to a new site. In the revised proposal Utzon designed a building complex above ground as meandering street-like gallery spaces that grew incrementally and branched out across the site. This proposal for Silkeborg was not developed further than the initial sketch design, but it did provide the basis for an ambitious design for the competition in 1966 for a new Town Centre in Farum, which was very much inspired by the bazaar of Isfahan. Though the design demonstrated the dynamic organic potential of this additive system, which paralleled the work of the Japanese Metabolists, the overtly Islamic character of the Farum project was too explicit in its cultural reference to fnd popular favour in Denmark in the late 1960s. Fortunately, the suggestion of a church in the published drawings for the Farum Town Centre caught the eye of Pastor Svend Simonsen, who was seeking an architect for the proposed new parish church of Bagsværd, north of Copenhagen. As a result, Utzon was commissioned to design what would become his single most signifcant built work in Denmark. The conceptual sketch of a congregation gathering in a horizontal landscape under rolling clouds captures the essential Danish condition, even though it was inspired by the cloud formations he experienced in Hawaii. Following principles, he had established previously in his design of the earlier Melli Bank, the ceiling is suspended between parallel walls and the light enters indirectly from above and is refected from the sensually curving ceiling vaults. This simple, yet dramatically ethereal sculpted space, with its superb acoustics in its plan is contained between those parallel walls and enclosed within a strict modular grid that defnes all the secondary spaces. As Utzon modestly describes “Bagsværd Church sits on a long, narrow plot and takes its shape from it: it

Thematic analysis

143

Figure 4.6 Second Asger Jorn Museum of Art, Silkeborg, 1963. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

is a long narrow building complex that opens up into small inner courtyards and whose facades are completely closed to the outside world.”27 Enclosed within this grid structure are incorporated serene enclosed, Buddhist templelike courtyards that allow daylight to enter through slatted timber screens to adjoining corridors and offces. In marked contrast to the sacred sculptural interior, the honest industrial character of the exterior seems almost profane, yet it is this modest unsentimental contemporary vernacular that underscores the sublime experience of the interior. Bagsværd Church is Utzon’s most evocative and tectonic architectural realisation of the recurring cloud metaphor. Though designed to evoke a sense of congregation and procession within a particularly Danish experience of

144 Thematic analysis

Figure 4.7 Bagsværd Church. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

landscape beneath rolling clouds, the cloud formations that directly inspired Utzon in the design of the Bagsværd Church were actually those he experienced over the picturesque Lanikai Beach, itself a popular location for weddings, close to where the Utzon family were living on Oahu, Hawaii. Lanikai very appropriately, as the source of inspiration for a church, means “heavenly sea” in Hawaiian and is on the windward side of the island, where each afternoon the trade winds would form high vertical cumulus clouds of the coast. The experience of these towering, evenly spaced, cylindrical cloud formations that Utzon likened to “like a colonnade on its side”28 and the dramatic manner in which the light penetrated as divine rays between the clouds, provided Utzon with a visual metaphoric image for a church, an image that Utzon combined with a conceptual metaphoric image of Danish Cumulus clouds and horizontal landscape. In Utzon’s conceptual sketches of people gathered on a beach, as if at a wedding ceremony, beneath rolling clouds, translates to a sacred procession towards the cross, within an opening between columns that are like trees and cloud-like ceiling vaults:

Thematic analysis

145

an evocative return to an almost pagan form of worship of natural phenomena and being outside within nature, akin to Reima Pietilä’s Kaleva Church in Tampere, Finland, but without being dismissive of overt Christian symbolism. Inherent in the early sketch sections for what is a Lutheran church is a poetic homage to Utzon’s fascination with the sensual curving fuidity of Islamic calligraphy and as Utzon has explained (to Carter), his imagined reinterpretation of an Islamic script thanking Allah for the light, a profound transcultural translation of a sacred conceptual metaphor of universal signifcance, but as defned within a particular culture to a visual metaphor of similarly powerful resonance and sacral meaning, within a very different cultural and religious context. With its stepped gables, the Bagsværd Church is also reminiscent of more traditional Danish churches and its expressed concrete frame structure is redolent of vernacular timber-frame houses and farm buildings. Though there is a strongly critical regionalist dimension to the expression, there are also clear infuences from the vernacular tradition of other cultures, most notably China and Japan, with regard to the articulation of the structural framing, inclination of the roofs, and most notably in the design of the interior courtyards. In keeping with Utzon’s fascination with Islamic abstraction of nature, within the interior, the sacred celebration of nature is further emphasised in the aisle carpet and religious vestments, designed by Lin Utzon in collaboration with her father, which in their colour and form the decorative motifs abstractly refect the four seasons.

Poetic transcultural synthesis Few buildings create such a frisson of excitement and sense of genius loci as the Sydney Opera House. Whether viewed from the air or feetingly glimpsed between tall buildings or emerging from behind coastal bush as the Manly Ferry sails into Circular Quay, in its shimmering whiteness it is as mesmerising an experience as seeing that most romantic and exotic of monuments, the Taj Mahal. That an Opera House came to be built on Bennelong Point as the focus of the magnifcent Sydney harbour and in the form that it has is due to the inspired vision of a few remarkable individuals. It was English-born conductor Eugene Goossens, who, having taken up the position of conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1947, proposed that the city of such size as Sydney should have “a fne concert hall for the orchestra, with perfect acoustics and seating accommodation for 3500 people, a home for an opera company and a smaller hall for chamber music.”29 Having himself arrived in Sydney by fyboat, Goossens was enamoured by a vision of placing a new opera house within the spectacular harbour, on the promontory of Bennelong Point. During early colonial settlement, this was the site of Fort Macquarie, designed by convict architect Francis Greenway and built in 1820. At the time of Goossens’ arrival, the site was then occupied

146 Thematic analysis by the Sydney Tram Depot. This was a strangely castellated building, that sought to evoke the earlier fortifcation. Reluctance to lose the tram depot, caused the Sydney City Council to consider nine different potential locations for the proposed opera house, most of which would have severely limited its architectural potential. Pragmatically, Goossens, himself, proposed an alternative location, in Central Sydney at Wynyard Station, while still ardently lobbying for an opera house being built at his preferred location on the harbour. As part of his campaign, Goossens’ commissioned his theatre set designer, William Constable, to make a watercolour illustration of what Goossens’ envisaged. Constable’s illustration of Goossens’ vision proposed a building with allusions to art deco cinemas of the 1930s, combined with an outdoor amphitheatre facing the harbour, that would have been highly exposed to the elements and quite impractical. Intuitively from a very subjective appreciation of its dramatically visible location within the large expanse of Sydney Harbour, Goossens had selected Bennelong Point as the location of his desired opera house and similar subjective reasons the RAIA, gave their unequivocal support to the choice of Bennelong Point, over all other proposed sites in the city. What was not well appreciated at the time was that this had already previously been a signifcant site for the local aboriginal population for thousands of years. As the architect Peter Myers, who worked with Utzon on the Sydney Opera House, has described in his essay The Third City: Sydney’s original Monuments and a possible New Metropolis, Bennelong Point was the site of a major aboriginal “midden” or “shell monument” with what is the present-day Sydney harbour. As Myers writes, “there are recorded sightings of shell monuments 12 metres high along the water’s edge (perhaps signifcantly, that is equivalent to the height of the southern podium of Jørn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House)” and speculates “how many thousands of years of gathering and accumulation went into their making?”30 This midden and many others were appropriated by the British, following colonisation, and burnt to provide lime for building construction. The First Fleet had not brought building lime with them, presuming limestone would be readily available and anticipating construction in timber otherwise, but without expecting the damage that would be done by white ants. While without lime for construction, early brick and masonry constructions, according to Myers, did not last well and so the “middens” became a source of lime. As Myers states, “it is prescient that the frst and largest shell kiln was on the eastern shore of Bennelong Point.”31 It is a profoundly fortuitous poetic notion and might seem intentional that Utzon took design cues from the location of this signifcant midden monument as the inspiration. Unaware as he was of the ancient history of the site, the origins of the roof “shells” have, however, other more transcultural sources of inspiration and are an essentially rational, pragmatic solution to the nature and location of the project.

Thematic analysis

147

Having eventually determined Bennelong Point as the location of the Opera House, its major political proponent John “Joe” Cahill, the Labour Premier of New South Wales (1952–1959) pushed it forward as means to assert Sydney’s supremacy, which had been eclipsed following the hosting of the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. An international design competition was held and by the deadline in December of 1956, 233 entries were submitted, with Utzon’s being amongst the last. One of the members of the jury was the Finnish American architect Eero Saarinen, who being able to see parallels to his own earlier Kresge Auditorium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with its elegant thin-shell structure of reinforced concrete and his design of the TWA Flight Center building at New York’s Idlewild Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) that he was working on at that time was Utzon’s most enthusiastic advocate. To the extent of sketching the waterfront elevation and an aerial perspective explaining the podium, to convince his fellow jurors of the brilliance of Utzon’s concept. With acute foresight, Saarinen’s waterfront elevation bears a closer resemblance to the Sydney Opera House as it appears today with its more spherical and upright shells than originally presented in the competition drawings by Utzon. It was Utzon’s vision, alone among all the competitors, that recognised that this unique site needed to be understood in terms of its surrounding landscape and required a sculptural solution, rather than conventional orthogonal design as was the norm among the other entries to the competition. Without having visited Sydney, Utzon realised from the study of topographic maritime charts and photographs that Bennelong Point could be seen from many high vantage points around the harbour, and therefore the design of the roof, the “ffth facade,” was of supreme signifcance. As Utzon explained, the Opera House would be experienced visually The Sydney Opera House is a house which one will see from above, will sail around – because it sits on a point sticking out into a harbour, a very beautiful harbour, a fjord with a lot of inlets. This point is in the middle of the city and the city rises on both sides of the fjord, so the Opera House is a local focal point. This means that. . . . In fact, one must have a ffth facade which is just as important as the other facades.32 The underlying essential idea is that a building as a sculptural landmark serves to gather the extensive shoreline around it, to provide a central focal point for this harbour-based city. The distinctive roof shells are referred to by architectural writers and the general public alike as sails, a very appropriate metaphoric association in this maritime context, of one of the world’s great natural harbours. However, there is an even more poetic and transculturally profound association, in that the roof shells echo the form of his father’s sailing boats, that in turn were derived from the form of traditional Danish fshing boats that had evolved from the ancient Viking longships. Thus, in Utzon’s design of the Sydney Opera House there is a direct design lineage from the hulls

148 Thematic analysis

Figure 4.8 Sydney Opera House. Source: Photo by Adrian Carter

of Viking ships and therefore in essence, without necessarily being consciously intended, is a poetic metaphorical evocation of the Viking custom of upturning their boats and using them as buildings, once they had settled new lands.33 The Opera House is the essentialist translation of the transcultural ideas of a sculpture within the landscape and the association to boat-like forms are the very basis for the iconic status and popular success of the Sydney Opera House within its dramatic harbour setting. However, for Utzon, the original underlying metaphoric ideas that drove the design was the creation of a public gathering space, an outdoor living room, and a grand open-air amphitheatre on the steps of a broad podium. The podium being another important metaphoric idea that underpinned his conceptual thinking: a poetic notion of the audience moving from the city and their everyday lives, rising up a grand staircase above the mundane as an almost sacred act to be frst presented with a panoramic view of the full natural grandeur of the harbour, before being led into the cavernous interior, suitably cleansed of their daily preoccupations and prepared for a cultural experience, as a spiritually uplifting event.34 The further transcultural sources of infuence and essential reference in the design of the Sydney Opera House are so numerous that Utzon himself was uncertain himself where they had come from originally. The Sydney Opera House could well have had its origins, in part, as Utzon himself concurred, in his early experience of Carl Ludwig Engel’s distinctively white Helsinki Cathedral, with its exotic rounded cupolas, rising as the landmark for the city above a grand stepped platform in front of the Senate

Thematic analysis

149

Square, the major ceremonial plaza in Helsinki. Just as Utzon’s proposal for the gold-coloured interior roof shells in his competition entry was most likely inspired by Utzon’s experience of the renowned Golden Chamber of Ragnar Östberg’s Stockholm City Hall. There is no doubting, however, that the enduring motif of the plateau and platforms in Utzon’s work was profoundly infuenced by his experience in 1949 of the ancient Mayan and Aztec sites in Mexico, notably at Chichen Itzá, Monte Albán, and Uxmal. Visiting the Mayan temples of the Yucatan, Utzon had the wonderful experience of going from the denseness of the jungle to the vast openness above the platform. . . . It is like the liberation you feel up here in the Nordic lands when, after weeks of rain, cloud and darkness, you suddenly emerge into the sunlight again.35 This was indeed a powerful and lasting experience for Utzon that he captured in a simple, yet evocative sketch. Yet, Monte Albán near Oaxaca, one of the largest pre-Columbian sites with its huge complex of ceremonial buildings and ritual platforms atop a levelled mountain plateau made an even more profound impression upon him, as “a completely independent thing foating in the air, separated from the earth.”36 Visiting Monte Albán one has the uncanny sense that there is not only a conceptual connection with the Sydney Opera House but that actual dimensions and proportions, also the materiality, as well as the more indefnable experiential qualities, such as sense of movement and procession, are similar. Likewise, with entering the Forbidden City in Beijing there is a feeling of déjà vu that the massing and composition is familiar. There are other transcultural references embodied in the Sydney Opera House, most notably from Isfahan in Iran, the ceramic clad dome of the Great Friday Mosque in Isfahan providing the reference for the ceramic tile roofs of the Opera House and the multifaceted muqarnas provided the inspiration for Utzon’s proposals for the interiors of the auditoria. The bazaar at Isfahan was the model for what was intended to be an active public thoroughfare between the two main auditoria. Disappointedly this was not realised as intended by Utzon, as an active internal social space, that not only provided access to the halls, also for the less able, by means of elevators; that would be subsequently not incorporated and long after caused the Opera House to be not as accessible for all, as Utzon had planned. Today this area is simply used as a cluttered, back-of-house service and storage area.37 Utzon’s appreciation of the context of the site was far more profound than merely the creation of a prominently located, expressive artistic statement, “a magnifcent doodle” as described by Australian art critic Robert Hughes.38 With an expertise gained through his passion for sailing, Utzon was able to appreciate the particular morphology of the Sydney harbour basin, through his reading of maritime charts. The special character of the headlands and promontories

150 Thematic analysis that defne the Sydney harbour, which, due to geological uplift, rise up just prior to falling into the sea, is emulated in the forming of the podium. Originally it was even intended that the podium would be clad with the local sandstone, of which the site was largely composed: an intention that would have further emphasised its character as an artifcial landform but was later abandoned for technical reasons. The podium, with its origins in the ancient architectural idea of the raised platform, becomes in Sydney a continuation and evocation of the local natural terrain, building as landscape, in a manner similar in intention to that of other Nordic architects, notably Asplund, Aalto, and Pietilä. The sense of a continuous landscape is also maintained within the interior, with the grand processional movement of the audience up the podium and around the concert halls, providing at the same time stunning elevated views of the harbour and its famous bridge. This approach effectively raised the experience from that of the everyday, creating a sense of a festive event upon what has become Sydney’s Acropolis. To achieve this effect, Utzon, alone among the competition entrants, made the brilliant, but site-overreaching decision to place the two halls side by side, rather than end to end. Contained within the podium of Utzon’s original design for the Opera House was what was intended to be a central pedestrian passage between the halls, with an intended character reminiscent of an Arab bazaar. This passage led to a sheltered exterior plaza at the end of Bennelong Point, where the full horizontal panorama of the Sydney harbour would suddenly, dramatically become apparent.39 The elegance of Utzon’s plan was further complimented by the simple organisational clarity of Utzon’s sectional drawings. In a manner akin to Kahn’s principle of served and servant spaces, Utzon located all of the normally rear-of-house functions below the auditoria within the mass of the podium, leaving the space under the ethereal billowing sails entirely free for the performance and needs of the audience. As with the earlier Langelinie Pavilion, this separation was serviced by means of lifts, which in the context of the Sydney Opera House made use of sophisticated stage machinery and large lifts capable of raising stage sets from below, but eliminated the space usually required for side-stages. The designs for two main auditoria, the major and minor halls, which were perfected during Utzon’s time in Sydney, were rigorously formed according to acoustic principles. Initially, the Major Hall was to have had a multifaceted ceiling, akin to Islamic muqarnas,40 the crystalline-like “stalactite vaults” that Utzon had admired at the Friday Mosque in Isfahan. As a result of rationalisation imposed by the needs of industrialisation, the acoustic ceilings were fnally proposed, but not realised, as circular wave-like forms that had been developed from an analogy between the movement of sound and waves. The resulting articulation of the halls as seemingly independent structures free of the exterior shells and with their own architectural expression rejected the prevailing dogma that the inner form should be as one with the outer. This offended architectural purists at the time. Utzon explained the differences in the character of the two forms by using the analogy of the walnut and its shell. This differentiating of the

Thematic analysis

151

inside and the outside of a building was later to be proposed by Robert Venturi in Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture as an appropriate means to once again achieve an urbanistic approach to architecture,41 and certainly can now be seen to be a guiding principle of many of the most innovative and avant-garde architects practicing today. Seemingly foating above the podium, the Opera House’s signature saillike roof shells were expressed by Utzon in his conceptual sketches as being like clouds, both as experienced in nature and the abstract representation of Chinese temple roofs. The shimmering, ever-changing appearance of the shells is one of the most evocative architectural surfaces ever created, which justifes the comparison as the “Other Taj Mahal.”42 Early on in the design process, Utzon had realised that a roof of white tiles would emphasise the sculptural character of the building, particularly at night, and his aim was to achieve an effect similar to that of the “combination of matt snow and shining ice”43 through the use of two different types of glazed ceramic tile. Such tiles of the character and the demanding quality that Utzon required did not at that time exist and it was to take three years of technical development in collaboration with Utzon before the Swedish manufacturer Höganäs were able to produce tiles that were suitable. This was one of the many technical achievements that were made during the development of the Sydney Opera House, that were fundamental to its successful realisation. The greatest, almost insurmountable challenge was however the determination of structural geometry and construction of the shells themselves. As Yuzo Mikami, the Japanese architect who frst worked with Utzon and then subsequently with Ove Arup on the design of the Opera House, writes in Utzon’s Sphere, his own account of the project “The cluster of curved white roofs in the competition scheme were undoubtedly the most striking feature of Utzon’s design. He wanted them to be constructed in a thin concrete membrane structure, this technology being very popular at the time.”44 Certainly the earlier work of Robert Maillart, Felix Candela, and Pier Luigi Nervi played a role in opening Utzon’s imagination to the new technical and aesthetic possibilities of large parabolic reinforced concrete roof spans, as did the recently designed Radiohuset concert hall in Copenhagen by Wilhelm Lauritzen, which informed his competition proposal. While it was the participation in the jury of Eero Saarinen, with his previous experience of designing a thin concrete membrane structure with the Kresge Auditorium at MIT and later design of a highly sculptural bird-like free-from concrete structure for the TWA Flight Center building at New York’s JFK Airport, who convinced the rest of the jury of the quality and feasibility of the project. It being particularly interesting to note, as mentioned previously, that Saarinen’s own perspective sketches of the Opera House made to help persuade the jury, suggest a more vertical and spherical form to the roofs, as if he perhaps intuitively foresaw the diffculties that Utzon would encounter with the scale of the parabolic forms and how it would eventually be resolved. As Mikami notes “Saarinen started from a strictly geometrical design for his shell roofs and

152 Thematic analysis proceeded to the free form, in other words from a purely architectural to a more sculptural approach.”45 While Utzon, initially convinced of the potential capabilities of thin membrane structures based on the recent pioneering examples, was to move away from the free sculptural approach to a spherical geometry, as he became aware of the inherent limitations. As Mikami comments, On the competition entry drawing, the shapes of the roof vault had no geometrical defnition at all. It was a fanciful and sculptural form drawn by freehand. Many people felt the shapes of the roofs reminded them of fully blown sails of large sailing boats. The impression it gave was of a lightweight, almost semi-transparent curved membrane foating in the air.46 Originally Utzon had conceived of the Opera House roofs as being like eggshells that were structurally uniform and non-directional, with smooth continuous surfaces. This desired smoothness is the reason that Utzon rejected Nervi’s solution of using diagonally crossing ribs to supporting the roof. After more than three years of intense investigations in collaboration with Ove Arup and his engineers, including advanced model simulations at Southampton University, Utzon had still not been able to achieve a satisfactory solution to the realisation of the paraboloid egg-like roof structures, until he made the breakthrough decision to adopt a spherical geometry, the most effective way in nature to contain the greatest volume with the least surface area. Per Olaf Fjeld evokes the poetic cultural dimension of this decision, by suggesting that When Utzon was to realise his Sydney Opera House, he went to the geometry of the ball. By cutting sections from the ball he found the exact shape for his shells. It was as if he moved into the past, destroyed the dome of the cathedral, and by gathering the pieces left on the ground, he suddenly had the tools to realise the poetic dream of the present.47

Figure 4.9 Painted timber model explaining the spherical geometry of the Sydney Opera House, made by apprentices at the Helsingør shipyards. Source: Photo by Adrian Carter

Thematic analysis

153

As Utzon himself explained, “I have worked a lot with various forms, worked by taking these forms from volumes, which were geometrically defned, for instance generated volumes made of ellipses and parabolas, but I ended up taking these forms from a sphere.” As he illustrated by means of segments cut from part of a single sphere made in wood, that then formed the various roof shells, with the same spherical surface. This means that frstly, these shells are in harmony with one another. They come from the same sphere, with the same radius and therefore when they are built up in space, we know that they will intersect in accordance with a certain law – therefore the composition is in equilibrium.48 Further underlying the essential clarity and aesthetic elegance of the construction of the shells, Utzon explained “we can divide a sphere into identical parts like one slices an orange. In the same way, I can now divide these shells up into identical elements, all taken from one form.”49 After many steel spaceframe-supported roof proposals by Arup, which Utzon found tectonically unsatisfying, he eventually found a spherical solution that made use of a structural analogy to the folded forms of palm leaves. Taking the triangulated section of the palm leaf, which gives it considerable strength, as a direct reference, he proposed the use of triangularly sectioned concrete ribs that could be prefabricated in sections. The ingenious simple geometric elegance and potential for mass production of creating the roof from elements of the same curvature, Utzon demonstrated to the general public on Australian television by means of cutting differently sized triangular sections of peel from an orange and showed how they could be put together to create to the various roofs of the Opera House.50 Utzon understood that, much like the Danish construction toy LEGO, even a complex and seemingly sculptural building could be resolved pragmatically using a relatively few basic, but essential elements. As he describes, The design for an element or for a family of elements must incorporate enough facets in the right proportion to transform the element into an obedient tool in the hands of the architect. Very rarely is a single element suffcient. It will restrict the architect in fulflling all the functions and in following all happenings in his building, and restrictions of this kind often lead to mannerism. With a whole family of interftting elements, a rich architectural expression can arise.51 With his background and fascination in the craft of making architecture, Utzon was also concerned with how effciently the elements were produced and constructed. Explaining the production of the ribs, Utzon writes “A factory on the site is built to produce these ribs. Only one form, divided up into smaller parts is actually necessary, and the forms are moveable to enable us to mass-produce segments.” While in terms of construction “The erection of

154 Thematic analysis the elements is, because of the geometry, made very easy, and the erection arch, which can telescope and revolve, and thereby describe the shell surface, supports the elements until they are cast and stressed together with cables.”52 While the prior work of Maillart, Candela, Nervi, and Lauritzen’s Copenhagen concert hall infuenced Utzon and the use of natural analogies to segments of oranges and the structure of palm fronds provided references for resolving the complex construction challenges of realising the roof in terms of a spherical geometry, it is the experience of his father’s work with the design of yachts making models of curvilinear boat forms that undoubtedly gave Utzon such an authority in creating these iconic forms. Utzon’s insistence on prototyping and constantly reworking ideas to improve upon them was also something instilled in him by his father Aage, who throughout his life was continually modifying the designs of his boats. Utzon made mock-ups and prototypes of virtually all elements of the Sydney Opera House, achieving ingenious means of prefabrication, as in the production of pre-cast tile lids to clad the shells developed in collaboration with Arup, the engineers. While working closely with the local frm of Ralph Symonds, Utzon developed uniquely innovative design solutions for the interiors of the halls, corridors, built-in seating and, most remarkably, the structural mullions of the glass walls, all using bent plywood, much to the dismay of Arup. The plywood mullions were to have been elegantly articulated like wings of a bird in fight, with the external depth of the mullions creating a seemingly kinetic striated screen of light and shade, effectively eliminating the refections on the glass walls that make the more angular and protruding post-Utzon solution seem so aggressive and distracting from the harmony between the podium and the shells. A hint of the character Utzon’s glass walls would have had can be seen in the design, by Jan and Jørn Utzon, of an undulating roof canopy over the service area of a petrol station in Herning, which was intended as the prototype for a chain of service stations in the region.53 The use of prototypes, while not conventional practice in Australia at the time, was relatively widespread in the Nordic countries, where the large-scale programme of social building had encouraged the industrialisation of the building industry following the Second World War. Utzon’s experimentation and prototyping, in search of the optimum solution, combined with his use of foreign contractors did not endear Utzon to the more jingoistic Australian politicians and local contractors, used to more cut and dried methods of working. Ironically, given that Utzon’s design of the Sydney Opera House was to be dogged for the rest of his career with the reputation of being an expensive architect, it has been shown that in almost every case where he was given free rein, as noted by Alexander Kouzmin,“his method of experiment and collaboration produced a cheaper and more practical solution.”54 In fact, a refned frugality of approach is characteristic of much of his work most apparent in designs for housing systems and the design of his own houses on Mallorca, which use the humblest local material and most simple traditional forms of construction to create an architecture of outstanding timeless simplicity.

Thematic analysis

155

Utzon’s desire to push the boundaries of architecture ensured that the building of the Sydney Opera House became a test bed for new technologies in construction. His interest in the use of repetitive elements arose from the need to prefabricate the sections of the roof shells and was at the forefront of thinking about the manufacture of buildings. The use of computers was in its infancy, but the roof shells could not have been created without them and computers were also used for the frst time in the positioning of elements of the roof during construction. The use of epoxy resins for jointing precast concrete, sealants, laminated glass, and planar glazing had never been attempted before on such a scale. The Opera House story also raised questions about the need for changes in the management of major contracts and advanced considerably the concept of project management in the construction industry.55 As Peter Murray points out in The Saga of Sydney Opera House, Architecture at the edge of the possible inevitably generates diffculties of timing, technology, of cost, and stretches the patience and relationships of those involved. The building of Brunelleschi’s ffteenth-century dome for Florence Cathedral, still the largest masonry dome in existence, contains striking resonance with the story of the Opera House. It was the result of a competition. The dome used previously untried construction techniques and Brunelleschi, like Utzon, never saw his masterwork completed.56 In Utzon’s own mind’s eye, however, the Opera House was complete; he had “solved all the problems” as he expressed to Jack Zunz of Arup in early 1962.57 Invariably the reality of a built work cannot live up to the perfection as envisioned by the mind of the architect. In part, this explains the reluctance on Utzon’s part to return to Sydney to see his incomplete and bowdlerised masterpiece. Following the results of the competition, the building of the Sydney Opera House had been very rapidly set in motion by Premier Joe Cahill without legislative formalities being fully in place and with an understanding that the project was not precisely budgeted and was from the outset underfunded. This was done for reasons of political expediency and Cahill’s determination to ensure that the building be realised. Undoubtedly, this cavalier approach is the reason the building stands there today, but it also laid the seeds of what was to become a political controversy in the years to come. From the very outset, unexpected diffculties with the site due to poorer geological conditions than were anticipated required more extensive foundations and ensured that the project would go over the budget, before work on the building above ground was even started. With a change of government in May 1965, elected on a mandate of curbing costs on the Opera House, the new conservative Minister for Public Works, Davis Hughes, was not prepared to fund Utzon’s prototypes of the

156 Thematic analysis acoustic ceilings and effectively stopped payments to his offce, making his continuation untenable at that time. Utzon’s letter of withdrawal from the project until funds would be forthcoming was taken as a resignation, despite vociferous protests from leading international architects and academics, as well as Australian architects, including Utzon’s staunch ally Harry Seidler and students, though not the Royal Australian Institute of Architects and partners in larger frms who feared a loss of commissions by taking a stance against the government. Utzon was not reinstated, as he presumed, he would be, and he left Australia, never to return. The changes made to the Opera House once Utzon had left Australia could not destroy the essential qualities and magnifcence of Utzon’s conception. Had the building of the Opera House been stopped at the time of Utzon’s departure, as was suggested it should by Steen Eiler Rasmussen, it would have been, even incomplete, a most remarkable work of architecture. As Richard Leplastrier has remarked, during its construction “you could not really tell if it was coming up or coming down,”58 it had such a powerful presence like an ancient ruin. Those who as young architects sneaked into the building site at night testify that the experience of sitting on the bare podium steps looking up to the ribbed undersides of the shells was awe-inspiring and sacred. At that time, the architectural integrity of the building still remained intact, and the spatial, tectonic quality of the construction equalled, if not actually surpassed, anything that had ever been built before. The subsequent work made without Utzon, not only considerably escalated the costs of the building, but also adversely affected the building’s external appearance, with the insensitive redesign of the glazing and revised design of the auditoriums that has greatly diminished the experience of the interior. Though made by competent architects, they lacked insight into Utzon’s single-minded vision and misrepresented his intentions, compromising what should have been a total work of architecture. In 1995, the Unseen Utzon exhibition, with computer visualisations created by Philip Nobis, for the frst time publicly presented Utzon’s original designs for the multifaceted and vibrantly coloured auditorium interiors of the Opera House. The exhibition further fuelled the public support for Utzon’s renewed involvement in his building. In August 1999, more than 30 years after he left, Utzon was engaged as a design consultant, in collaboration with the renowned Sydney architect Richard Johnson, by the Sydney Opera House Trust, due in much part to the dedication of the Trust’s Chairman, Joseph Skrzynski. It was once again Utzon’s role to determine the design principles that will guide all future development, refurbishments, and redesign of his building. One of the frst manifestations of his renewed involvement is the design of a tapestry “Homage to Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach” for the Chamber Music Hall, inspired by a painting by Raphael of Christ bearing the cross. Major architectural interventions are still ongoing to ensure the Opera House’s continued suitability and vitality as a centre for the performing arts. These future changes have the beneft of Utzon’s own proposals and design principles for the refurbishment

Thematic analysis

157

of the building but will require architects with a similar sensitivity to Utzon to implement them appropriately, when the time comes.59 Glenn Murcutt has publicly mourned “not just the loss of integrity of the fnal assemblage, but also the loss to Australia of the technology and techniques that Utzon was promoting.”60 However, Australia’s loss was not only confned to the feld of architecture, but also within the realm of contemporary art. Utzon was a great admirer not only of Le Corbusier’s architecture but also of his works of art. In 1958, Utzon invited Le Corbusier to contribute to the interior of the Sydney Opera House,61 and, as a mark of his admiration for the building, Le Corbusier agreed to the commission. The resulting tapestry by Le Corbusier remained with Utzon and was hung in the family home at Hellebæk, until auctioned by the family and acquired by the Sydney Opera House in July 2016; to be displayed publicly as intended within the building.62 Long after its eventual realisation and popular recognition, the Sydney Opera House was not without more damming critical assessment. As Philip Goad, the Melbourne-based architectural historian wrote in 1997: The Sydney Opera House encapsulates, in monumental form, the composite modernist fetish for the primitive, the exotic, and technological progress as fuel for newness. That the building spawned no progeny however is indicative of its historical stasis. It never became the touchstone of a new orthodoxy. More importantly, the Sydney Opera House may stand as signifcant on two counts: as the building where theory overtook technology as the raison d’être of architectural production, and as the subject of a grand historiographical tragedy.63 Today, the Sydney Opera House is universally considered to be amongst the most iconic buildings in the world, par excellence. It has come to defne not only a city but also a nation and a continent. By so doing it has become the benchmark, as well as a source of inspiration for those with aspirations to achieve similar success in terms of civic branding and identity through grand architectural gestures. Many subsequent attempts to emulate the success of the Sydney Opera House, and most particularly in recent years, have focused almost exclusively on the distinct visual image of the building as an independent object, form for form’s sake, with limited concern for functionality, its construction, and the context. Whereas the enduring iconic status of the Sydney Opera House is very much due to the experiential quality of the architectural vision, the very specifc relation to context, and the tectonic integrity of its making. For Utzon, rather than starting with an image, his initial interest was the creation of a much-needed public space in front of the Opera House, with a broad fight of stairs to provide outdoor seating and access to an elevated viewing platform, the podium of the building, to gain a heightened perspective and panoramic view of the surrounding harbour. The dramatic roof

158 Thematic analysis shells of the Opera House that defne its iconic image derive from a realisation that the building could be looked down onto from many surrounding vantage points and that there was thus a need to enclose all the otherwise unsightly building services within the envelope of the roof. Certainly, Utzon’s inspiration from the boats of his father and childhood experiences of ships hulls in dry dock infuenced his architectural expression, which is so poetically appropriate to the maritime environment of Sydney. It is most important to stress that this most iconic of buildings and reference for buildings since that aspire to achieve such recognition, did not ostensibly set out to achieve such a visual iconic status, but gained it through a more nuanced and profound approach to its design. In Broadbent’s order of design methods, Utzon realised the Sydney Opera house through a Pragmatic Design approach to achieving the desired human experience of ascending a grand platform, rising above the mundane, as one views the spectacular surrounding harbour and being suitably prepared for the ensuing cultural experience within. The design is resolved through reference to Iconic Design principles from many diverse cultures and metaphoric and direct Analogic Design inspiration, from a wide range of transcultural sources, most particularly nature. Utzon’s synthesis of these many diverse layers of design inspiration and methods, through a rigorous use of geometry, achieves a high level of abstraction that raises the Sydney Opera House beyond the simply iconic, to the more elevated status of Canonic Design.64 Utzon’s essentialist use of transcultural metaphor, analogy, and abstraction in his developing his architecture, particularly with regard to the creation and realisation of the Sydney Opera House, demonstrates that such an approach can lead to highly original architecture. In the process, it can also necessitate the development and implementation of new, more advanced means of construction, innovative technology, and even new materials. The building industry is by nature somewhat careful, conservative, and traditional in its approach, tending to design and build what has been done before. It is therefore most important from the perspective of innovation and advancement in the building industry that there are ambitious, original projects that challenge conventional wisdom and dare to push the envelope of what is considered feasible. Utzon, whose personal motto was that “I like to be at the edge of the possible”65 certainly did that more than any other architect of the twentieth century, in the realisation of his creative vision for the Sydney Opera House, to advance new means of building construction, such as testing by means of the use of prototypes and implementing prefabrication on a scale and with a degree of complexity not seen before, as well as developing new materials, such as more effective adhesives and even introducing new methods of project management. This trajectory of innovation, Utzon would have continued and advanced further, had his proposal for the subterranean Silkeborg Art Museum been realised. However, with the construction of the Bagsværd Church, Utzon achieved an advanced use of in-situ concrete within a very

Thematic analysis

159

conservative Danish building tradition, which had not seen the realisation of such expressive forms in concrete previously. Whereas most architects begin with what they know can be constructed and adapt it to the given brief, Utzon, by invariably starting with a poetic metaphor as the catalyst for his architectural visions, often required novel solutions to resolve the challenges his vision imposed, solutions that were found by means of analogy to nature and other cultures. Utzon recognised that more advanced and refned solutions to structural needs could be found in nature, where they are the result of evolution. However, the challenges posed by the scale and complexity of the Sydney Opera House further encouraged Utzon to resolve its construction through geometry and the use of as few prefabricated components as possible. It is this implementation of abstraction and innovation to resolve his poetic vision that is the basis for its enduring signifcance66 That the Sydney Opera House has become the symbol not only of a city, but also of the entire nation, is due in no small measure to Utzon’s highly original and innovative synthesis of many beautiful essential ideas, that derived from very diverse transcultural and not only Western cultural infuences. According to the architectural historian Kenneth Frampton, Utzon’s work is, Comparable in subtle ways to the protean achievements of Le Corbusier, Utzon’s architecture emerges today as paradigmatic at many levels not least of which is the manner in which from the beginning of his career, he would totally repudiate the assumed superiority of Eurocentric culture.67 That Utzon’s architecture demonstrates such a profound poetic understanding of world culture, that is combined with the benefts of universal modern building technology, is why the Sydney Opera House served so eloquently to defne a break with colonialisation, and the emergence of a modern, self-confdent and dynamic multicultural society.

Essentialist tectonic integrity and innovation Utzon’s biographer Richard Weston has recounted in his public talks that while writing his book on Utzon, he received a call from Utzon on Mallorca, who had just seen on Spanish television a documentary about Frank Gehry, in which Gehry had been compared to himself. Utzon wanted to know whether, in the book that Richard Weston was writing about him, it was clear enough that, with all respect to Frank Gehry, they are two very different kinds of architect.68 Certainly, in Utzon’s own mind, as in his work, that which differentiated him from an architect such as Gehry is Utzon’s dedicated and total commitment to tectonic integrity. This approach is established as a student of Kay Fisker, who promoted the idea of constructive logic, as exemplifed by

160 Thematic analysis the Grundtvig Church by P.V. Jensen-Klint, where the integrity of each individual brick within the construction is respected and the structural forces are expressed with great clarity. An understanding that Utzon subsequently developed and maintained throughout his own work, his uncompromising determination to tectonically express the structure of the Sydney Opera House roof shells, being the cause of delay in the construction and a strained relationship with the engineers of Arup. It is, however, also the very basis of the eventual experiential quality and enduring iconic character of the building.69

Abstraction and the essential Utzon’s Sydney Opera House has often been described and portrayed, as in the paintings of Lloyd Rees and others, as being a work of expressionist architecture. Its inspiration has also been attributed to the visionary sketches of German Expressionist architect Hermann Finsterlin. Utzon himself had a great admiration for the work of the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi, whose structurally innovative and sensually expressive architecture at the vanguard of “Modernisme” combined a sculptural expression of structural forces with a fgurative allegorical use of metaphor, that expressed his religious and Catalan nationalist convictions, as well as his clear inspiration from nature. In more contemporary terms, Utzon also admired Gaudi’s natural successor, architect, engineer, artist, and fellow Catalan, Santiago Calatrava and to some extent, Utzon saw Calatrava as a continuation of the spirit of his own work. While there are common antecedents and clear parallels in the work of Utzon and Calatrava, Utzon’s architecture is restrained by an abstract use of metaphor and analogy that is governed by a rational use of geometry, which underplays the origins and makes the work more enigmatic. Calatrava, by comparison, seeks to dramatise the structural forces and over-emphasise the expression of the metaphoric analogous references to the point where they become caricatures or merely ornamental. Following Calatrava’s success in creating iconic structures and being subsequently commissioned to increasingly excel himself with each new project, but lacking Utzon’s abstraction and tectonic restraint, Calatrava’s more recent work has increasingly become ever more grotesque parodies of earlier, more elegant own projects and those that have infuenced him. In his design of the Auditorio de Tenerife, the Concert Hall at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Island, one can see Calatrava’s unfettered and excessive homage to Utzon’s own Opera House; it is a project that underscores the appreciation with the hindsight of the more subtle metaphoric associations and restrained elegant abstraction of Utzon’s original work.70 Utzon’s appreciation and use as a reference of Chinese and Japanese foating roofs, above stone bases, are themselves abstract interpretations of Utzon’s beloved hovering cloud metaphor. The podium base of the Opera House is an abstracted interpretation of a typical Sydney headland like those

Thematic analysis

161

at the mouth of the harbour, and this analogy was intended to be made more apparent by the use of local Sydney sandstone for the cladding of the podium, but this was not feasible and was replaced by concrete. However, the greater abstraction and achievement of the Opera House is how Utzon realised the seemingly expressive sculptural form of the roof shells, by means of a purely spherical geometry and a limited number of prefabricated building elements. That Utzon achieved such a high degree of abstraction, while still alluding to strong metaphoric associations appropriate to its context, is the basis for its enduring global popularity and iconic status. The mark of the success of its inherent abstraction is that while it clearly evokes allusions to its particular maritime setting, its imagery is not precisely defnable and is open to interpretation by each and every observer, who see in its architecture their own personal interpretation and understanding. Thus, the Opera House is not the same iconic building for each person that experiences it and also differs in character from each viewing to the next. Unlike the Baha’i Lotus Temple in New Delhi, which uses similar forms to the Sydney Opera House roof shells to recreate the image of a lotus fower and which can only be understood as a lotus fower, the Sydney Opera House through its higher level of abstraction achieves a familiar, yet enigmatic and lasting dynamic iconic quality. Utzon designed and realised the contemporary equivalent of a great cathedral or as it became known, “The Other Taj Mahal,” using the most modern materials and technology of his time, pushing the boundaries of what was technologically possible, just as the Italian Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi had previously in completing the dome of Florence Cathedral. To achieve the ideal realisation of his vision, Utzon went through the full gamut of his design methods, taking analogical inspiration from boatbuilding, nature, and iconic vernacular architecture from a broad range of transcultural sources. This inspiration he synthesised through a pragmatic design approach that pushed the boundaries of the latest available construction and material technology, as well as intended to make use of the most readily available local materials, such as plywood sheeting. As Broadbent has stated, an analogical design approach requires simulation and is developed at a canonic level through translation to abstract pattern, order, regularity, and geometry. In this regard, Utzon realised the seemingly organic composition of the Opera House by means of pure geometry and went to great lengths to physically simulate and make prototypes of not only the individual components but also the prefabrication of more complex elements to ensure the most effective construction. Utzon’s synthesis of maritime inspiration, forms from the indigenous nature and landscape, combined with such a broad range of transcultural and not specifcally western references, is the inherent basis for the Sydney Opera House’s critically and popularly recognised iconic status. As a result, it has become the symbol not only most fttingly of a dynamic, harbour city Sydney, but also very appropriately of a vibrant, youthful, multicultural new world nation, that is

162 Thematic analysis modern Australia. That so many Australian artists and writers have been so enamoured of the building is indicative of its role in providing a catalyst for cultural self-confdence and independence. That Utzon created perhaps the most iconic and enduring landmark building of the twentieth century is due to his use of universal transcultural metaphors and analogy appropriate to its context. Despite alluding to many metaphoric associations, it is through the abstract quality of its design that it continues to remain enigmatic and timeless. This combined with the tectonic integrity of its construction and the satisfying manner in which it expresses the narrative of how it has been made, is the reason it will continue to stand the test of time as a lasting architectural icon. Similarly, in the design of the frst Silkeborg Art Museum proposals, it is possible to see the effective application of abstraction. Though seemingly a very expressive form of architecture, in the spirit of Frederick Kiesler’s also unrealised Endless House project, Utzon’s proposal, like his design of the Sydney Opera House, is actually strictly governed by geometric order. The relative complexity of the parabolic curvature of the wall sections is controlled and simplifed, without loss of the spatial experience Utzon intended, by the pure circular geometry of the plans. This geometric control would thus have allowed, as was Utzon’s intention, for the building to be more rationally and effectively realised using prefabricated elements. As Utzon wrote, describing his intentions: In the work with the opera house, I have developed a great desire to go further with free architectural shapes, but at the same time to control the free shape with a geometry that makes it possible to construct the building from mass-produced components. I am quite aware of the danger in the curved shapes in contrast to the relative safety of quadrilateral shapes.71 Though Utzon did discuss with me that, following his experience of building of Bagsværd Church, had he subsequently realised Silkeborg Art Museum, he would probably have chosen to build it using in-situ formwork. Nevertheless, it would have maintained the governing geometry to give an architectural order and a sense of abstraction.72 Undoubtedly, one of the many aspects that Utzon found fascinating and appealing within Islamic art and architecture is the abstract, invariably geometric, rather than literal reinterpretation of nature. The interior of Bagsværd Church is a very clear example of Utzon’s progression from natural metaphoric form, developed in this case through the analogy to the slightly more abstracted, but still sensual metaphoric expression of Islamic calligraphy to the rational discipline of pure geometry and the use of a series of partial cylinders to create the ceiling form. The use of a circular geometry allowed Utzon to realise a thin roof structure at Bagsværd Church, as he had originally intended to achieve with the Sydney Opera House. As the nineteenth-century German mathematician Carl Friedrich

Thematic analysis

163

Gauss had demonstrated in his Theorema Egregium, “Remarkable Theorem,” curvature gives considerably increased stiffness and strength to thin layers of material: as can be demonstrated by rolling a sheet of a paper and experiencing its greatly enhanced ability to resist buckling. This characteristic is used to full advantage in the construction of Bagsværd Church.73 As Utzon has noted: Throughout history, church building always embodied the most sophisticated construction techniques of the time. Large spans were made with arches and columns, the bare constructions giving the church space its expression. Even the most decorated examples of the Baroque clearly and legibly expose the structural elements . . . at Bagsværd Church, today’s most elegant construction techniques for making large spans have been employed: the ceilings, which also carry the exterior roof, are shaped as shells in reinforced concrete, quite thin, approx. 12 cm for spans of 17 metres. This is possible because of the curved cylindrical shell design. . . . The thin shells rest on gable walls or fanges that in turn are carried by rows of double columns that function as a kind of buttresses.74 The inherent abstraction in Utzon’s design approach allowed him to take a pragmatic and very directly consequential decision, when the initial costing for the building came in at 15% over budget; Utzon simply had all the drawings reduced by the requisite amount, without any loss to the architectural integrity and perceived monumentality of the exterior of the church, which actually became more effectively contrasted by the sense of intimacy experienced of the interior.75 This elegant solution to achieving the realisation of what he felt was a perfectly resolved plan, from which nothing could be removed or changed, perfectly illustrates his essentialist approach to his architecture, combined with a remarkable dexterity in transcultural architectural synthesis. In the later Kuwait National Assembly Building, it is Utzon’s great fascination with the abstraction of the architecture of the Arab world, that underpinned his ability to be one of the few Western architects to have created architecture in the region that is neither purely imported International Style nor a kitsch pastiche of local architecture. Utzon’s Kuwait National Assembly building is an uncompromisingly modern building, but also an evocation of the regional vernacular tradition in synthesis and combined with Utzon’s own poetic metaphor that gives the building its own unique identity and more site-specifc sense of place.76

A return to the cave During the early 1960s, Utzon, who had in his youth imagined becoming a painter, developed an important friendship with the leading Danish avantgarde artist Asger Jorn. Such was their rapport that Utzon humorously

164 Thematic analysis suggested that perhaps he should change his name also to Jorn. Asger Jorn, who had worked with Le Corbusier earlier, was one of the founding members of the radical international group of artists, known as COBRA, and later also of the Situationist International movement. In addition to the invitation to Le Corbusier, Utzon also discussed with Asger Jorn his involvement in making large ceramic reliefs for the interior of the Sydney Opera House. Had Jorn come to Sydney and participated in the artistic decoration of the interior of the Opera House, he would undoubtedly have made a signifcant contribution to the emerging Sydney arts scene. Utzon’s departure from the project, however, put paid to Jorn’s future involvement.77 Asger Jorn had donated a considerable collection of his own work and that of other COBRA artists to the Silkeborg Museum in his hometown, on the condition that a new extension would be built to house it. Having come to greatly admire Utzon’s architectural thinking and appreciation of art, Jorn decided to dispense with the need for an architectural competition and proposed that the commission be given to “the only Danish architect of my day who is of decidedly international outlook,” an architect “who would be able to create a building that has an intimate relationship to the artistic form of expression represented by the collection.”78 Prompted by the constraints of the site, Utzon proposed a most remarkable and radical solution that submerged the exhibition halls as enormous

Figure 4.10 Sketch made with salt of the frst proposal for the Silkeborg Museum of Art, 1963. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

Thematic analysis

165

Figure 4.11 Model of the frst proposal for the Silkeborg Museum of Art, 1963. Source: Photo by Adrian Carter

subterranean crocus bulb-like spaces that were lit from above. Asger Jorn’s art would be liberated from the framing of the interior edges in the indefnable depth of the curvilinear surfaces. Light entered through glazed apertures in the truncated conical tips that emerged above the ground level. Like the dazzling tops of icebergs that would have been decorated with Asger Jorn’s ceramic tiles, they merely alluded to the huge chasms beneath the ground, without dominating the surrounding garden and existing museum building. Though seemingly an expressive sculptural-free form, the Silkeborg Museum was designed to be built. Unlike Frederick Kiesler’s utopian expressionistic visions, Utzon’s architecture is always a pure organic form that is determined by rational geometric principles. As with the Sydney Opera House, the construction of which by means of prefabrication was concurrently in his mind, Utzon saw the possibility of realising a complex spherical construction being achieved using prefabricated elements.79 Later in life with the hindsight of having made the concrete ceilings of the Bagsværd Church in-situ in mind, Utzon refected in conversation about the project that he might well have chosen to form the concrete on site. The inspiration for the interior according to Utzon was his experience of the Yungang Grottoes, the ancient Buddhist temple caves dating from the

166 Thematic analysis ffth century near Datong in the Shanxi Province of China, where numerous Buddha statues of varying dimensions were kept within a series of grottos of differing dimensions, forms, and source of lighting. Utzon’s inspiration from caves can also be seen in his design of the sinuous furniture system for the Sydney Opera House, where the form replicated the seating area of an Aboriginal cave close to his Bayview offce. This fascination with the spatial qualities of caves is something Utzon shared with Nordic architect friends: Sverre Fehn, as seen in his entry for the Vasa Museum competition, and Reima Pietilä, another protégé of Aalto, whose breakthrough Dipoli Student building at Otaniemi alluded to a sacred procession through a cave. Utzon was later asked, while building the Kuwait National Assembly, to make a potentially extraordinary, but sadly unrealised design for a theatre within the vast natural cave system at Jeita in Lebanon. The image of the cave was not, however, the only inspiration for Silkeborg Museum. Undoubtedly the experience of standing beside the hulls of great ships in dry dock in his youth also allowed him to conceptualise the space. While there is a hint of Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp in the forming of the skylights, and the downward spiralling ramps recall Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum, Utzon’s design proposal for the Silkeborg Museum is without precedent and is among the most exceptional unrealised projects of the twentieth century. Deemed too technically challenging due to the near proximity to the river, an alternative site was sought for which Utzon was to design a radically different project. Had his frst design for the Silkeborg Museum been built, it would undoubtedly have become a comparable masterpiece to the Sydney Opera House that would not merely have put Silkeborg on the map, but also placed Danish modern architecture at the forefront of the international avant-garde. Utzon’s original proposal for the Silkeborg Art Museum, designed at the same time as working on the Sydney Opera House, was his most original and visionary expression of one of his metaphoric motifs, the cave. Whereas the Sydney Opera House is his ultimate expression of the cloud hovering above the horizon, which he architecturally translated as foating roofs over a raised platform, the Silkeborg Art Museum proposal is, as Enrique Sobejano (at I Congreso Internacional Maestros de la Arquitectura Contemporánea Jørn Utzon in Sevilla in 2008) has pointed out, its complete inverse mirror antithesis, a hollow space within the earth, beneath the horizon, as is demonstrated by turning Utzon’s famous cloud drawing upside down. Utzon respectful response to context is clear in his description of the essential idea underpinning his original Silkeborg Museum proposal, as he describes the museum, which lies in an old overgrown garden together with a wing divided into bays is so designed that it does not disturb its surroundings but is concentrated 100% inward. . . . The respect for the existing, calm

Thematic analysis

167

museum wing forces a solution that does not, by its size, dominate its surroundings. It seems natural to bury the museum in the ground .  .  . and just have the top part – the museum’s one-story skylight – jut out of the terrain.80 Having determined that the courtyard space as originally proposed as the site for the Silkeborg Art Museum was too confned to adequately accommodate an above-ground building, Utzon proposed a subterranean crocus bulb-like building. The tops of the bulbs that emerged above ground, as if about to unfold and burst into fower, were to be covered in brightly coloured ceramic tiles by Asger Jorn, while the full blossom of artistic creativity still remained to be discovered within the interiors of the bulbs. As Utzon himself describes the project, The impression of this buried museum is cave-like, kiln-like. The visible single storey skylights hint at this cave-like character as they are an immediate extension of the inner walls of the museum and clearly demonstrate the reasons for their special design. A cave in its free form with no right angles has a distinctly enclosed effect. The museum will arouse in the visitor a feeling of surprise and a desire to enter and go down into the building when, he the frst time, he sees the three-storey crater laid open at his feet. Undisturbed by stairs and passages, the visitor will move almost imperceptibly down into the museum along the downward ramp which leads him through the space. The external visible curved shapes will be clad with ceramics in strong colours so that the components of the building will appear like a shining sculpture. Inside, the museum is all white.81 With reference to the elementary geometry that served him so well, in the resolution of the Sydney Opera House Utzon describes how “a simple geometry will form the basis for a construction of mass-produced elements.” Further, Through my work with curved shapes in the opera house, I have been inspired to go further into free architectural forms, but at the same time to control the free forms by a geometry, which makes it possible to erect the building out of mass-produced components. . . . The curved form world offers something, which one will never fnd in rectangular architecture.82 The rounded edge, corner-less curvature of the proposed underground exhibition spaces was intended to diminish the awareness of actual dimensions and create a sense of scale-less, infnite space of the cosmos. The sensation of moving through infnite, cosmic space would have been heightened by the curving sloping ramps that have given visitors the sensation of moving weightlessly, as if fying three-dimensionally through this indeterminate

168 Thematic analysis space. Utzon’s proposal predates by several decades the infnite space of Takasaki Masaharu’s cosmic egg-inspired architecture or Greg Lynn’s virtual architectural visions. Utzon’s inspiration from crocus bulbs not only provided a poetic metaphor for fowering creativity appropriate for an art museum but also a suitable analogy for the shape of a building that was to be built underground and resist the weight of the earth upon and use that force to keep it submerged in an area with a high-water table level. Unfortunately, the local authorities were not convinced and their concern that the building would foat to the surface was one of the main formal reasons for not going ahead with the project. The analogy to form in nature, as often the case with Utzon’s work, was combined with a transcultural reference and source of inspiration, most specifcally Utzon’s personal experience of the Yungang Grottoes in China. Furthermore, it was Utzon’s memories of ship’s hulls and standing within the dry dock at the Aalborg Shipyard as a young boy that so much later informed his thinking. As Utzon stated, when describing the project, “the world of curved form can give something that cannot ever be achieved by means of rectangular architecture. The hulls of ships, caves and sculpture demonstrate this.”83 The way that the larger Buddha fgures within the grottoes were lit from above at the Yungang Grottoes inspired Utzon in his design of the proposed skylights but also echoes Aalto and Le Corbusier in the curvature of the ceilings and the even, diffused quality of lighting intended. As Utzon describes “Continuous shapes like those of the

Figure 4.12 Yungang Buddhist cave temples’ interior. Source: Photo by Adrian Carter

Thematic analysis

169

museum emphasise the paintings on square canvasses and objects standout as clearly as actors on the stage against the cyclorama.”84 In the fow of circulation from above and gently ramping down through the exhibition space there is also a clear reference to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum in New York, though Utzon takes this concept much further, proposing a less formal, much more dynamic sense of movement and spatial experience. In this regard, Utzon’s original Silkeborg Art Museum proposal can be seen to be a precursor to more contemporary architectural visions, inspired by the possibilities of gravity-defying movement within digitally simulated environments. Similarly, the use of computeraided design, as can be seen in the emergence of Generative design, that is allowing for the calculation of more effcient structures in terms of use of resources and increasingly replicates forms found in nature, where such effciency according to specifc prevailing conditions has already occurred through the process of evolution. Utzon’s original Silkeborg Art Museum took the archetypical notion of architecture’s origins as the cave and translated it into an architectural proposal that can be deservedly considered to be one of the most visionary and exciting unrealised works of the twentieth century. It was a project so far ahead of its time that its potential can only be imagined as no comparable structure has yet to be built, as consequently as Utzon intended. Certainly, it would have put Silkeborg on the international architectural map and possibly kick-started decades earlier the new directions within architecture that it anticipates. One can only speculate and wonder what Utzon might have achieved and the impact he would have had if on his return to Denmark he had been given the commissions he so richly deserved. While other Danish architects may be well known for their furniture and industrial design, Utzon is the only Danish architect as such of lasting international stature. Yet until the last years of his life and his passing, Utzon had been a prophet with little honour and few realised commissions in his own land. A deep-rooted and unbroken classical tradition and culture of modest conformity precluded the expressive modernity and individuality that his work represents. Unlike Finland, which embraced the architecture of Aalto, Denmark had not the same need in the twentieth century to establish a unique national identity through such original modern architecture. In a society that values tradition, conformity, and consensus, that elevates the average and ordinary, Utzon’s innovative and original approach was not widely appreciated. Unlike the acclaimed Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, who returned to Denmark from many years in Italy a century earlier, Utzon was not welcomed back from Sydney with open arms as the prodigal son. On his return to Denmark, he was informed by the Chairman of the Federation of Danish Architects that an architect who resigned from a job could not expect public commissions, which proved sadly to be prophetically true.85

170 Thematic analysis

Transcultural poetics of site, materiality, and light There are certain essential transcultural preoccupations that characterise Utzon’s work, according to Françoise Fromonot the reading of and concern for the site – the driving force behind a project; the quest for organic composition by the repetition of elements based on a single type; the search for a humanist equilibrium between modernist ideals and two particularly Scandinavian traditions – the art of construction and the comfort of the home.86 Far removed from the iconic monumentality of his work in Sydney and Kuwait, Utzon created one of his other great masterpieces, this time at a domestic scale, with the building of his own house Can Lis on the island of Mallorca. Built with the humblest of traditional materials, local sandstone, Utzon created a house in timeless harmony with its dramatic site on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. Always Utzon has been supremely aware of the site; he fully realised and appreciated the power and beauty of the Bennelong site for the Sydney Opera House and has been remarkably adept at fnding and drawing out the quality of the sites he has himself chosen for his own homes, the unrealised Bayview House on one of the most stunning sites of natural beauty north of Sydney, then Can Lis and his later house on Mallorca, Can Feliz, located high on a steep hillside like an acropolis overlooking a broad panorama of the south of the island and sea beyond.87 The materiality of the local sandstone establishes the warm sensuality of these houses and embeds them so profoundly within the local landscape. In keeping the honest simplicity of expression that Utzon so clearly wanted, the sandstone is unpolished and actually still retains the marks of the circular saw that cut it. These marks become a decorative narrative that tells of the making of the house and that story comes vividly to life in the moments that the sun’s rays penetrate the narrow vertical opening high up in the living room of Can Lis, illuminating and dramatically revealing the ridges of the saw marks: an almost sacred moment in time within the daily experience of the house. Commensurate with Utzon’s understanding, that materiality is essential to the profound experience of architecture is his appreciation of the need for a sense of the depth and thickness of that materiality, and furthermore, as in Can Lis, it is light that brings that materiality to life. In Can Lis, the actual thickness of the stone walls is further accentuated by the angled deep reveals of the window bays, which magnifcently frame views of the Mediterranean, undisturbed by visible window frames, since these are applied externally in the manner of Sigurd Lewerentz. The depth of the window bays serves to reduce the glare from the sun.88 Perhaps due to Utzon’s own sensitivity to strong sunlight and also the infuence of Alvar Aalto, there is a recurring motif in his architecture of

Thematic analysis

171

bringing light indirectly into his buildings through deep openings and in particular from above, as he experienced in the bazaar of Isfahan. The indirect daylighting of the cloud-like ceiling vaults of Bagsværd Church, articulating the faceted concrete surface created by the timber formwork, is a particularly poetic evocation of materiality and light. The way light refects off the surface of a material is an essential quality for Utzon. In the Sydney Opera House, the matt and glazed ceramic tile-clad roof shells create a shimmering, luminous quality. Utzon wanted to evoke the experience of freshly fallen snow, with ice crystals glinting in the sunlight. The result living up to Louis Kahn’s famous statement that “the sun did not know how beautiful its light was, until it was refected off this building.”89 Whether in his use of stone, brick, concrete, or glazed tile, there is a true sense of perceived depth to Utzon’s palette of materials. As Pallasmaa states, such materials “allow our vision to penetrate their surfaces and they enable us to become convinced of the veracity of matter.”90 This is closely aligned with a belief in the truthful use of real materials as a poetic notion that Utzon shared with Kahn, that architecture should evoke the archaic and have the potential to become a beautiful ruin.91

The essential beauty of nature and the beautiful idea Invariably in all world cultures from prehistoric times and antiquity to the present day have derived their essential cultural understanding of beauty from nature. For Plato, there was a clear understanding that what we consider to be beautiful has its origins in our appreciation of the form, order, and harmony of nature. Thus, our inherent sense of beauty is gained through our experience of nature, which informs our shared universal intuitive aesthetic judgment of the world around us; and according to Hans-Georg Gadamer our intuitive understanding is “formed anew through metaphor.”92 In “The Relevance of the Beautiful,” Gadamer draws upon the Platonic relationship between the beautiful, the ethical, and the true. Thus, according to Gadamer, Plato describes the beautiful as that which shines forth most clearly and draws us to itself, as the very visibility of the ideal. In the beautiful presented in nature and art, we experience this convincing truth and harmony, which compels the admission: “This is true.”93 Thus, inherent in the notion of the beautiful is not merely that some things are intuitively pleasing to us, but more profoundly that they are inherently authentic and ethically truthful. For Utzon, who looked for “the beautiful idea” in his own words, as a catalyst for each project, direct reference to nature or its translation in other cultures, was a fertile and signifcant source of initial creative ideas. Utzon, according to those that worked with him, often talked of “the beautiful idea” as underpinning the critical quality of that which he experienced or

172 Thematic analysis the underlying intentions of his own work. As Leplastrier, who worked with Utzon, has commented, “as architects if we don’t have underlying what we are doing, a beautiful idea about life. . . . If there is not a beautiful idea that underpins it as a foundation then it is only building and not architecture.”94 For Gadamer “the ontological function of the beautiful is to bridge the chasm between the ideal and the real”95 and in Utzon’s work his abstracted metaphoric and analogous reference to nature, and the beautiful ideas he extrapolates from his experience of the world, underpins his striving for the ideal and a dream of perfection within his work, that serves real human needs and the actual context he is working.96 As described previously, Utzon gained at an early age initially from his father an appreciation and understanding of nature, as a hunter, a sailor, and as a source of design inspiration. This understanding was further developed through contact with other infuential mentors, most particularly through a shared interest with Arne Korsmo in seeing nature as a key to architectural design and the possibility of growth within architecture. Thus, many of the recurring themes within Utzon’s approach to design and beautiful ideas that underpin his work are founded on inspiration found in nature and natural phenomena. Most architects begin their design of a new project by making diagrams of the spatial requirements and organisational relationships between the different functions listed within a given brief, and then determining the most effcient or dynamic means of enclosing them, according to the site, prevailing climatic conditions, access, service, and other technical requirements, in accordance with the local building codes: aesthetic decisions being taken on the basis of the architect’s judgement, the client’s wishes, the dictates of local planning authorities and economy. Invariably architects will also look at other examples, usually of the most contemporary architecture of the same typology and dealing with similar programmes, to provide inspiration for their own design. Utzon was among those rare architects, like Aalto and Pietilä, who sought original creative inspiration in poetic conceptual metaphors, usually found in nature, as the basis for initiating their design process. For Utzon, his head was often metaphorically in the clouds, when developing the ideas that he would translate into architectural form. The cloud motif is a recurring one throughout Utzon’s work, as the essence of the Sydney Opera House, through extreme abstraction in the Madrid Opera competition proposal to the most poetic tectonic evocation within the interior of the Bagsværd Church. This is emblematic of Utzon’s use of universal essential metaphors from nature that transcends different cultures. Having determined the poetic essential concept for a particular project, Utzon would then resolve its realisation by means of reference to other built works, both ancient and contemporary from all regions of the world, but just as often seek structural analogies and solutions in the natural world. A notable example of Utzon’s use of nature for an analogical solution is his resolution of the Sydney Opera House roofs. Having conceived of a structure

Thematic analysis

173

that metaphorically hovered above the horizon, like low-lying clouds over the sea, he had to resolve the bearing inner structure of the roof shells, in a manner that had tectonic clarity and would complement, rather than detract, from the dramatic sculptural character of the form. In his competition proposal, Utzon initially desired somewhat optimistically a thin shell construction for the roofs, he was unable to accept any form of steel space frame and eventually, as described previously, inspired by the inherent strength of fold palm leaves, opted for triangulated ribs, which were pre-cast in sections. This use of the palm leaf as an inspiration is emblematic of Utzon’s use of nature as a resource for structural solutions, as similarly with his reference to the lightweight jointed bone structure of bird wings, as the basis for the design of the jointed plywood window mullions, proposed to support the glazing beneath the roof shells.97 This use of nature as a source of inspiration and structural analogy was well appreciated and absorbed by those working with Utzon. In one of Richard Leplastrier’s frst signifcant commissions, a house at Bilgola Beach, north of Sydney, following his time with Utzon, Leplasrier introduced folding palm leaf-like end walls: an evocation of the inspiration of Utzon and a most appropriate poetic reference for a house built within a small grove of palm trees. Already in the frst century BCE the Roman architect Vitruvius used the analogy between water waves and sound to explain the acoustic properties of amphitheatres, comparing “the sound of voices to water waves that can fow out and bounce back when obstructed, just as sound spreads and echoes.”98 The Japanese architect Yuzo Mikami, who worked with Utzon in Denmark and Sydney on the design development of the Sydney Opera House auditoriums, recalls Utzon taking him down to the beach at Hellebæk, near where Utzon’s offce was located, and watching the movement of the waves for quite a long time. It was very dynamic and breathtakingly beautiful. Every one of the waves showed a different character in its movement. Jørn said “Yuzo, can’t we design the ceiling of the Minor Hall something like that?” whilst looking at the breaking crest of the waves. Shortly afterwards, Jørn came to my drawing board with a small sketch. . . . The sketch was more conceptual than indicative, but expressed the feeling of the waves. . . . It reminded me of Hokusai’s famous wood-block print of Mt. Fuji with big waves.99 Certainly, Utzon, with his great affnity for the sea, was fascinated by the movement of waves and the way light refected off the undulating surface of water. Like Aalto, he saw parallels between the refection of light and that of sound; and inspired by Aalto’s design of the meeting room in the Viipuri Library, Utzon sought to create a wave-like ceiling for the Minor Hall. Here initially Utzon’s use of analogy was not entirely successful in the frst instance, in acoustic terms as his initial design focused rather than distributed the sound. However, through the input of

174 Thematic analysis

Figure 4.13 Model of palm leaf-like ribbed structure of the Sydney Opera House roof shells, 1956. Source: © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

the German acoustician Werner Gabler, the ceiling became more precisely acoustic, through the introduction of “a succession of smaller curves with tighter radii”;100 a more abstract geometric version of what he originally intended, that still retained the essential character of the original metaphoric and analogous reference.

An essentially organic architecture Utzon, with his inspiration in nature and as an admirer of Frank Lloyd Wright’s work, identifed with the notion of an organic direction in architecture. The term Organic Architecture is generally attributed to Frank Lloyd Wright, who frst used the term already back in 1914 in an article in the August issue of The Architectural Record. For Wright, there were certain principles that defned his understanding of Organic Architecture, amongst the most signifcant of which was the relationship to the site, in that the building should grow out of and be informed by the site, as well as most importantly serving to enhance the site. Similarly, the choice of materials

Thematic analysis

175

should be true to their own characteristics and serve to enhance the expression of the form of the architecture. Underlying Wright’s understanding of Organic Architecture is the belief that all lessons one needs to learn in terms of form, shapes, proportion, and materiality can be learned from nature, and that all dimensions should relate to the human body. In An Organic Architecture, published in 1939, Frank Lloyd Wright declared, Organic architecture to be the modern ideal and the teaching so much needed if we are to see the whole of life, and to now serve the whole of life, holding no “traditions” essential to the great TRADITION. Nor cherishing any preconceived form fxing upon us either past, present or future, but – instead – exalting the simple laws of common sense – or of supersense if you prefer – determining form by way of the nature of materials.101 A wide range of architects, often with very diverse design approaches to Frank Lloyd Wright, has been considered to represent an Organic direction within architecture, including the likes of Antoni Gaudi, Alvar Aalto, all of whom Utzon admired, and also Utzon himself. Certainly, Utzon was greatly inspired by Wright in the beginning of his career, visiting him in the United States in 1949,102 with the intention of making an exhibition of his work to be displayed in Denmark. In that context, Utzon ascribed to Wright’s understanding of an Organic Architecture, with regard to the signifcance of the site and learning from nature. Similarly, the subsequent infuence of Aalto’s understanding of how the site should both physically and metaphorically inform the design, his notion of architecture as analogous built landscape, and use of nature as inspiration was to play an important role in developing Utzon’s own architecture in an organic direction. However, Utzon, unlike more expressive exponents of an organic approach, like Aalto and more particularly Pietilä, always abstracted his metaphoric and analogical inspiration from nature and governed his design by means of geometric resolution. The common misnomer that organic architecture is characterised by free form and wilful sculptural expressivity is even further from the truth in the case of Utzon and was the basis for the misinterpretation and misrepresentation of Utzon’s Sydney Opera House as organic expressionism. In fact, its poetic, metaphorically motivated design, developed through analogies to nature and other transcultural sources, is guided by an abstract rational use of geometry.103

The transcultural essentialism of Utzon’s visions for an additive architecture In keeping with his interpretation of Organic Architecture and understanding that an essential characteristic of nature is growth, Utzon developed what he termed “Additive Architecture.” This for him derived from his analytical

176 Thematic analysis appreciation of nature, as well as the principles of ancient traditional building cultures, where he sees the addition and repetition of simple elements to create more complex structures as a model for what architecture should strive for. This understanding confrms that Utzon’s use of nature is not literal or fgurative, but an abstract interpretation. In relation to his design for Herning Export College, where the functions of the programme are separately articulated volumes joined together – as would be the principle of many of larger projects and his fnal building, the Utzon Center – Utzon poetically explains his understanding of the Additive principle: If you consider a piece of nature, the edge of a wood, a sea shore, the ocean or a fowering feld, you see, for example, that the character of the feld has emerged by an addition of so and so many different types of leaves and stems, all composed according to certain laws. The many repetitions – in slight variation – produce the character. It is not so diffcult to imagine a continuous expansion or modifcation of a house, a group of buildings or a town, if the house, the buildings or the town is based on the additive principle.104 Implicit within Utzon’s Additive Architecture is the metaphoric potential of dynamic extension and addition, based on the analogy of growth within nature and realised in architectural terms, through the rational, industrialised prefabrication of standardised components. As Utzon explained: A consistent utilization of industrially produced building components can only be achieved if these components can be added to the buildings without having to be cut to measure or adapted in any way. Such a pure addition principle results in a new architectural form, a new architectural expression with the same attributes and the same effects as are obtained e.g. from adding more trees to a forest, more deer to a herd, more stones to a beach, more wagons to a marshalling yard – or more morsels to the “Typical Danish Lunch”; it all depends on how many different components are added in this game. Like a glove that fts the hand, this game matches the demands of our age for freedom in the design of buildings and a strong desire for getting away from the boxtype house where the box has a given size and is subdivided by partitions in the traditional way. When working with the additive principle, one is able, without diffculty, to respect and honour all the demands made on design and layout as well as all the requirements for extensions and modifcations. This is because the architecture – or perhaps rather the character – of the building is in the summation of the components, and not in the composition, nor is it dictated by the facade. Again, when working with the additive principle, one is able to avoid sinning against the right of existence of the individual components. They all manage to fnd their expression.

Thematic analysis

177

The tenet of functionalism, which is after all the essential background to true architecture, is respected. The drawings are not a thing per se with meaningless and dimensionless module lines, but the module lines represent wall thicknesses, and the lines on the paper form the contours of the fnished thing. The projects show the degree of freedom that can be achieved with the additive principle in tackling greatly varying tasks. They also demonstrate the vital problems associated with the design of units or components, and provide some indication of the advantages in respect of production control, costs and erection time that can be achieved in comparison with a group of buildings constructed in purely artisan fashion.105 The Sydney Opera House is the epitome of the potential of Additive Architecture as Utzon conceived it: as the poetically motivated and tectonically orchestrated composition of relatively few, standardised elements that transcends its pragmatic construction, to become a dynamic and powerfully signifcant work of architecture.106 Utzon also developed the additive Utsep furniture system initially for the Sydney Opera House. It was inspired by a cave at Palm Beach on the Northern Beaches of Sydney where erosion over millennia created natural niches and ledges where people could sit or lie down at different levels, where Utzon and his offce would sometimes gather socially. The furniture in dialogue with Utzon was eventually put into production for the Utzon Park in Aalborg, through collaboration with Emilio Escofet and his family company, which had a long history of working with eminent architects, going back to their work with Gaudi in Barcelona. The Utsep furniture system comprises nine elements, that are concave, convex, or straight, at three heights, that could be combined in various permutations and in conjoined profle look like the outline of a family of swans, a nod no doubt to the great Danish architect of the previous generation Arne Jacobsen, who was known for his “Swan Chairs.” As Utzon describes, The curved furniture construction gives the group of people that settles in it the same feeling of friendly community that a round conference table gives meeting participants. In the Tuileries, Paris, the park furniture is not benches but iron chairs. It is a very inspiring sight to see how groups of young people move the chairs together in circles and clusters, so that the group’s interaction is properly supported by the individuals vis-à-vis the others. If you observe the sudden change in character of a fock of birds swooping down and alighting in a straight lines on telephone wires, you understand how powerfully the architect ties down people’s mobility and natural desire to move around with his corridors, his stairs, his arrangements of furniture and tables and his rows of benches.107 Throughout his career, Utzon constantly developed, evolved, and implemented an innovative open-ended, additive approach to architecture that

178 Thematic analysis allows for growth and change, as opposed to the established principle of the static, completed work of architecture. This is an approach to the design of buildings that is in tune with an increasingly dynamic society that requires the possibility of ongoing fexibility and growth. Of more recent architects, Glenn Murcutt is notably amongst those who are kindred exponents of a modern technologically rational, additive architecture realised in relation to a specifc context, with structural integrity, material honesty, and unconstrained visual expression.108 Utzon’s belief in the application of mass-produced building elements that could be combined to allow freedom in the forming of spaces, an understanding that was inspired by historic vernacular precedent, led him to consider the potential of such an approach at an increasingly large and urban scale. In 1967, Utzon was commissioned to design a complex of buildings for a new school complex in Herning. The resulting design proposal had the character of a self-contained town based upon a grid of square modules that could grow according to future needs. Like the earlier proposal for Farum, there were clearly Islamic precedents, though these were less pronounced in the design for Herning, with the articulation of the individual modules being more distinctive and contemporary in the use of barrel vaults and dramatically expressed light shafts. Though very sculptural in appearance, these elements were evolved from traditional principles and determined according to the provision of natural light and ventilation. While only a prototype for the overall development was ever realised, it can be seen as a prescient example of a contemporary environmentally responsive architectural expression, as is exemplifed today by the work of architects such as Glenn Murcutt, whose Magney House very effectively allowed for its extension to meet additional needs. As the initial design had taken into consideration the possibility of the end gable wall being moved and additional modules added. As a conjunct to his interest in the urbanistic potential of “Additive Architecture,” Utzon was simultaneously developing his thinking on the industrialisation of individual housing, which was embodied in a commission by the Danish Timber Association to develop a building system for timber houses. His radical ideas of a fexible timber-framed housing component system, inspired by the traditional building techniques of Japan and China, became the basis for the development of an elegant catalogue housing system that Utzon called Espansiva. A prototype Espansiva house was built in Hellebæk in 1969 and used for a while as Utzon’s own offce and is now a family residence. Built around a central courtyard, it has a poetic understated Japanese aesthetic and a beautifully light and airy interior. Sadly, the concept did not succeed. Because mortgage rules in Denmark did not encourage the lending of money to purchase such unfnished houses, and also the company responsible for producing Espansiva were not adept at realising the opportunities there were internationally, and subsequently went into liquidation.

Thematic analysis

179

Figure 4.14 Espansiva Housing system layout permutations. Source: Flemming Bo Andersen, Utzon Photos and © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

Of the many unrealised explorations of the principles of additive architecture that Utzon made, the 1969 proposals for the design of a sports complex in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, are the grandest and most impressive. Ingeniously Utzon used only fve basic repeating folded structural elements to create the vast sculptural form of the proposed stadium with its distinctive folded cantilevered roof and the ancillary sports facilities of a swimming pool and gymnasium, linked by elevated shaded walkways that in a sensuous movement connected the different venues, not unlike the sinuous seating arrangements that could be created by combining various segments of Utzon’s Utsep furniture. The origami-like structural expression of the Jeddah Stadium recalls the forms of the famous Le Klint lampshades. Back in 1944, when Utzon was still in Stockholm, he had been asked to design an exhibition for Kaare Klint’s cross-pleated paper Le Klint lampshades at the exclusive Stockholm furniture shop Svenskt Tenn. Utzon was greatly impressed by these lampshades and his enthusiasm for folded forms most dramatically re-emerged in his designs for the Jeddah Stadium in Saudi Arabia. As Utzon explains, The stadium grandstand is arranged on three staggered tiers. Each spectator has a perfect view over the sports ground, and the great majority of them will sit in the shade. The structural design, using thin, angled slabs, provides an elegant, facetted screen which is further emphasised by

180 Thematic analysis the interplay of light and shade. It represents a very economic structure which can easily be assembled from small components.109 Utzon further explains how the construction system can grow organically and allow for changes while under development: The access roads form the backbone of the whole establishment, they may be compared to the trunk of a tree, with branches leading to the different parts of the ground. The system is able to grow just as organically as a tree in the forest, avoiding at all times that unpleasant impression of unreadiness otherwise associated with buildings erected in stages. It is not even necessary to plan the fnal stage before work is commenced on the frst. As the components can be assembled in any desired combination, the plan can still be altered during later stages.110 The structural logic of the Jeddah project informed the design of the subterranean Jeita Theatre intended to be built within a large grotto in the Nahr al-Kalb valley close to Beirut in Lebanon. Here, though, the

Figure 4.15 Sketch of proposed Jeita Cave theatre. Source: Flemming Bo Andersen, Utzon Photos and © The Utzon Archives/Utzon Center

Thematic analysis

181

elements were to be made as open frames, to be more easily transported into the cave and that there came together to form a multifaceted spatial structure that created an amphitheatre and which could be seen through, allowing for dramatic changes of lighting effect not only on the walls of the cave but also the structure itself, so that the structure could seem to glow in red light, like a fre within the cave. The Jeddah stadium also infuenced his competition design proposal for Farum Town Centre, near Copenhagen, which Utzon explained “is conceived as a growing structure, composed of uniform particles which can be produced from prefabricated components” and which “By expansion in stages, the town centre will at no time look like an unfnished complex.”111 The proposed sequence of prefabricated columns and vaults could be combined in a variety of ways, evoking the character of Arabian bazaars, but also referencing Gothic vaulted architecture. While neither the Jeddah Stadium nor Farum Town Centre was realised by Utzon, in their exploration of essential cultural characteristics they did provide the basis for another major monumental building that Utzon did get to build, the Kuwait National Assembly.112 Utzon writes about the Kuwait National Assembly that it was not conceived as a composition but as an addition – as an example of the additive principle – starting from the central street it is a growing, an expanding system, its fnal limitation being defned by a big perforated wall, which is encasing and protecting the whole complex. Within the complex, Utzon explains, The system of modules gives total fexibility to future rearrangements both of the present departments and the separate offces within the departments. Furthermore, any addition to any department can be made at any time without disturbance, interference or inconvenience to the existing offces. Extension of the system is an inborn quality.113

Poetic metaphor and the arche of architectural design All that we would consider as being architecture has an underlying narrative, whether consciously intended or intuitively embodied, that is similarly knowingly or subliminally understood by those experiencing the architecture. Purely functional and pragmatically designed buildings can also embody a narrative by virtue of satisfying precise human needs and which over time, through the establishment of vernacular building traditions, become an established form for Iconic Design, which is why architects, such as Utzon, have sought inspiration in vernacular buildings. However, that which is culturally deemed to be architecture, particularly that which achieves the status of being iconic on its own terms, fulfls a deeper symbolic need and cultural narrative, that relies upon metaphor and analogy.

182 Thematic analysis Any human language is also derived originally from the sounds that became words, that defined and expressed an analogous metaphoric understanding of the world, the more recent evolution of which can be found in tracing the etymological roots of a word’s development through various ancient to contemporary languages. This gives some hints as to the earliest sources that are otherwise lost in the mists of time. As we have become distant from the metaphoric origins of language, we have come, as George Lakoff and Mark Johnson have stated, to see metaphor more as a “device of the poetic imagination and rhetorical flourish – a matter of extraordinary rather than ordinary language. Moreover, metaphor is typically viewed as characteristic of language alone, a matter of words rather than thought or action.” 114 According to Lakoff and Johnson, contrary to this understanding “metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.”115 Again, following Lakoff and Johnson, if metaphor is fundamental for our conceptual thinking, it is also the basis for our perception, experience, and creation of the world around us. Thus, just as metaphor is the basis for language and our conceptual understanding of the world linguistically, metaphor is equally important to the conceptualisation, creation, perception, and experience of architecture. Analogy and metaphor are the basis for an architectural language and without that metaphoric language there cannot be an architectural narrative. The more appropriate and articulate the use of metaphor, the more coherent and stimulating the resulting architectural narrative, and the more universal the inherent metaphors are, the broader the appeal. If they are then abstracted, while retaining the essence of what is represented, then the result will be that much more existentially and intellectually satisfying, as well as more potentially timeless as Utzon has demonstrated.116 Metaphor is the transfer of an idea or understanding from one subject to another. Anthony Antoniades in the Poetics of Architecture (1992) identifes three types of metaphor in relation to architectural design: 1) Tangible Metaphors, which are inherently visual or material in character; 2) Intangible Metaphors, which are conceptual, based upon an idea or the human condition; and 3) Combined Metaphors.117 In the design of Bagsværd Church, as an example, Utzon takes Tangible Metaphoric inspiration from the experience he has of clouds seen from Lanikai Beach, Hawaii and translates that into a design for a church interior that evokes an Intangible Metaphoric experience of a sacred procession beneath these concrete clouds that take on a Combined Metaphoric character, as light enters and is diffused between the curved white concrete surfaces that further recreates the experience of clouds in nature and enhances the poetic experience of the space, where that which is structural and tectonic, is also ethereal and sublime.118

Thematic analysis

183

A metaphor essentially describes a particular characteristic or essence of a subject by means of comparison with an otherwise, often seemingly unrelated object. Like other forms of rhetorical forms of association, comparison, and suggestion of resemblance, such as allegory and simile, metaphor is a type of analogy. However, metaphor goes beyond mere analogy, in which there is a suggested relationship between two entities on the basis of perceived structural similarities; rather metaphor implies the understanding and transfer from one entity to another, of the conceptual and symbolic content, that is the essential qualities that give phenomenological meaning. As such, metaphors are the basis for profound, though not necessarily conscious understanding of the world around, the fnding of one’s existential place in it and a rich source of creativity. As Aristotle stated, The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learnt from others; and it is also the sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars.119 Aristotle goes further to say that Metaphor, moreover, gives style clearness, charm, and distinction as nothing else can: and it is not a thing whose use can be taught by one man to another. Metaphors, like epithets, must be ftting, which means they must fairly correspond to the thing signifed: failing this, their inappropriateness will be conspicuous.120 While Aristotle was referring to the importance of metaphor as the basis for being a poet and creating good poetry, one can through analysis and observation equally say the same about being an architect, such as Utzon, and his means of creating good architecture. Within western culture, the understanding of metaphor originates with the Ancient Greeks, with Aristotle providing the frst elaborated defnition in the Poetics, where he describes metaphor as a means by which the poet provides knowledge through artistic imitation or “mimesis.” Aristotle stated that “Metaphor consists in giving the thing a name that belongs to something else; the transference being either from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from species to species, or on grounds of analogy.” The word metaphor stems from the Greek word “metaphora” meaning “transfer,” which Mark Johnson describes as a “pervasive mode of understanding by which we project patterns from one domain of experience in order to structure another domain of a different kind.”121 That is the transference of meaning from one object or concept to another, the recognition of similar essential qualities to be found in something other than itself, leading to an understanding that it is this act of transference that has throughout history elevated the pragmatic act of building to the cultural and artistic realm of architecture.122

184 Thematic analysis Of the essential qualities, of utilitas, frmitas, and venustas (utility, frmness, and delight) that Vitruvius stated architecture should possess, the quality of delight has always been the most contentious, open to constantly varying interpretation, and often disregarded as being of lesser consideration or considered a direct consequence of satisfying the functional needs of building. However, it is this elusive quality of delight that invariably distinguishes those buildings that we consider exemplary works of architecture. It is our argued contention, as exemplifed by Utzon, that delight derives from an inherent analogical and metaphoric content in a work of architecture, where metaphor is a sign of both creative thought and of perception, with the degree of delight being directly related to the quality and integrity of the metaphoric content. Historically, comparisons have been made between architecture and language, but as Chris Abel states, “The language of architecture is no more than a metaphor or the name given to a specifc relation by analogy between otherwise different ideas”123 and further suggests that “the language analogy constitutes a perfectly legitimate and even rigorous method of enquiry into the nature of architecture.”124 Abel makes the point that when we compare one building with the other, we compare distinct languages, each with its own rules and internal logic, each offering a quite different interpretation of reality. We do not just compare building with building, therefore, but ideas with ideas, and values with values.125 With reference to Douglas Berggren’s classifcation of metaphors in his paper “The use and abuse of metaphor,” published in 1962, Abel identifes three types of metaphor that he says “in turn appeal to intellectual, poetic and visual sensitivities” that are particularly signifcant in relation to architecture. The frst is the “structural metaphor” which at the more rational end of the spectrum concerns “the abstract relation of structures by analogy.” Secondly is the “textural metaphor,” at the other end of the spectrum which according to Abel is “based on an emotional intuition of similarity or disparity between concepts”; and then thirdly lying somewhere between the objective and emotional poles is the “isolated pictorial metaphor” that as implied is concerned with “a direct association between different visual images.”126 This echoes Geoffrey Broadbent’s categorisation of the major forms of analogy used in architecture as: 1) Visual analogies, 2) Structural analogies, and 3) Philosophical analogies. This is similar to the three major types of metaphor, as identifed in relation to architecture by Antoniades, of 1) Tangible Metaphors, which are inherently visual or material in character; 2) Intangible Metaphors, which are conceptual, based upon an idea or the human condition; and 3) Combined Metaphors.127 For Broadbent and Antoniades, the use of analogy and metaphor is the most powerful and signifcant source of creative thinking.

Thematic analysis

185

As Donald Schön argued in The Displacement of Concepts (1963), metaphor is the principal cognitive mechanism, allowing us to see something in terms of something else, and thus enabling us to be able to see things in a way that is new to us; with this understanding, Abel states that the dynamic and creative role of metaphor is “in changing and bringing about new ideas.”128 Since the very beginning of human communication, the use of analogy and metaphor has been a most signifcant means of transference of ideas, concepts, and poetic thoughts by the enlightenment of associations and the reframing of understanding within a new context. Metaphor is not only the foundation of linguistics but the very basis for all cultural and artistic endeavours. As E.L. Doctorow has suggested, “The development of civilisations is essentially a progression of metaphors.”129 The earliest civilisations found metaphoric inspiration and signifcance in the natural world around them. Certainly, nature, that is the human body and the biological and physical world, was the original and still most fertile sources of analogies and metaphors. With the advent of Euclidean geometry and understanding of mathematics, the works of man began to take on an abstract metaphoric signifcance in their own right, in opposition to nature, leading to the apotheosis of the machine itself as metaphor early in the twentieth century. However, with our more recent understanding of the actual complexity of mathematics, as expressed in chaos theory and fractals, and the evolution of computer technology into a web of neural networks, our perception of the world has progressed from a mechanistic to a once more organic understanding and a profound use of nature as metaphor is gaining pre-eminence. The consideration of metaphor, having languished for many centuries previously, has since the mid-twentieth century emerged increasingly as the central issue within philosophy, linguistics, literature, and as a fundamental aspect in the consideration of aesthetics. However, as yet metaphor has not been so extensively considered in relation to architecture. Also, because as Antoniades suggests since “Postmodernism, especially Historicist Postmodernism, resorted to metaphor and linguistics for so many of its theoretical and critical interpretations, it produced very little in the way of a welcoming climate for the use the metaphor as a path to architectural creativity.”130 As architecture has an invariable tendency to refect developments within other aesthetic felds, but with some time delay as the realisation of architectural developments and innovation is not as immediate, it is appropriate and relevant to consider the signifcant role that metaphor has played and increasingly plays within the development and appreciation of contemporary architecture. Particularly as it is possible to say that metaphor has been an inherent and defning feature of the creation of architecture, whether in terms of generative metaphor that has served as the point of departure for architectural design or narrative metaphor that provides a conceptual frame of understanding. Both generative and narrative conceptual metaphors are evident in the work of Jørn Utzon, which profoundly exemplifes the role of metaphor and more direct analogy in both the creative design process

186 Thematic analysis and the technical resolution of his architecture. The simple poetic integrity, universality, and abstraction in his use of metaphor and analogy are, we argue, the basis of the perceived narrative content and enduring popularity, as well as critical appreciation of his work. This is because metaphors are not simply stylistic, but more importantly, serve a cognitive function. According to Lakoff and Johnson conceptual metaphor provides the possibility of understanding and also experiencing something by reference to something else. The use of conceptual, non-linguistic metaphors in architectural terms gives us the user not only an experience of an inherent narrative but also importantly an understanding and sense of identifcation with that architecture, that encourages an existential connection and experience of a particular genius loci. That Utzon, like many notably creative individuals, was dyslexic is perhaps a key to an understanding of how important the use of visual imagery is in solving complex problems for creative thinkers. Utzon’s need to compensate for a lack of more conventional academic prowess and fnd alternative means of gaining knowledge, as well as realising his creative ambitions, led him to seek inspiration in nature, in art and boatbuilding, as well as similarly in the vernacular cultures he travelled to experience frst-hand around the world. Underlying all of Utzon’s work were universally comprehensible conceptual metaphors realised by means of analogy, invariably derived from the natural world or ancient and archaic cultural understanding, which underpinned a humane, cosmopolitan, and tectonic approach to architecture and design.131

Tectonic analogy and the techne of construction The eighteenth-century English scientist Joseph Priestley stated that “analogy is our best guide in all philosophical investigations, and all discoveries, which were not made by mere accident, have been made by the help of it”132 in 1769. An analogy is defned as a “comparison between two objects, or systems of objects, that highlights respects in which they are thought to be similar. . . . Analogies are widely recognized as playing an important heuristic role, as aids to discovery.”133 Keith Holyoak and Paul Thagard in their book Mental Leaps: Analogy in Creative Thought (1995) explain the use of analogy in creative thinking with reference to the example of architect’s developing a new design for a building. The architect has some guiding goals, some functions to achieve. There are some materials to work with, some of which have conventional uses that guide their incorporation into the design. The various design decisions have to work together to form a whole. Creating the design is based on laying out the relevant constraints and trying to satisfy them. And just as an architect will build a model that expresses the design for a building, the person uses an analogy to build a model in the mind that can be used to understand something about the world.134

Thematic analysis

187

As discussed earlier, much of the use of analogy in architecture relates to the use of analogies to nature, as is described in Philip Steadman’s The Evolution of designs: Biological analogy in architecture and the applied arts originally published in 1979 and revised in 2008. Steadman is interested in a use of analogy that does “not just understand and imitate natural forms, but seeking insights at deeper levels into biological processes, from which designers might derive models and methods.”135 Steadman suggests that since ancient Greece “natural organisms” have provided perfect models of that harmonious balance and proportion between the parts of a design which is synonymous with the classical ideal of beauty. The qualities of wholeness, of integrity, of a unity in structure such that the parts all contribute to the effect or purpose of the whole, and no part may be removed without some damage to the whole.136 This, according to Steadman, defnes the characteristics according to an Aristotelian understanding of the best works of art. Steadman goes further to suggest that there are two distinctive forms of analogy in terms of interpretation, one that is concerned with “visual appearance and composition” and the other that is “functional,” but that these two forms of analogy are interrelated.137 The functional view being the basis for organic analogy, The equation of the beautiful with the useful or with the expression of usefulness, the idea that an artefact which is well designed and adapted for its purpose will be seen to be beautiful through recognition of this ftness for use.138 This understanding according to Steadman has its origins in Aristotle’s perception of the beauty of animals, deriving from an appreciation of the structure of their parts, in which each separate structure serves a precise function, though are subservient, but contributing to “the greater purpose of the whole.” For Steadman it is not surprising that in terms of biological analogy, architects and structural engineers alike are most fascinated with anatomy, as this provides insights into statics, weight distribution and strength of structure; with D’Arcy Thompson’s classic text On Growth and Form, being amongst the most infuential biological treatises referenced by architects and which was an important source of inspiration for Utzon, that infuenced his development as an architect early in his career and that he encouraged his staff to refer to later in practice, when designing the Sydney Opera House. Utzon is an outstanding exemplar for an analogical design approach within modern architecture. Furthermore, as Broadbent points out, Analogic Design cannot be realised directly, but requires some form of simulation to mediate the translation from the original source of inspiration to the

188 Thematic analysis intended new form.139 In this regard, Utzon’s dedication to redrawing, modelling and, most signifcantly, actually proto-typing elements of his design vision, was the basis for the success of his analogical design methodology. From early in his career Utzon would develop up to full-size models to test and resolve his design intentions. His own early house in Hellebæk made use of canvas and boards on site in accordance to the actual dimensions, to provide a more accurate understanding of the spatial dimensions and relation to the prevailing conditions and context. As Utzon has said, I believe in this procedure, rather than in the method of considering architecture as abstract sculpture or painting for the sake of form, in which way things all too easily become dictated by models and formalistic, whereas a purely structural and functional basis combined with a sensitivity to light, shade, colour and space opens infnite possibilities.140 While Utzon had a profound appreciation of traditional craft skills, he also keenly embraced new technology and design innovation, and saw it as entirely compatible with the realisation of his artistic and poetic architectural vision, as evidenced by his implementation and use of cutting-edge methods of construction in the building of the Sydney Opera House. Utzon stated already in 1948 that To be in touch with the time, with the environment, to see the inspiration provided by the project itself, is necessary in order to be able to translate the demands of the project into an architectural language that can formulate a unity from the different factors. At the same time, the architect must possess the ability to give his imagination free rein, this ability that is sometimes called creativity, sometimes daydreaming.141

A return to roots: the fnal essential transcultural synthesis It was ftting and poignant that Utzon’s last built project and celebration of his legacy is located on the harbourfront of the city of Aalborg, where he grew up. For it was in the maritime environment of this major Danish port city, with its legacy of shipbuilding dating back to Viking times, that one fnds the origins of Jørn Utzon’s approach to architecture and the main inspiration for his great masterpiece, the Sydney Opera House. With his father, Aage Utzon, being the chief engineer at the local shipyards and a naval architect with an international reputation for designing yachts, renowned for their speed and distinctive curvature of their stern forms, known as Spidsgatter. It was Jørn Utzon’s early experience of working with his father on the design of sailing boats and seeing the huge hulls of ships under construction in dry-dock that was later to give him the formal language and also the self-confdence to realise the huge boat-like roof-shells of the Sydney Opera House. In conjunction with

Thematic analysis

189

the establishment of the Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology, at Aalborg University, it seemed particularly appropriate to focus on Utzon’s work in terms of academic research and more importantly as a source of pedagogic inspiration to the new education, through the realisation of the Utzon Center. Given his great modesty and humility, it took a personal visit to Utzon in Mallorca and quite some persuading to convince Utzon himself that such a centre dedicated to his work was worthwhile, since he thought architecture was best understood and appreciated in situ and that even architects had problems reading and understanding architectural drawings. As a more modest alternative, he did suggest making an exhibition about him and his work in his old classroom, at the Aalborg Cathedral School, where, he had done so poorly academically, due in large part to his dyslexia, that his teacher had told him he should not expect to achieve much with his life. He thought an exhibition on his work could provide some hope to other less achieving pupils to have hope in their future success. What convinced Utzon to engage with the proposal for the Utzon Center was that it was not only intended to celebrate his work as an architect, but also that of his father Aage and the craft skills of boat design and building that Jørn had learned from him. Inspired by the understanding gained from Richard Leplastrier as to how important that insight and inspiration had been to him in his development as an architect, the idea proposed to Jørn was that the Utzon Center, not only should display his father’s wooden boats but would also recreate a boatyard environment, where future generations of young people could learn the same skills, as he had, by physically building the wooden boats his father had designed. It was Utzon’s expressed wish that the Utzon Center should not be a museum, but rather an active and dynamic workshop for new creative ideas, as well as a public venue for the display, development, and discussion of architecture, design, and art. Utzon had been greatly impressed by his visit to the Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm, the Ulm School of Design, which provided him with the inspiration for the project, and he strongly felt the desire that the Utzon Center should aim to achieve a similarly dynamic design environment.142 In keeping with Utzon’s humane approach to architecture, the Utzon Center is not designed as one monumental building, but as a series of pavilions built around a sheltered courtyard, so that it is possible to sit outside near the harbourfront protected from the cold prevailing winds that, as Utzon remembers from his childhood, blow in over the waters of Limfjorden. The whole composition of the Utzon Center, as is typical of many of Utzon’s works, is raised up upon a platform and built as a series of architectural volumes, linked by a colonnade around a Mediterranean-like courtyard. The design of the Utzon Center incorporates ideas and forms previously developed in a prototype school building in Herning, which implemented Utzon’s principles of Additive Architecture using prefabricated building components. Similarly, the Utzon Center uses a simple module system built from

190 Thematic analysis

Figure 4.16 Jørn Utzon with an initial concept model of the Utzon Center, Aalborg, made with LEGO. Source: Photo courtesy of Kim Utzon

factory-produced building elements, combined with sculptural articulated roof elements, designed according to lighting and acoustic requirements. The 2,900 m² Utzon Center complex comprises the dramatic Spidsgatter Hall, which Utzon designed according to the dimensions of one of his father, Aage Utzon’s famous Spidsgatter boats to be exhibited in the room with the mast and sails up. The synthesis between boat construction and architecture is one of the keys to understanding Jørn Utzon’s unique interpretation of the Nordic tradition of architecture and design. Connected to the Spidsgatter Hall is a large workshop space, for building models, prototypes and installations, as an active educational and design environment within the Utzon Center. The workshop is designed according to the same fexible modules as the exhibition halls and can also be used as an exhibition space. The academic and research ambitions of the Utzon Center were to be supported by the Utzon Archive, which was intended to be housed within the building, to provide an accessible and invaluable resource for the further study of Utzon’s work. Visiting scholars were to sit in individual study carrels

Thematic analysis

191

projecting out towards the Utzon Park or gather beneath the high skylight of the meeting space. Utzon’s fascination with sculpting with light can be seen most clearly in the curving ceilings of the auditorium that is reminiscent of Bagsværd Church, while facing out towards the harbourfront, the deep window niches of the auditorium frame the water below in a manner similar to Utzon’s own house, Can Lis on Mallorca. The essential overriding vision for the Utzon Center was the notion of it being a “værft,” a shipyard for new ideas in architecture and design. Inspired by his experience of visiting the Ulm School of Design, in the late 1960s, Utzon wanted to create a dynamic workshop environment in which young architects, designers, artists, and artisans could experiment and collaborate in producing new creative visions. This idea of coming together as a creative community is strengthened by the colonnaded courtyard that connects all functions of the Utzon Center, like a monastery. As with Aalto’s Säynätsalo Town Hall, the courtyard of the Utzon Center is symbolic of a community, gathered around a central courtyard; in this case, a courtyard sheltered from the harsh winds that blow across Limfjorden, but still with a visual connection to the water. The recurring Utzon theme of clouds hovering above the horizon is established by having only the three major roofs above the Spidsgatter Hall, the auditorium, and the library skylights. For Utzon, a library was an important component of the centre and conjunct to the workshop, just as he had experienced at the Ulm School of Design. As a repository of knowledge and place for inspiration and new sources of ideas, that could then be tested and explored physically within the workshop. In discussions with Utzon during the design development of the building, he was very aware of the intention to incorporate the major emblematic themes of his work within the Utzon Center; the building is, therefore, self-referential

Figure 4.17 Harbour view of Utzon Center, Aalborg. Source: Photo by Thomas Mølvig

192 Thematic analysis and analogous to many of his other works. Most clearly it builds upon his principles of an Additive Architecture, as developed in the Espansiva housing system and most particularly the school building prototype, which became the Export College in Herning in 1969. Along with the Utzon motif of the courtyard, he also introduced the raised platform to the Utzon Center, endowing the building with a sense of built landscape that his more monumental buildings are known for. Unlike the Sydney Opera House, the Utzon Center is not a white building, because there already was one in the form of the adjacent timber-framed and white rendered, Aalborghus Slot (Aalborg Castle). Rather, the Utzon Center is faced in Peking Grey brickwork between concrete frames, so as to be in keeping with the more industrial buildings still remaining on the Aalborg Harbourfront, and as an evocation of Aalborg’s industrial identity. From the initial idea for the Utzon Center presented to Utzon, through to the design development by him and his architect son Kim Utzon and eventual realisation, the intention was always that the building should in itself be an evocation of the underlying design methodology and essential themes within Utzon works; a built Utzon Paradigm that would support the educational aims of Utzon Center to promote a poetic, humane and tectonic approach to architecture in keeping with the integrity of Utzon’s own values. Though the aims were exalted, and the resulting building has become a well-loved iconic landmark on the Aalborg waterfront, a remarkable building was achieved within a limited budget through Utzon’s pragmatic use for the most part of modular industrialised building elements. However, without the Utzon’s archives (now housed in a remote municipal storage facility some distance from the city) and the boat building activities it was intended to accommodate, and with the library and workshop functions subsequently since removed from the building, it does not have what should have been at its heart and has not lived up to Utzon’s expectations and its potential. As Utzon’s son Jan Utzon writes, My father agreed to design such a centre and my brother, and his architectural practice took responsibility for the development of the project and its realisation in Aalborg. It included workshops, where the architect students make models and projects, exhibition halls, where architectural exhibitions and other related exhibitions can be displayed, a restaurant, a gathering place (an auditorium), a library and fnally a large hall – it was my father’s idea, that here a boat builder should go about their work, making a boat, with a fnished boat standing in the same space. The idea being that the craft of boat building comprises all the different aspects and phases of construction. There is wood and metal work of various kinds, pipes and wiring would be laid, there would be work with fabric, varnishing and painting. There would be casting and assembling of different components. My father meant this would be a way to learn to draw, construct and build one thing or another, whether it was a boat, a house or something else. It was my father’s belief, that it would be good for the students

Thematic analysis

193

to experience the project development and construction process, during their studies. A boat, having a limited physical scope of works, in contrast to other building projects, would precisely be possible to construct in that space, that the students are otherwise using during their education. Unfortunately, the Utzon Center has not quite become, what my father and those that took the initiative in Aalborg had originally envisaged. His archives of drawings, models, protype furniture and such like are now stored at the Aalborg city general archive [which is many kilometres out of the city in a remote countryside location]. As it was decided to expand the restaurant, and that then required extra storage space, which was prioritised over the space originally allocated to the Utzon archive.143 So, it was that unfortunately the parochial, self-interested ambitions of a few locally well-connected individuals, triumphed over the original vision and intentions of Utzon, to place his archive material at the very core of what was intended to be an internationally recognised centre and forum for architectural study through physical making and academic research, public exhibitions and discussion. Shortly before he died, Utzon asked for his name to be removed from the building, if it was not to serve the needs of coming generations of architecture students and as a forum for architectural presentations and discussions. Reluctantly members of the local council and business community backed down from ideas of moving the city’s Chamber of Commerce and even possibly the Tourist Offces into the building, in place of the original workshop and exhibition spaces. Though some of the worst potential compromises were avoided, the Utzon Center has not fulflled Utzon’s vision and its potential, to communicate and share his inspirational insightful understanding and also that of his boat designer father Aage, more fully and profoundly. So poignantly then, it was not only in Sydney with the Opera House, that Utzon’s vision was to be compromised by provincial self-interest. But that same indignity should befall him so shortly before his death, in his last project, and with regards what is intended to be a celebration, in the town he grew up in, of his international signifcance and standing. It reveals that the lessons of the Sydney Opera House have not been learned and that the forces of mediocrity and self-interest, as so often the case, even in such prestigious projects, undermine the integrity and cultural contributions of even the most outstanding creative minds.

Notes 1 Geoffrey Broadbent, “Methodology in the Service of Delight,” in Environmental Design Research: Fourth International EDRA Conference Dowden (Stroudsburg: Hutchinson & Ross, 1973), 315. 2 Geoffrey Broadbent, Design in Architecture: Architecture and the Human Sciences (Chichester: Wiley, 1978), 25. 3 Geoffrey Broadbent, Design in Architecture: Architecture and the Human Sciences (Chichester: Wiley, 1978), 27.

194 Thematic analysis 4 Geoffrey Broadbent, Design in Architecture: Architecture and the Human Sciences (Chichester: Wiley, 1978), 30. 5 Geoffrey Broadbent, Design in Architecture: Architecture and the Human Sciences (Chichester: Wiley, 1978), 30. 6 Peter Buchanan, “The Big Rethink Part 5: Transcend and Include the Past,” The Architectural Review (April 2012, London). www.architectural-review. com/archive/campaigns/the-big-rethink/the-big-rethink-part-5-transcend-andinclude-the-past. 7 Jørn Utzon quoted in Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 98. 8 Geoffrey Broadbent, Design in Architecture: Architecture and the Human Sciences (Chichester: Wiley, 1978), 31. 9 Geoffrey Broadbent, Design in Architecture: Architecture and the Human Sciences (Chichester: Wiley, 1978), 31. 10 Geoffrey Broadbent, Design in Architecture: Architecture and the Human Sciences (Chichester: Wiley, 1978), 35. 11 Geoffrey Broadbent, “Methodology in the Service of Delight,” in Environmental Design Research: Fourth International EDRA Conference Dowden (Stroudsburg: Hutchinson & Ross, 1973), 316. 12 Geoffrey Broadbent, “Methodology in the Service of Delight,” in Environmental Design Research: Fourth International EDRA Conference Dowden (Stroudsburg: Hutchinson & Ross, 1973), 316. 13 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 84. 14 Adrian Carter. The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 63–65. 15 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 26. 16 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 91. 17 Kenneth, Frampton, “Between Artifce and Nature,” in Jørn Utzon: The Architects Universe (Humlebæk, Denmark: Louisiana Museum of Art, 2004), 18. 18 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 66–68. 19 Kenneth, Frampton, “Between Artifce and Nature,” in Jørn Utzon: The Architects Universe, eds., Michael Juul Holm, Kjeld Kjeldsen and Mette Marcus (Humlebæk: Louisiana Museum of Art, 2004), 18. Adrian Carter and Marja Sarvimaki, “The Reintroduction of Nature within Architecture and the City: The Contemporary Re-emergence of the Hortus Conclusus in the Built Environment,” in UIA 2017 Seoul World Architects Congress Proceedings (2017). 20 Jay Appleton, The Experience of Landscape (Chichester: Wiley, 1975). 21 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 123. 22 Adrian Carter. The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 123. 23 Jørn Utzon, “Platforms and Plateaus: Ideas of a Danish Architect,” (1962), translation Flemming Bo Andersen. www.utzonphotos.com/philosophy/ the-use-of-plateau-and-element-in-utzons-works/. 24 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 227. 25 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 231.

Thematic analysis

195

26 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 239. 27 Jørn Utzon, “Bagsværd Kirke,” Velux Fonden (1986), 23–24, translated by Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 80. 28 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 281. 29 Anne Watson, Building a Masterpiece: The Sydney Opera House (Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing, 2006), 40. 30 Peter Myers, “The Third City: Sydney’s Original Monuments and a Possible New Metropolis,” Architecture Australia (Melbourne: Architecture Media, January/ February 2000), 81. 31 Peter Myers, “The Third City: Sydney’s Original Monuments and a Possible New Metropolis,” Architecture Australia (Melbourne: Architecture Media, January/ February 2000), 81. 32 Jørn Utzon, “The Sydney Opera House,” Architecture in Australia, 4 (1965), 79 in Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 30. 33 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 76. 34 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 77. 35 Jørn Utzon in Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 221. 36 Jørn Utzon, “Platforms and Plateaus: Ideas of a Danish Architect,” (1962), translation Flemming Bo Andersen. www.utzonphotos.com/philosophy/ the-use-of-plateau-and-element-in-utzons-works/. 37 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 78–79. 38 Peter Murray, The Saga of Sydney Opera House: The Dramatic Story of the Design and Construction of the Icon of Modern Australia (London: Spon Press, 2003), 10. 39 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 70. 40 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 164. 41 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 184. 42 John Yeomans, The Other Taj Mahal: What Happened to the Sydney Opera House (Camberwell: Longman, 1973). 43 Kenneth Frampton, Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1996), 275. 44 Yuzo Mikami, Utzon’s Sphere: Sydney Opera House – How It Was Designed and Built (Tokyo: Shokokusha, 2001), 32. 45 Yuzo Mikami, Utzon’s Sphere: Sydney Opera House-How It Was Designed and Built (Tokyo: Shokokusha, 2001), 32. 46 Yuzo Mikami, Utzon’s Sphere: Sydney Opera House-How It Was Designed and Built (Tokyo: Shokokusha, 2001), 33. 47 Per Olaf Fjeld, Sverre Fehn: The Pattern of Thoughts (New York: The Montacelli Press, 2009), 180. 48 Jørn Utzon, “The Sydney Opera House,” in Architecture in Australia, 4 (1965), 79–80 in Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 149.

196 Thematic analysis 49 Jørn Utzon, “The Sydney Opera House,” Architecture in Australia, 4 (1965), 79–80 in Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 150. 50 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 79. 51 Jørn Utzon, “The Sydney Opera House,” Architecture in Australia, 4 (1965), 79–80 in Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 155. 52 Jørn Utzon, “The Sydney Opera House,” Architecture in Australia, 4 (1965), 79–80 in Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 156. 53 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 73. 54 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 180. 55 Peter Murray, The Saga of Sydney Opera House (New York: Spon Press, 2004), 15. 56 Peter Murray, The Saga of Sydney Opera House (New York: Spon Press, 2004), 137. 57 Peter Murray, The Saga of Sydney Opera House (New York: Spon Press, 2004), 139. 58 Richard Leplastrier, Talking at the First International Utzon Symposium (Aalborg, August 2003). 59 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 68–75. 60 Peter Murray, The Saga of Sydney Opera House (New York: Spon Press, 2004), 155. 61 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 28. 62 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 76. 63 Philip Goad, “An Appeal for Modernism: Sigfried Giedion and the Sydney Opera House,” Fabrications, 8 (Abingdon on Thames: Taylor & Francis, July 1997), 130. 64 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 119–120. 65 Pritzker Prize Jury citation, 2003, www.pritzkerprize.com/jury-citation-jorn-utzon. 66 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 119–121. 67 Kenneth Frampton, in Michael Mullins and Adrian Carter (eds.), Utzon Symposium: Nature Vision and Place (Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2003). 68 Richard Weston in discussions at the Utzon International Meeting Mallorca, November 2008. 69 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 112. 70 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 121. 71 Jørn Utzon in Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 217. 72 Jørn Utzon in conversation with Adrian Carter at Can Feliz, November 30, 2000. 73 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 92. 74 Jørn Utzon, “Bagsværd Kirke,” Velux Fonden (1986), 23–24 translated by Andersen (2014), 80. 75 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 93.

Thematic analysis

197

76 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 98. 77 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 81. 78 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 204. 79 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 82. 80 Jørn Utzon, “Silkeborg Kunstmuseum,” Arkitektur, 1 (1964), 1, translated from Danish in Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 30. 81 Jørn Utzon, “Silkeborg Museum,” Zodiac, 14 (1965), 103–105, edited by Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 71. 82 Jørn Utzon, “Silkeborg Museum,” Zodiac, 14 (1965), 103–105, edited by Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 72. 83 Jørn Utzon in Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 217. 84 Jørn Utzon, “Silkeborg Museum,” Zodiac, 14 (1965), 103–105, edited by Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 73. 85 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 82–86. 86 Françoise Fromonot, Jørn Utzon: The Sydney Opera House (Milan: Electa/ Gingko, 1998), 44. 87 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 99. 88 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 113–114. 89 Utzon Design Principles (Sydney: Sydney Opera House, 2002), 18. 90 Juhani Pallasmaa, The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses (London: Academy Editions, 1996), 21. 91 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 114–115. 92 Hans Georg Gadamer, The Relevance of the Beautiful (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 169, as discussed in Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 123. 93 Hans Georg Gadamer, The Relevance of the Beautiful (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 15. 94 Richard Leplastrier, in Lars Botin, Adrian Carter, and Roger Tyrrell (eds.), Utzon: Dwelling, Landscape, Place and Making (Aalborg: Aalborg University Press, 2013), 141. 95 Hans Georg Gadamer, The Relevance of the Beautiful (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 15. 96 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 124. 97 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 115–116.

198 Thematic analysis 98 Keith J. Holyoak and Paul Thagard, Mental Leaps: Analogy in Creative Thought (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996), 186. 99 Yuzo Mikami, Utzon’s Sphere: Sydney Opera House-How It Was Designed and Built (Tokyo: Shokokusha, 2001), 118. 100 Richard Weston, Materials, Form and Architecture (London: Laurence King, 2003), 167. 101 Frank Lloyd Wright, An Organic Architecture: The Architecture of Democracy (London: Lund Humphries, 1937). 102 Philip Drew, The Masterpiece. Jørn Utzon: A Secret Life (South Yarra, Victoria, AU: Hardie Grant Books, 1999), 71. 103 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 117–118. 104 Jørn Utzon, “En Skoleby i Herning,” Arkitektur, 1 (1970), 12–13, translated from Danish by Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 276. 105 Jørn Utzon, “Translation Flemming Bo Andersen.” www.utzonphotos.com/ philosophy/additive-architecture/. 106 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 118. 107 Jørn Utzon, “Utsep møbler,” Arkitektur, 1 (1970), 41, translated in Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 42. 108 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 47. 109 Jørn Utzon, “Jeddah Stadium, Saudi-Arabien,” Arkitektur, 1 (1970) in Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 111. 110 Jørn Utzon, “Jeddah Stadium, Saudi-Arabien,” Arkitektur, 1 (1970) in Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 109. 111 Jørn Utzon, “Farum Town Centre,” Arkitektur, 1 (1970), 18, translated by Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 113. 112 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 93–95. 113 Jørn Utzon, Kuwait National Assembly (‘Blue Book”) (1973) edited for grammar and clarity by Andersen and quoted in Michael Asgaard Andersen, Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), 136. 114 George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 3. 115 George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 3. 116 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 118–119. 117 Anthony Antoniades, Poetics of Architecture: Theory of Design (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992), 30–31.

Thematic analysis

199

118 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 5. 119 Aristotle, Poetics, Ann Arbor Paperbacks edition, translated by Gerald E. Else (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1967, 1970), 1459a 5–8. 120 Aristotle, Rhetoric, Charles River Editors edition, translated by J.H. Freese (Ann Arbor: Charles River Editors, 1971), 1405a 32. 121 Mark Johnson, The Body in Mind (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1988), 13. 122 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 22. 123 Chris Abel, Architecture and Identity: Responses to Cultural and Technological Change (Oxford: Architectural Press, 2000), 81. 124 Chris Abel, Architecture and Identity: Responses to Cultural and Technological Change (Oxford: Architectural Press, 2000), 83. 125 Chris Abel, Architecture and Identity: Responses to Cultural and Technological Change (Oxford: Architectural Press, 2000), 95. 126 Chris Abel, Architecture and Identity: Responses to Cultural and Technological Change (Oxford: Architectural Press, 2000), 98. 127 Anthony Antoniades, Poetics of Architecture: Theory of Design (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992), 30–31. 128 Chris Abel, Architecture and Identity: Responses to Cultural and Technological Change (Oxford: Architectural Press, 2000), 102. 129 Edgar Lawrence Doctorow, “False Documents,” American Review, 26 (New York: Bantam Books, 1977), 231–232. 130 Anthony Antoniades, Poetics of Architecture: Theory of Design (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992), 47. 131 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 17–19. 132 Paul Bartha, By Parallel Reasoning (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 2. 133 Paul Bartha, “Analogy and Analogical Reasoning,” in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Spring 2019 edition, ed. Edward N. Zalta. https://plato. stanford.edu/archives/spr2019/entries/reasoning-analogy/. 134 Keith J. Holyoak and Paul Thagard, Mental Leaps: Analogy in Creative Thought (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996), 5. 135 Philip Steadman, The Evolution of Designs: Biological Analogy in Architecture and the Applied Arts (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), 15. 136 Philip Steadman, The Evolution of Designs: Biological Analogy in Architecture and the Applied Arts (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), 8. 137 Philip Steadman, The Evolution of Designs: Biological Analogy in Architecture and the Applied Arts (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), 8. 138 Philip Steadman, The Evolution of Designs: Biological Analogy in Architecture and the Applied Arts (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), 9. 139 Geoffrey Broadbent, “Methodology in the Service of Delight,” in Environmental Design Research: Fourth International EDRA Conference Dowden (Stroudsburg: Hutchinson & Ross, 1973), 316. 140 Jørn Utzon, “Eget hus i Hellebæk,” in Andersen (2014), 96. 141 Jørn Utzon, “The Essence of Architecture,” (1948), translation Flemming Bo Andersen. www.utzonphotos.com/philosophy/the-essence-of-architecture/. 142 Personal conversation with Jørn Utzon at Can Feliz, Mallorca, November 30, 2000. 143 Jan Utzon in Stig Matthiesen, Utzon arv, translated from Danish by Adrian Carter (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2015), 172.

200 Thematic analysis

References Abel, Chris. Architecture and Identity: Responses to Cultural and Technological Change. Oxford: Architectural Press, 2000. Andersen, Michael Asgaard. Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014. Antoniades, Anthony. Poetics of Architecture: Theory of Design. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992. Appleton, Jay. The Experience of Landscape. Chichester: Wiley, 1975. Bartha, Paul. By Parallel Reasoning. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Broadbent, Geoffrey. Design in Architecture: Architecture and the Human Sciences. Chichester: Wiley, 1978. Broadbent, Geoffrey. ‘Methodology in the Service of Delight.’ In Environmental Design Research: Fourth International EDRA Conference Dowden, 314–318. Stroudsburg: Hutchinson & Ross, 1973. Buchanan, Peter. ‘The Big Rethink Part 5: Transcend and Include the Past.’ In The Architectural Review. London: Metropolis International, April 2012. Carter, Adrian. The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy. Ph.D. thesis. Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015. Carter, Adrian and Marja Sarvimaki. ‘The Reintroduction of Nature within Architecture and the City: The Contemporary Re-emergence of the Hortus Conclusus in the Built Environment.’ In UIA 2017 Seoul World Architects Congress Proceedings, 2017. www.uia2017seoul.org/P/assets/html/1-home.html. Fjeld, Per Olaf. Sverre Fehn – The Pattern of Thoughts. New York: The Montacelli Press, 2009. Frampton, Kenneth. ‘Between Artifce and Nature.’ In Jørn Utzon: The Architect’s Universe. Humlebæk: Louisiana Museum of Art, 2004. Frampton, Kenneth. Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1996. Frampton, Kenneth in Michael Mullins, and Adrian Carter (eds.). Utzon Symposium: Nature Vision and Place. Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2003. Fromonot, Françoise. Jørn Utzon: The Sydney Opera House. Milan: Electa/Gingko, 1998. Gadamer, Hans Georg. The Relevance of the Beautiful. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Holyoak, Keith J. and Paul Thagard. Mental Leaps: Analogy in Creative Thought. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996. Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Leplastrier, Richard in Lars Botin, Adrian Carter, and Roger Tyrrell (eds.). Utzon: Dwelling, Landscape, Place and Making. Aalborg: Aalborg University Press, 2013. Mikami, Yuzo. Utzon’s Sphere: Sydney Opera House-how It Was Designed and Built. Tokyo: Shokokusha, 2001. Murray, Peter. The Saga of Sydney Opera House: The Dramatic Story of the Design and Construction of the Icon of Modern Australia. London: Spon Press, 2003. Myers, Peter. ‘The Third City: Sydney’s Original Monuments and a Possible New Metropolis.’ In Architecture Australia. Melbourne: Architecture Media, January/ February 2000.

Thematic analysis

201

Steadman, Philip. The Evolution of Designs: Biological Analogy in Architecture and the Applied Arts. Abingdon: Routledge, 2008. Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. London: Academy Editions, 1996. Utzon, Jørn. ‘Platforms and Plateaus: Ideas of a Danish Architect.’ 1962. Translation Flemming Bo Andersen. www.utzonphotos.com/philosophy/the-use-of-plateauand-element-in-utzons-works/ Utzon, Jørn quoted in Michael Asgaard Andersen. Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014. Utzon, Jørn in Stig Matthiesen. Utzon arv. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2015. Utzon, Jørn in Richard Weston. Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture. Hellerup: Denmark, Edition Bløndal, 2002. Watson, Anne. Building a Masterpiece: The Sydney Opera House. Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing, 2006. Weston, Richard. Materials, Form and Architecture. London: Laurence King, 2003. Weston, Richard. Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture. Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002. Wright, Frank Lloyd. An Organic Architecture: The Architecture of Democracy. London: Lund Humphries, 1937. Yeomans, John. The Other Taj Mahal: What Happened to the Sydney Opera House. Camberwell: Longman, 1973.

5

Transcultural essentialism An emergent direction in architecture

Knut Knutsen, who was a leading Norwegian architect of the mid-twentieth century, and who opposed the constraints of the style-based Modern movement, was a major infuence on the post-World War II generation of Nordic architects and more broadly, including notably the members of PAGON and Utzon. Knutsen passionately believed that nature was our most signifcant source of inspiration and that we should be preserve it by being subservient to it and seeking harmony with it, ftting in with the existing environment.1 In the aftermath of World War II, in a statement that remains progressive even today, Knutsen wrote: Architects today are in part responsible for how the world will look in the future. They have to take into consideration nature and economize with the resources of the world so that things of value are not unnecessarily wasted. The architect should view his or her work globally, not just locally or nationally.2 Certainly, ever more urgently we need to address the imbalance we have created in nature, that now poses an increasingly existential threat to humanity and once again achieve harmony with the natural environment. We need as Knutsen stated to be respectful of the fnite natural resources available and not waste them, that is, we need to do more with less. To achieve that end we can fnd the inspiration in nature, where evolution results in the most effective use of resources in any given context and in so doing, almost invariably results in a beautiful solution. It is from nature that we have our innate sense of beauty, of that which is aesthetically harmonious in proportions and composition, but also beautiful in its pure functionality and the essentiality of its being. Even in those aspects of the natural world that may repulse and pose a danger to us, through to the sublime grandeur of dramatic natural landscapes and the incomparable infnity of the cosmos. In contemplation of the beauty of nature on such a scale, we are humbled and strive to fnd meaning for our own existence, to be able to dwell poetically in the world, which can only truly come from fnding, appreciating, and creating beauty, as according to Russian Nobel Prize DOI: 10.4324/9781003094180-5

Transcultural essentialism

203

laureate for literature Joseph Brodsky, “the purpose of evolution, believe it or not, is beauty. Which survives it all and generates truth simply by being a fusion of the mental and the sensual.”3 With beauty understood not superfcially in terms of appearance, but rather profoundly, phenomenologically in the authentic truth of its essential nature and being. Thus, the emergent direction in architecture should be the maintaining and creating of the essentially beautiful in the built environment, architecture that is enduring, because it is appreciated and even loved, thus justifying the resources that have been invested and embodied in its making. For that is the path to truly sustainable architecture, that is ecologically responsible, environmentally responsive, and poetically as well as physically sustaining of human life.

The continuing relevance of Utzon’s beautiful ideas Beauty might seem an elusive and exclusive quality, but as Juhani Pallasmaa suggests, “Beauty is also the promise of a better world, and that is why beauty is such an important element in human experience. It maintains optimism, and that also creates the authentic ground for an interest in the future.”4 Having established the defning transcultural essential themes of Utzon’s work and his aspiration to achieve beauty and truth intuitively in architecture, it is relevant to discuss the nature of such truth, and how Utzon strived for perfection, an authentic architecture through a synthesis of poetics and pragmatism, that mirrored his abstract use of poetic metaphor and structural analogy. Such an approach, as exemplifed by Utzon, is not necessarily exclusive to Utzon alone and can be the basis for signifcant architecture by others, as a valuable precedent in architecture.5 As Lakoff and Johnson have argued, truth is always relative to a conceptual system, and since any human conceptual system is mostly metaphorical in nature, and therefore, there is no fully objective, unconditional, or absolute truth.6 They recognise that for those “raised in the culture of science or in other subcultures where absolute truth is taken for granted, this will be seen as a surrender to subjectivity” and by the same token “those who identify with the Romantic tradition may see any victory over objectivism as a triumph of imagination over science.”7 In contrast, they argue that the “myth of subjectivism” in our daily lives suggests that we rely most instinctively upon our senses and trust our intuitions; that the “most important things in our lives are our feelings, aesthetic sensibilities, moral practices and spiritual awareness,”8 all of which are entirely subjective. Thus, according to the myth of subjectivism, as described by Lakoff and Johnson, “art and poetry transcend rationality and objectivity and put us in touch with the more important reality of our feelings and intuitions. We gain this awareness through imagination rather than reason”9 and thus, “the language of the imagination, especially metaphor is necessary for expressing the unique and most personally signifcant aspects of our experience.”10

204 Transcultural essentialism The enduring tension in Western culture between objectivism and subjectivism, between truth and art has continued since Ancient Greece, with Plato railing against poetry and art, which with his metaphoric allegory of the shadows cast on the interior of a cave, he considered illusionary and untruthful. Whereas another great protégé of Socrates, Aristotle, saw merit in poetry and the use of metaphor, stating that “the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor.”11 Lakoff and Johnson posit a third alternative to this age-old schism between objectivism and subjectivism, which they call an “Experientialist Synthesis” in which metaphor is that which unites reason and imagination and thus metaphor is “imaginative rationality.”12 Throughout his career, Utzon strived to achieve an authentic architecture, as a synthesis of poetics and pragmatism, through poetic metaphor and structural analogy. In his Bagsværd Church, the sky-inspired metaphor of the interior space created is achieved through straightforward post and beam construction. The result, observes Utzon, offers “the reassurance of something above your head which is built, not just designed.”13 As like Alvar Aalto and Louis Kahn before him, Utzon demonstrated a rare excellence in terms of the combination of detailing, construction, and spatial and aesthetic qualities, where the clear and authentic use of materials and fnishes contributes greatly to the fnal formal and aesthetic character of the built work. This is an approach to architecture that many outstanding recent architects, such as Herzog and de Meuron, Peter Zumthor, and Rafael Moneo aspire to. Utzon’s work epitomises not only the belief in being truthful to materials, a principle which has underpinned much Modernist architecture, but seems equally paradigmatic for more recent attempts to ground the discipline in what Juhani Pallasmaa has called “the veracity of matter.”14 With so many contemporary buildings being designed to create an instant visual impression by means of the photographic image, rather than through direct sensory spatial experience, it is sadly the case that all too few buildings are designed with their users “fve senses in mind,” as Juhani Pallasmaa champions in The Eyes of the Skin. Pallasmaa advocates the use of natural materials that allow the gaze to penetrate their surfaces and thereby convince us of the veracity of matter. As Richard Weston argues, emphasizing the richness and specifcity of the direct, sensual experience of architecture offers a potent way of countering the all-pervasive anonymity of the “non-places” – supermarkets, hotels, shopping malls, airports – which dominate so much of the public space of what the anthropologist Marc Augé has described as the “supermodern world.”15 Utzon himself always distanced himself from theoretical interpretations of architecture and society. He had no need for theories to validate his approach to design, rather he had a thirst for universal knowledge and sought inspiration in that which he experienced in the wider world around him, in a dynamic ongoing process that was constantly re-informing his work. It is

Transcultural essentialism

205

through an appreciation of his approach to architecture, both in the investigations that his proposals for unrealised projects represent and the realisation of his built works that Utzon provides a profound understanding of the innermost essence of architecture. Utzon’s dedicated explorations and refning of signifcant universal themes in architecture provide an enormous resource for architects in the future. His timeless organic approach to design, rather than historic style, ensures his continued relevance. While the humanity of his artistic vision and sensitivity to place, combined with an understanding that architecture must be structured to allow change and a prescient use of technology to achieve these aims, will remain a source of inspiration for architects to come. Utzon expresses simply what should characterise an architect Basically speaking, an architect is someone that has a sense for things. This is one of his most important talents, a sense of the needs of others, what they like, what they dream of and what they strive after. This is because he is a hypersensitive person about where he lives and what he is surrounded by. He is hypersensitive in terms of nature, light, heat and other people. This gives him the talent to design, and a head start in creating: the correct environment.16 According to Utzon, architecture is based on science as well as intuition, and if you want to become an architect, you will have to master technology in order to develop your ideas, in order to prove that your intuition was right, in order to build your dreams.17 As Juhani Pallasmaa so poetically wrote of Utzon’s remarkable achievements, in his tribute, on the occasion of Utzon’s 90th year in 2008 All profound work arises from a dialogue between actuality and dream. Imagination fuses observation and fantasy, memory and desire, past and the future. Your images traverse space and time, unite traditions of distant cultures, and merge natural phenomena with geometry, history and Utopia. You have shown how to turn motion into form, matter into luminance, and gravity into fight. I can touch the chiaroscuro on the ceiling folds of the Bagsværd Church, and feel a moist wind when looking at the swelling sails of the Opera House. Your poetic alchemy enriches the imagination of all of us.18 That Pallasmaa’s magnifcent words so appropriately capture in essence what Utzon was so very capable of, only serve to underline just how unfortunate it was that Utzon’s career was so blighted and his opportunities to realise his architectural visions limited; by political intrigue, narrow-minded

206 Transcultural essentialism provincialism, and petty professional jealousy that denied him the recognition he deserved at the time and prevented him from creating the built output that should have been his legacy. Similarly, despite being an outstanding teacher of architecture, as those that worked for him and the fortunate students who studied under him at the University of Hawaii compellingly attest, he was not given the wider opportunity to teach. At an age when many great architects are normally just getting into their stride, Utzon effectively retired from his own practice, with the exception of designing his own houses on Mallorca and assisting collaboratively with his architect sons Jan and Kim Utzon. It is Utzon’s great strength of personality and outlook on architecture, which Kenneth Frampton describes as his “critical, cross-cultural stance” that ensures Utzon’s relevance well into the future.19 From the very outset of his career, Utzon eschewed a narrow provincialism and always took a broad international outlook. This is evident in his sincere interest in such widely differing cultures, as well as an open-minded enthusiasm to visit, live and work elsewhere in the world. In keeping with his openness to international infuences, following his winning of the Sydney Opera House competition in 1957, he ran his offce in English to enable overseas architects to work there and to encourage an international outlook.20 Though a school never grew up around Utzon’s work, his work is now recognised as being outstanding and has been greatly infuential for a number of architects, who have become signifcant in their own right. Despite a limited production of work, there is however suffcient understanding and insight in the work that was designed, realized, and of Utzon’s working methods to provide a valuable paradigmatic model of a transcultural essentialist approach for others in the future.21 Utzon constantly developed, evolved, and implemented an innovative open-ended, additive approach to architecture that allows for growth and change, as opposed to the established principle of the static, completed work of architecture. It represents a still emerging approach to the design of buildings that is in tune with an increasingly dynamic society that requires the possibility of ongoing fexibility and growth.22

Infuence and continuity amongst contemporary practitioners The transcultural essentialist thematic aspects of Jørn Utzon’s work are not necessarily exclusive to Utzon alone. Just as Utzon acknowledged the direct infuence of others, most notably Erik Gunnar Asplund, Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, and Louis Kahn, including the innumerable anonymous architects of the ancient and vernacular architecture that so greatly inspired him on his extensive travels; so there have been many other architects that have been infuenced by Utzon’s design methods and approach to architecture, either directly, through working with him or indirectly, inspired by those that have or by profound knowledge of the work itself. Thus, there can be seen to be parallel developments and a continuity

Transcultural essentialism

207

of the thematic concerns inherent in Utzon’s work, which similarly also rely upon a more or less essentialist use of transcultural sources, with varying degrees of abstraction.23 Amongst those contemporaries of Utzon whose work most parallels Utzon’s is that of his good friend and colleague with whom he worked early in his career, the Norwegian architect Sverre Fehn. Like Utzon, he was a recipient of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize. Utzon came to know Sverre Fehn through his friendship with Fehn’s teacher Arne Korsmo, with whom Utzon worked in Stockholm, just after graduating. Fehn was less infuenced by the Nordic tradition, as exemplifed by Aalto, than Utzon and looked more to the work of Le Corbusier, Jean Prouvé, and Mies van der Rohe, as the well as the traditional vernacular architecture of North Africa, interests that he shared with Utzon. Through their friendship and collaboration on projects, Utzon and Fehn established together many of the themes, notably the courtyard, the raised platform, and also the notion of excavation to create a cave-like interior that would recur often in their respective later works. As with Utzon, there is a close dialogue with landscape and nature in Fehn’s work, as well as a strong sense of universal poetic symbolism and abstracted metaphor, in Fehn’s case the fundamental elements of human life, most notably fre and water. In the Teglsteinhuset, built for a housing exhibition in Bærum in 1987, these elements are represented by the freplace and bathroom, placed axially on either side of a central internal courtyard representing ‘earth’ between. On other occasions, Fehn’s use of metaphoric symbolism is more lyrical and even whimsical, as in the design of the Villa Busk, where the client’s two young daughters inspired the design of a tower, alluding to the fairy tale of a princess, though in this case two princesses, in a castle tower. As with Utzon, there is always an underlying humanity in Fehn’s work. With regard to their shared fascination with the notion of building as platform, Fehn’s Norwegian Glacier Museum at Vangsnes echoes the Sydney Opera House, in terms of both replicating the landscape in built form, including in the case of the Glacier Museum crevice-like fssures in the building and ice-like shards of glazing, but also in providing a viewing platform from which to better appreciate the surrounding landscape. In Fehn’s unrealised proposal “Verdens Ende” (End of the World) for an art museum to be embedded within a natural break in the cliff edge at Tjøme, the intention was to lead visitors through the building, before suddenly providing them with a dramatic panorama of the sea and the surrounding horizon, just as Utzon intended with the central passage between the major halls of the Sydney Opera House. Utzon was a great infuence upon those architects who worked with him, particularly those who formed the close-knit team that struggled with him to realise his vision for the Sydney Opera House. Also, his impact was signifcant on those who were taught by him subsequently at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, School of Architecture or came to know him, in the latter part of his life, such as Richard Johnson, who worked closely with him on future design

208 Transcultural essentialism principles for the Sydney Opera House and those who initiated (Adrian Carter) and others involved in the development (notably Thomas Arvid Jaeger) and realisation of the Utzon Center in Utzon’s hometown of Aalborg. All friends and colleagues, who knew Utzon well, share a similarly affectionate appreciation for his charm, humour, sharp intellect, and acute sense of observation, as well as most signifcantly an enormous respect for his humanity and integrity, which underpinned his architectural vision. Richard Leplastrier was a young Australian architect who worked with Utzon in Sydney and whose subsequent own direction in architecture was greatly informed by that experience. Leplastrier and Utzon shared a passion for sailing, which engendered a particular bond between them, and the collaboration with Utzon on the design of Utzon’s own intended house at Bayview gave Leplastrier insights into Utzon’s architectural thinking. For Leplastrier “Utzon’s free inventive approach, his total involvement with detail and craftsmanship, combined with a deep concern for the fundamental human experience of buildings and their context, has remained a constant infuence.”24 Such was Leplastrier’s loyalty to Utzon that following Utzon’s forced departure from Australia, Leplastrier like others in the offce decided to leave the country too. Inspired by Utzon’s fascination with Japan, he travelled there to study traditional architecture, be taught by the renowned Professor Masuda, at Kyoto University and also work with Kenzo Tange, in Tokyo. On his return to Australia, Leplastrier realised one of the seminal houses in Australian architecture, the Palm Garden House at Bilgola Beach north of Sydney. Set within a palm grove set back from the beach, Leplastrier created “a symbolic return to the garden as home.”25 Within enclosing walls of rammed earth, a palm oasis was created around an introduced pool of water that effectively recreated the essential character of the greater landscape of the surrounding tropical valley focusing onto the sea. The simple semi-circular corrugated metal roofs evoke the form of the palm trees and with his background in sailing, Leplastrier employed sailcloth to provide translucent end walls and as palm-like folded coverings within the barrel vault of the roof. The sailcloth walls fold away and a central section of the barrel-vaulted roof slides back onto itself, so that the architecture virtually dematerialises, leaving just a platform that denotes the living area, beneath the natural canopy of the palms and the great expanse of the sky, as an evocation of the most existential form of dwelling. The majority of Leplastrier’s subsequent houses, including most eloquently his own home on Pittwater, north of Sydney, express a similarly pared-down and fundamental way of living, analogous to a camp site, but with a dedicated attention to detail and appreciation of craftsmanship, akin to boat building. As learned from Utzon, there is an appreciation of the site, a strong sense of place, and an accentuation of the horizontal plane, through the creation of platforms in Leplastrier’s architecture, often with pavilion-like buildings gathered around a central space, combined with a lightness and simplicity of structure from Japan and the simple vernacular buildings of the Australian outback.

Transcultural essentialism

209

Figure 5.1 Richard Leplastrier’s own house, Lovett’s Bay, Pittwater, Sydney. Source: Photo by Leigh Woolley

As with Utzon, there is also for Leplastrier a fascination with caves, with has become more prevalent in his recent work, as he seeks to provide a sense of retreat from the most extreme climatic conditions. Although Leplastrier’s work has not been published and appreciated as widely as it deserves, it has infuenced other leading Australian architects, notably Glenn Murcutt and Peter Stutchbury amongst many others. Leplastrier has also become well known to a younger generation of architects, for whom he has been a highly regarded, inspirational teacher. Thus, particularly within an Australian context, the ideas and values that Utzon helped instil in Leplastrier continue to resonate strongly more widely as well.26 It is diffcult to gauge the lasting effect Utzon has had upon Australian architecture. Certainly, the professional directions of those who worked with him were profoundly affected by the experience. Richard Leplastrier, who with his deep appreciation of the craft of boatbuilding, has since built some of the most exquisitely crafted and sensitively site-specifc houses found on that continent. Leplastrier feels he owes Utzon a great deal in terms of the development of his own understanding of architecture and has been inspired by “Utzon’s free inventive approach, his total involvement with detail and craftsmanship, combined with a deep concern for the human experience of buildings in their context.”27 More generally, Utzon’s infuence in Australia is not immediately discernible or physically tangible beyond the realisation of the Opera House. Utzon’s

210 Transcultural essentialism approach to design, which takes its point of departure in the unique conditions of a particular project and its site, makes his architecture inimitable. His contribution to Australian architecture, however, has nevertheless been immense. Though the infuence of Nordic architecture was well established, particularly in Sydney long before Utzon arrived, with architects such as Ken Woolley and later Glenn Murcutt being greatly infuenced by Alvar Aalto, it was the building of the Sydney Opera House that realised the full potential of Sydney Harbour and gave Australians a sense of pride in their own unique multicultural identity. They could at last cast off the shackles of the stultifying conventions of the motherland. Of more recent architects, Glenn Murcutt, is notably amongst those who are kindred exponents of a modern technologically rational, additive architecture realised in relation to a specifc context, with structural integrity, material honesty, and unconstrained visual expression. In Spain and particularly Madrid, due to the infuence of the work and teaching of Rafael Moneo, there are successive generations of Spanish architects, such as Enrique Sobejano of Nieto Sobejano or Alejandro Zaera-Polo of Foreign Offce Architects, who have been infuenced by Utzon indirectly via Moneo and continue that infuence through their own work and teaching. As a young architect, Moneo worked with Utzon in Hellebæk on the Sydney Opera House. With his formal Spanish architectural training, Moneo had a strong grounding in geometry and drew many of the numerous proposals for the spherical geometry of the roof shells. Moneo was greatly inspired by his time working with Utzon, who he saw “as the legitimate heir of the masters of the heroic period.”28 Certainly, one can see in Moneo’s work the infuence of Utzon and similar fascinations, with the platform, clear tectonic form, depth of materiality, references to archaic structures, and the potential for a beautiful ruin. Perhaps most clearly one can see a homage to Utzon’s Sydney Opera House in the composition of Moneo’s Kurshaal Congress Centre and Auditorium in San Sebastian, completed in 1999, where two distinct geometrically defned volumes enclosing the performance spaces, sit upon a monumental podium facing out across the sea.29 The Norwegian architect Jon Lundberg, who worked on the Sydney Opera House, both in Denmark and in Sydney returned to Oslo, where he and Jan Digerud founded an architectural practice together. They like Utzon took inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, and Louis Kahn, but were increasingly infuenced by Robert Venturi and Charles Moore. Becoming the leading exponents of a witty and colourful Postmodernist architecture in Norway during the 1980s; that was more refned and elegantly resolved spatially, as well as in terms of detail, than its American counterpart. Oktay Nayman, was one of Utzon’s longest-serving senior assistant architects, working with him for seven years, from the Sydney Opera House through to the Kuwait National Assembly Building; in the latter, working remotely from London, with Jørn Utzon in Hawaii and Jan Utzon in Denmark on the winning competition proposal. Nayman worked with Colin St.

Transcultural essentialism

211

John Wilson on the British National Library, before moving to the United States to take up a position as visiting professor at Washington University in St. Louis and founding a practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Eventually, he returned to Istanbul to establish his own major practice there and have an infuential role as a professor in Turkey. In a wider sense, Utzon has inspired a diverse range of international architectural talents, notably amongst them many contemporary high-tech architects for whom nature is also a source of analogy and inspiration. Utzon can be seen to have anticipated the methods of design and approach to the structural expression of the Tjibaou Cultural Centre in Noumea on New Caledonia and other works of Renzo Piano, who in his own addition to the skyline of Sydney, the Aurora Place skyscraper, pays homage to the Opera House. Richard Rogers, for his part, describes the Sydney Opera House as “a radical building with enormous fair” and the work of modern architecture that he most admires.30 Another of Roger’s earlier associates Norman Foster was more directly inspired by the Sydney Opera House in his design for the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow. However, while the sculptural organic-like structures of Santiago Calatrava have a common antecedent in the use of analogies to nature, Utzon’s work is always abstract and determined according to rational geometrical principles, never veering into literal expressionism. Likewise, despite superfcial similarities, there are fundamental differences in terms of design approach and constructional integrity between the work of Utzon and that of Frank Gehry. As a Pritzker juror, Gehry recognised Utzon’s considerable achievement in creating “a building well ahead of its time . . . the frst time in our lifetime that an epic piece of architecture gained such universal presence”;31 publicly acknowledging at the awards ceremony in Madrid that his Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao would not have been realised without the precedent of Utzon’s Sydney Opera House. Amongst the avant-garde architects exploring the creative possibilities made possible by the latest technical advances in the era of computer-aided design, the work of such an architect as Toyo Ito continues in the spirit of Utzon’s poetic striving for an architectural synthesis between nature and technology. More directly the radical ground-breaking projects, of Foreign Offce Architects, Alejandro Zaera-Polo and Farshid Moussavi, with their sensual expression of structural elements, geometrically controlled deformations of section and organic repetition of architectural units to achieve dynamic open-ended structures, are in a direct lineage with the principles of Additive Architecture that Utzon advocated and so effectively established with his own work.32 Similar to Utzon’s own means of adapting transcultural infuences and the impact of precedents, many contemporary architects, too numerous to list here, have, consciously or subconsciously, interpreted this continuum of world architectural tradition in their own intuitive and innovated ways, especially in terms of critical regionalism. As an ongoing emerging direction in world architecture.

212 Transcultural essentialism While Utzon has been an infuential architect in Australia, Spain, and elsewhere, his infuence in his own homeland Denmark has been more muted. In recent years, the Danish architectural wunderkind Bjarke Ingels has been described “as our time’s Jørn Utzon” by the Director of the Danish Architecture Center, Kent Martinussen.33 Yet, although one can see references to Utzon’s Kingo Houses within Bjarke Ingels award-winning Mountain Dwellings project, the allusion to a mountain is literally applied as a super graphic to the otherwise blank street facades that conceal the multi-storey parking. Bjarke Ingels’s architecture is rather more inspired by Rem Koolhaas’s approach which is much more conceptual and less concerned with tectonic integrity and an attention to detail than that of Utzon’s, as clearly evidenced in the more recent 8Tallet complex, in Ørested, Copenhagen. Nearby, also at Ørested, is a much truer continuity of the legacy of Utzon and a more contemporary exemplar of qualitative benefts of transcultural essentialism in architecture, the Tietgenkollegiet, student halls of residence designed by Lundgaard & Tranberg. Here the metaphoric ideal of a community gathering within a circular courtyard and analogous inspiration from traditional circular tulou housing complexes of the Hakka people in the southwestern Fujian and southern Jiangxi provinces of China. In Tietgenkollegiet the concept is translated into a humane contemporary building of tectonic integrity, sensual materiality, quality detailing, and architectural expression, intended to stand the test of time. As Lene Tranberg, perhaps a true heir amongst contemporary Danish architects to Utzon’s humane and poetic approach to architecture, wrote in celebration of Utzon’s 90th tribute: You have like no other, have shown us – that one can converse with the clouds, the vault of the sky, and the surface of the water as it rolls and breaks on the beach. Through mind’s eye and movement of hand, you have transposed nature’s inner workings, creating a shared language that has allowed us to dream and believe in a good life, in great and in small.34 Within the wider Nordic context, it is perhaps in Finland that there is a stronger sense of the continuing spirit of Utzon. Here, due to the still pervasive infuence of Aalto, to whom Utzon himself was so indebted, there is a younger generation of architects that continues to take their metaphoric and analogous inspiration from the nature and landscape of a given site. Emblematic of this is the modest, but nevertheless powerfully sculptural upturned boat-like form of St Henry’s Ecumenical Art Chapel sited on the crest of a hill within a forest close to Turku, like a beached ark. However, the initial inspiration for the form of the building came from the section of a trout, that architect Matti Sanaksenaho had caught while fshing and, remembering that the fsh was the ancient symbol of Christianity, carved an interpretation of the arched back of the trout from a single piece of timber as the frst model of the building. The parallels between the form of this model and the shape of the actual hill convinced him that this was the appropriate

Transcultural essentialism

213

Figure 5.2 Interior of Matti Sanaksenaho’s St. Henry’s Ecumenical Art Chapel, Turku, 2005. Source: Photo by Adrian Carter

form for the building; the choice of copper cladding will cause the building to become one with its natural environment. While within the building, the simple but dramatic arched interior of timber is structurally articulated by laminated timber ribs that evoke the sensation of being within the belly of a great fsh. As with Utzon’s work, the use of metaphor and analogy in Sanaksenaho’s architecture is not explicit, but abstract, and all the more poetic and profound, as a consequence.35

Future directions As Juhani Pallasmaa has so eloquently has stated The timeless task of architecture is to create embodied existential metaphors that concretize and structure man’s being in the world. Images of architecture refect and externalize ideas and images of life; architecture materializes our images of ideal life. Buildings and towns enable us to structure, understand and remember the shapeless fow of reality and

214 Transcultural essentialism ultimately, to recognize and remember who we are. Architecture enables us to place ourselves in the continuum of culture.36 Jørn Utzon rose to the challenge of this task and became one of the outstanding exponents of modern architecture in the latter half of the twentieth century, through the transcultural essentialism of his use of sources of inspiration and design methodology, which remain a still highly relevant, inspirational reference for contemporary architecture. Transcultural Essentialism explains the signifcant role that the essentialist use of transcultural metaphor and analogy can play in the creation of architecture universally; and that in the most profound and enduring works of architecture, such as those of Jørn Utzon, this use of transcultural metaphor and analogy becomes essential and more nuanced through the flter of abstraction. A process that for Utzon was forged and refned in the intense furnace that was the process of creating the Sydney Opera House, at the very cutting edge of what was possible in architecture; aesthetically, poetically and technically. Utzon’s work, most particularly the Sydney Opera House, pre-empted more recent developments in computer-aided design, industrialised prefabrication, and construction.37 More than half a century on, the Sydney Opera House still serves to illustrate the limitations of our present technologically driven developments in architecture. Design experimentations in digital fabrication, parametric design, and tensegrity structures may fascinate us technically, but do not necessarily satisfy our aesthetic, experiential, and existential needs as compellingly; as Utzon so magnifcently achieved with the Sydney Opera House, and also with his more modest works. Our present digital tools are precisely that, merely tools; and Utzon undoubtedly would have been amongst the frst to employ such tools, were he to be still practicing: as evidenced by his enthusiasm to embrace and push the boundaries of the latest technology of his own time. Yet, to create any work of architectural signifcance and meaning requires the aesthetic, poetic, tectonic understanding of architecture that Utzon so admirably demonstrated. Despite the earlier ambitions of the functionalist movement and ongoing tendency, to create a precise, machine-like form of architecture, designed according to a very specifc set of practical needs and using the latest available technology and more recently the similar aims of performance-based and parametric design, there can also be seen a deeper need for meaning and narrative in architecture. In this respect, the fundamental human desire to comprehend the world and see associations provides cultural and poetic understanding, but not so literally as to become banal. The former approach is the basis for the design and appreciation of all great architecture, of which Utzon’s work is a prime exemplar. The desire for such meaning in architecture can be seen in the popular reaction to modernism that resulted in postmodernism and the superfcial application of ornament and historical references. More recently, there has been an evolution towards a sensual transcultural essentialism, in the more subtly analogical and poetic metaphoric architecture of, for example, David Adjaye; Alejandro Aravena; Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem, and

Transcultural essentialism

215

Ramon Vilalta (RCR Arquitectes); Balkrishna Doshi; Frida Escobedo; Toyo Ito; Bijoy Jain (Studio Mumbai); Dorte Mandrup; Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron; Carme Pinós; Wang Shu and Peter Zumthor, amongst many others. While the tendency to overt analogical references and symbolism initiated by postmodernism continues unabated in various guises and ever more extreme forms of expression, as cities with their landmark projects and star architects, such as Santiago Calatrava, Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, and Rem Koolhaas have sought to outdo each other in terms of creating the most iconic buildings; as also emulated by the next generation of their acolytes, such as Bjarke Ingels. These approaches being popular, with both politicians and developers, as iconic status can be achieved, while still cutting back on building quality and costs, as the recent works, such as the 8Tallet building in Ørsted, Copenhagen by BIG demonstrate.38 There is, however, a backlash to this superfcial overt symbolism occurring globally. Las Vegas and its more recent equivalent, Dubai, are no longer being seen as places to learn from and China, as it has become more confdent, is turning its back on such architectural statements, with China’s President Xi Jinping demanding that “no more weird buildings”39 should be built. Geoffrey Broadbent stated that “all buildings ‘carry’ meaning in the semantic sense. Now that we accept that this is inevitable, we might as well make sure that they do it properly.”40 According to Broadbent’s hierarchical taxonomy of design, Utzon’s own design approach encompasses the Pragmatic, Iconic, Analogic and through his geometric abstraction of metaphors and analogies, achieves the highest level of architectural design, and is Canonic. Utzon combined the humanity of his poetic, visionary approach inspired by his personal, yet universal, experiential understanding of nature and diverse human cultures, with an abstract rational geometry and the innovative use of technology. An understanding of Utzon’s design methodology and work, through the lens of Transcultural Essentialism, provides a paradigm for the creation of humane and satisfyingly meaningful architecture that is achieved through the essentialist abstract interpretation of universal and transcultural metaphors and analogies. That this approach has created such signifcant and enduring architecture not only by Utzon himself, but those that have been infuenced by or whose work parallels his since, suggests that Transcultural Essentialism can provide a valid frame of reference for the consideration of the output of other architects and an inspiration for the creation more profoundly meaningful architecture that “enables us to place ourselves in the continuum of culture” also in the future.41

Notes 1 Muriel Emmanuel, Contemporary Architects (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1980), 432–433. 2 Knut Knutsen, “People in Focus,” (1961) in Nordic Architects Write, ed. Michael Asgaard Andersen (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2008), 250, quoted in Andersen (2014), 192.

216 Transcultural essentialism 3 Joseph Brodsky, “An Immodest Proposal,” in On Grief and Reason (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997), 49. 4 Yael Reisner and Fleur Watson, Architecture and Beauty (Chichester: Wiley, 2010), 87. 5 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 124. 6 George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 185. 7 George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 185. 8 George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 188. 9 George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 188. 10 George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 188. 11 Aristotle, Poetics 1459a in George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 190. 12 George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 193. 13 Henrik Steen Møller, Living Architecture 5 (Copenhagen: Living Architecture Publishing, 1983), 114–127. 14 Juhani Pallasmaa, The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses (London: Academy Editions, 1996), 21. 15 Richard Weston, Materials, Form and Architecture (London: Laurence King, 2003), 194. 16 Henrik Steen Møller, Living Architecture 8 (Copenhagen: Living Architecture Publishing, 1989), 169. 17 Denys Lasdun, Architecture in an Age of Scepticism (London: Heinemann, 1984), 214. 18 Juhani Pallasmaa, in Martin Keiding, Per Henrik Skou, and Marianne Amundsen, En hyldest til Jørn Utzon/A Tribute to Jørn Utzon (Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 2008), 24. 19 Kenneth Frampton, Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1996), 247. 20 Richard Weston, Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture (Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002), 20. referenced in Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 51. 21 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 125–128. 22 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 47. 23 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 128. 24 Adrian Carter, “Richard Leplastrier,” Arkitekten, 1 (Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 1990), 3. 25 Adrian Carter, “Richard Leplastrier,” Arkitekten, 1 (Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 1990), 4. 26 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 128–131.

Transcultural essentialism

217

27 Adrian Carter, “Richard Leplastrier,” Arkitekten, 1 (Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 1990), 3. 28 Rafael Moneo quoted in The Pritzker Architecture Biography (1996). www. pritzkerprize.com/biography-rafael-moneo. 29 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 132. 30 Richard Rogers interview in The Independent (London: Independent Digital News & Media Ltd, 2001), 18. 31 Frank Gehry’s statement at the awarding of the 2003 Pritzker Architecture Prize to Jørn Utzon. www.pritzkerprize.com/sites/default/fles/inline-fles/Tom_ Pritzker_Ceremony_Speech_2003_Utzon.pdf. 32 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 47. 33 Kent Martinussen (2011). www.danskbeton.dk/om+dansk+beton/nyheder+-c12+presse/pressemeddelelser/arkiv/bjarke+ingels+modtager+dansk+arkitekturs+os car. 34 Lene Tranberg in Martin Keiding, Per Henrik Skou, and Marianne Amundsen, En hyldest til Jørn Utzon/A Tribute to Jørn Utzon (Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 2008), 7. 35 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 133–134. 36 Juhani Pallasmaa, in Steven Holl, Juhani Pallassmaa, and Alberto Pérez-Gomez, Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture (Tokyo: A+U, 1994), 37. 37 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 138. 38 Michelle Færch, “Den nye generation af arkitekter svigter håndværket,” Information (August 19, 2013, Copenhagen). www.information.dk/469396. 39 Nectar Gan and Liu Zhen, “‘No More Weird Architecture’: Chinese Directive Draws Line in the Sand on ‘Strange’ Buildings,” The South China Morning Post (February, 22, 2016) (Hong Kong: SCMP Publishers, 2016). www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1915125/ no-more-weird-architecture-chinese-directive-draws-line. 40 Geoffrey Broadbent, “A Plain Man’s Guide to the Theory of Signs in Architecture,” Architectural Design, 7–8/77 (London, 1977), 482. 41 Adrian Carter, The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy (Ph.D. thesis, Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015), 138–140.

References Broadbent, Geoffrey. ‘A Plain Man’s Guide to the Theory of Signs in Architecture.’ Architectural Design, 7–8/77, 1977. Brodsky, Joseph. ‘An Immodest Proposal.’ In On Grief and Reason. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997. Carter, Adrian. ‘Richard Leplastrier.’ In Arkitekten No. 1. Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 1990. Carter, Adrian. The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy. Ph.D. thesis. Aalborg: Aalborg University, 2015. Emmanuel, Muriel. Contemporary Architects. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1980. Færch, Michelle. ‘Den nye generation af arkitekter svigter håndværket.’ Information, August 19, 2013. Copenhagen. www.information.dk/469396.

218 Transcultural essentialism Frampton, Kenneth. Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1996. Gan, Nectar and Liu Zhen. ‘No More Weird Architecture’: Chinese Directive Draws Line in the Sand on “Strange” Buildings’. The South China Morning Post, February 22, 2016. www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1915125/ no-more-weird-architecture-chinese-directive-draws-line. Knutsen, Knut. ‘People in Focus’ (1961). In Nordic Architects Write, edited by Michael Asgaard Andersen, 250. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2008, quoted in Andersen 2014, 192. Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Martinussen, Kent. ‘Bjarke Ingels modtager dansk arkitekturs Oscar.’ www.danskbeton. dk/om+dansk+beton/nyheder+-c12-+presse/pressemeddelelser/arkiv/bjarke+ingels +modtager+dansk+arkitekturs+oscar. Møller, Henrik Steen. Living Architecture 5. Copenhagen: Living Architecture Publishing, 1983. Møller, Henrik Steen. Living Architecture 8. Copenhagen: Living Architecture Publishing, 1989. Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. London: Academy Editions, 1996. Pallasmaa, Juhani in Steven Holl, Juhani Pallasmaa, and Alberto Pérez-Gomez. Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture. Tokyo: A+U, 1994. Reisner, Yael and Fleur Watson. Architecture and Beauty. Chichester: Wiley, 2010. Tranberg, Lene. En hyldest til Jørn Utzon/A Tribute to Jørn Utzon, edited by Martin Keiding, Per Henrik Skou, and Marianne Amundsen. Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 2008. Weston, Richard. Materials, Form and Architecture. London: Laurence King, 2003. Weston, Richard. Utzon: Inspiration, Vision, Architecture. Hellerup, Denmark: Edition Bløndal, 2002.

Index

Note: Page numbers in italics indicate a fgure on the corresponding page. Page numbers with an “n” indicate a note on that page. 6th International Aalto Symposium 4–8 8Tallet complex 212, 215 1930 Stockholm International Exhibition 64–65 1935 World Exposition xiii 1959 international architect’s congress 140–141 2008 Utzon seminar on Mallorca 8 Aalborg: Aalborg Castle 192; Aalborg Cathedral School 189; Aalborg concert hall project 54; Aalborg Shipyard 45, 64, 168, 188; Aalborg University 9, 9, 189; history of 63; infuence of 64, 188; Limfjorden 47, 189, 191; Utzon family’s move to 45, 63; Utzon Park 95, 96, 177; see also Utzon Center Aalborg Castle 192 Aalborg Cathedral School 189 Aalborg concert hall project 54 Aalborg Shipyard 45, 64, 168, 188 Aalborg University 9, 9, 189 Aalto, Aino 84 Aalto, Alvar: on 1930 Stockholm International Exhibition 64; at 1935 World Exposition xiii; at 1935 World Fair xviin7; 1937 Paris Pavilion xiii; 1944 lecture in Stockholm 52, 68; analogy of cherry tree fowers 52, 133; architectural approach of 204; on architectural form 7; on Asplund 52–53; Baghdad art gallery project 105; Bagsværd Church and 68–69; courtyards in designs of 136; critical regionalism and 97; Das Japanishe

Wohnhaus as gift to Utzon 84; design approaches and conceptual ideas of 68; essentialist architecture of 8; ethos of 8; The Experimental House xviin3; Fehn and 207; Finland on architecture of 17, 169, 212; Frampton on 31, 135; Fredensborg houses and 52; Giedion on 17; Hara on 100–101; Helsinki offce of 52, 68; idealism in personality of 4; infuence of 69, 206; International Style and 23; Japanese architecture and 23, 54, 84, 99–100, 120n57; Karelian farmhouses, on organic growth of 136; Kingo houses and 52, 133; Komonen on personality of 4; landscapes of 25, 53, 68, 150, 175; legacy of 2; Lyngby Crematorium and Graveyard competition project xviin3; as mentor and teacher 95; metaphors used by 23–24, 172; in Morocco xvii, xviin3; Murcutt and 210; Norberg-Schulz on 29; as Nordic regionalist 31; organic architecture and 9, 52, 133, 175; Pensions Institute 105; Pietilä and 23–24; “Rationalism and Man” xviin8; on rationality xiii, xviin8; realism in personality of 4; on refection of light and sound 173; regionalist architecture of 31; Savoy vase 140; Säynätsälo Town Hall xviin3, 23, 97, 110, 191; in Second Generation of Modern Architects 26; during Second World War 4, 52; Silkeborg Art Museum project and 168;

220

Index

on site impacting design 175; skylights in projects of 104; in Spain xvii, xviin3; on standardisation xiii; Sydney Opera House and 68, 68, 150; University of Jyväskylä campus 4; Utzon’s working for 52, 68, 84; vernacular architecture and 23; Viipuri Library 173; Villa Mairea xiii; Wilson on “the other tradition” of xviin1, 23 Aalto Prize, Utzon awarded 2 Aarhus, sports complex project in 56 Aarhus University 50 Abben, Peer 84, 101–103 Abel, Chris 184–185 Academy of Music design competition 55 Acropolis, Greece 73 Additive Architecture: analogies in 176; Arabian architecture and 139; discussion of 176–179; economic benefts of 54; in Farum Town Centre competition entry 105, 142, 181; fexibility of 54, 178, 206; Foreign Offce Architects and 211; functionalism and 177; in Herning Export College’s design 176, 192; with Islamic architecture 105; Japanese architecture and 85–86; Jeddah sports complex project and 179–180; in Jeita Theatre proposal 180–181; Korsmo and idea of 52; in Kuwait National Assembly Building 111, 181; Murcutt on 178, 210; from nature 175–176; open plan in 142; organic architecture and 54, 175; pre-fabrication for 136, 176; for Silkeborg Art Museum project 142; for Sydney Opera House 142, 177; taught at University of Hawaii at Manoa, School of Architecture 101; in Utzon Center’s design 176, 189–190, 192; Yingzao Fashi and 76, 142; see also Espansiva housing system Adjaye, David 214 Africa: Dogon tribe, architecture and rich mythology of xii; Kenya 101; sculptures and objects from, infuencing European art xiii; see also North Africa Ahlberg, Hakon 52 airport, sketch for underground 3, 4 Alaska xviin2 Albers, Joseph xiii

Alexander, Christopher 128 Alhambra 136 al-Sultany, Khaled 111 American Abstract Expressionism xiii Amerika Bygger exhibition 54 Amourgis, Spyros 30 Amsterdam xii Analogic Design 127, 129–130, 158, 161, 187–188, 215 analogies: Aalto’s, of cherry tree fowers 52, 133; abstracting, into architectural design 54, 126, 158–162, 172, 175, 185–186, 203, 211, 214–215; for acoustic properties 173; in additive architecture 176; in architecture 182–187; art and 129; Broadbent on 129–130, 184, 187; of Calatrava 160, 211; in Can Lis 115–116; in Crystal Palace project 56; defnition of 186; genius loci and 186; Imhotep’s use of 129; International Style and 23; knowledge through 42–43; in Langelinie Pavilion design 58; Le Corbusier’s use of 129; Leplastrier’s use of 173; Mental Leaps on 186; in nature 47, 159, 168, 172; in organic architecture 52, 175; Philosophical analogies 129, 184; Pietilä‘s use of 175; in postmodernism 215; Priestley on 186; in Sanaksenaho’s designs 213; in Silkeborg Art Museum project 168; Steadman on 187; Structural analogies 184; in Sydney Opera House 10, 14, 59, 150, 153–154, 158–162, 172–174; in Tietgenkollegiet 212; transcultural essentialism and use of 1, 126, 158, 214–215; universal 130; to vernacular architecture 136–137, 140; visual 129, 184; of Vitruvius, on acoustic properties 173; Wright’s use of 129; see also metaphors Andersen, Hans Christian 63 Andersen, Michael Asgaard 20–21, 98–99 Andersson, Erik and Henry 132 Ando, Tadao xvi, 30, 31 Andresen, Brit 9, 9, 94–95 Antonakakis, Dimitris and Susana 31 Antoniades, Anthony 182, 184, 185 Apeldoorn, Centraal Beheer Offce Complex xii

Index Appleton, Jan, “Prospect and Refuge” theory 137 Arabian architecture 108, 110, 133, 139; see also Islamic architecture; Kuwait National Assembly Building Arab–Israeli war (1973) 102–103 Aranda, Rafael 214–215 Aravena, Alejandro 214 Architectural Intertextuality (al-Sultany) 111 Architectural Record, The (magazine) 174 Architectural Review, The (magazine) 128 architecture: 1973 Arab–Israeli war and commissions in Europe for 102; Alexander’s approach to 128; analogies in 182–187; Arabian 108, 110, 133, 139; Australian 1–2, 6, 88–95, 157, 159, 208–210; by avant-garde architects 29, 142, 151, 166, 211; Aztec 71; Baeza’s principal components of 8; boat & ship design/building/repair and 190; Borden on 18–20; Broadbent on 126–130; ‘cardboard’ architecture 109; cosmic egg-inspired 168; as a culture 135; Danish 17, 43, 50, 63, 86, 133; design for an element in 153; of Dutch Structuralists xii; ecological 6–7; essentialist 7–9, 82–83; expressionist 21, 160, 165, 211; Frampton on 32–33, 135; functionalist 27–29, 65, 214; an inherent narrative in 130; Latin American 31; Lin Yutang on 77–79; manifest destiny of 28; metaphors in 172, 182–186; Mughal xiv; narrative in 181–182, 185–186; Pallasmaa on 213–214; phenomenological understanding of 10; poetic approach to 130; postmodernist 210; “Prospect and Refuge” theory on 137; realistic 25; regionalist xv, 30–32; sustainable 203; theoretical interpretations of society and 204; thickness and depth in 115; universal 30; urbanistic approach to 151; Utzon Center on 189, 191; Utzon on 3, 15, 48–49, 52, 129, 205; Vitruvius on 184; Wahhabism policy on 31; Weston on 49, 204; white 22, 65; Wittgenstein on xvii; Zooamorphic 24; see also additive architecture; Chinese architecture; Islamic

221

architecture; Japanese architecture; Mayan architecture; modernist architecture; Nordic architecture; organic architecture; transcultural architecture; vernacular architecture Architecture (Norberg-Schulz) 10, 28 “Architecture of the Essential” symposium 4–8 Architecture without Architects (Rudofsky) xii–xiii, 129 Aristos 16 Aristotle 42, 183, 187, 204 Arkitekten: on Crystal Palace design 56; “Peking” 76; “Trends in the Architecture of Today” 57–58 art: abstract, geometric nature of Islamic 162; African and Polynesian sculptures & objects and European xiii; American Abstract Expressionism and xiii; analogies and 129; by avant-garde artists 163; Canonic Design and 130; dyslexia and 186; expressionist art xiii, 49; Far Eastern cultures and European xiii; German Expressionism xiii; Impressionists xiii; Indigenous Aboriginal culture and arts 96; inspiration from 13, 186; Jacobsen on architecture and 48; Komonen on architecture and 4; of Le Corbusier 157; Lin Yutang on 77–78; Murcutt on Australia’s loss when Utzon left 157; myth of subjectivism on 203; Petersen on 50; Plato on 204; primitive 18; Schön on 12; Sirén’s books on 76; Steadman on 187; Utzon Center on 189, 191; UtzonFrank’s collection of Chinese 75; Utzon on architecture and 3, 48–49; Weston on 49 art deco 146 Art Nouveau xiii Arts-and-Crafts movement 82 Arup (company) 153–155 Arup, Ove 32, 151–152 ascension 69 Asger Jorn Art Museum see Silkeborg Art Museum project Asplund, Erik Gunnar: Aalto on work of 52; death of 52, 65; exhibition building at 1930 Stockholm International Exhibition 65; as father of modern Scandinavian architecture 66;

222

Index

Gothenburg Courthouse 66; infuence of 206; on Japanese architecture 88; landscapes of 150; legacy of 2; Sydney Opera House and 150; Wilson on “The Other Tradition of Modern Architecture” xviin1; Woodland Cemetery and Crematorium 52, 65–66, 115 Atlas Mountains 70, 93 Augé, Marc 204 Aurora Place 211 Australia: 1956 Olympic Games in 147; Barrenjoey Headland 48; colonialisation of 94–95; functionalist ethics in 88; Indigenous Aboriginal culture and arts 96; Jørn sailing 48; Lion Island 48; Melbourne 147; multicultural vitality of 25, 210; Royal Australian Institute of Architects 156; see also Sydney Australian architecture 1–2, 6, 88–95, 157, 159, 208–210; see also Bayview House; Sydney Opera House Australian House and Garden, Utzon’s article 91–94 Australian Ugliness, The (Boyd) 88–90, 94 Avalon house 95 avant-garde architects 29, 142, 151, 166, 211 avant-garde artists 163 Aztec architecture 71 Bach, Carl Philip Emmanuel 156 Bærum, Teglsteinhuset 207 Baeza, Alberto Campo 7–8, 115–116 Baghdad: art gallery project 105; Khan Murjan building 104 Bagsværd Church: Aalto and 68–69; acoustics of 142; assessment of xvii, 10; Buddhist traditions in design of 10, 77; budget for 163; calligraphy and 100, 145, 162; Can Lis and 112; ceiling of xv, 14, 59, 98–99, 142, 162–163; Chinese architecture and 81, 98, 100, 145; cloud motif in xv, 14, 59, 97, 99, 142–144, 172, 182; construction of 158–159, 163; courtyard at 143, 145; courtyard typology of 77; critical regionalism and 97, 145; design of 96–99; dualism in 77; Farum Town Centre competition

entry and 142; Frampton on 27–28, 97; gables of 145; genius loci of 28; geometry in 162; Hawaii and 97–99, 142, 144–145; indirect lighting from above in 171, 182; Islamic architecture and 10, 139, 142; Ito’s visit to 8; Japanese architecture and 84, 99, 145; Liu’s visit to 100; materiality in 171; Melli Bank and 139, 142; metaphors in xv, 10, 14, 28, 59, 97, 99, 142–144, 145, 172, 182, 204; monumentality of 3; Norberg-Schulz on 99; Pallasmaa on 205; photograph of 11, 144; siheyuan courtyard houses and 100; Silkeborg Art Museum project and 165; Simonsen’s seeking an architect for 142; site for 142–143; sketches for 97, 100, 142, 145; structure and vaults in xv; tectonics in 10, 28, 143; transcultural architecture in 10, 28, 145; transcultural essentialism in 163; Utzon Center and 191 Baha’i Lotus Temple 161 Baltzer, Franz, Das Japanishe Haus 82 Bangladesh, National Assembly Complex in Dhaka 31 Barragán, Luis 23, 30 Barrenjoey Headland 48 Bauhaus 22 Bayview 89–91, 103 Bayview House: Australian House and Garden article on 94; Can Lis and 89, 91, 112–115; Leplastrier’s work on 96, 208; roof for 96; site for 89–91, 103, 170; sketches for 89, 92; Utzon’s letter on 91 Beaux-Arts tradition xiv, 30 Beihai Park 80 Beijing: Beihai Park 80; Biyun Monastery 80; Forbidden City 79, 149; hutong alleyways 79, 133, 137; Lin Yutang on city planning of 78; Luzu Temple 80; Meridian Gate 98; Miaoying Monastery 80; Rasmussen’s visit to 76; siheyuan courtyard houses 79, 93–94, 100, 133, 136–137; Tiananmen Square 80; Utzon’s visits to 76, 79–80 Belgium, Brussels xiii, xviin7 Bellahøj housing competition 54 Bennelong Point 145–150, 155, 170; see also Sydney Opera House

Index Berggren, Douglas, “The use and abuse of metaphor” 184 Berlin xii, 23 Bhakatpur 75 “Big Rethink Part 5, The” (Buchanan) 128 Bilgola Beach house 173; see also Palm Garden House Birkehøj housing project 140 Biyun Monastery 80 Blom, Piet xii Bløndal, Torsten 97, 105–108 Blossfeldt, Karl 58 boat & ship design/building/repair: by Aage Utzon 10, 45–47, 60n7, 148, 188; architecture and 190; inspiration from 13, 45, 186; Leplastrier on sailing and 46–48; model-making and prototyping for 43, 45, 46, 154; Nordic architecture and 190; Silkeborg Art Museum project and 166, 168; spidsgatter boats 45, 46, 188, 190; Sydney Opera House and 26, 64, 148, 152, 154, 158, 161, 188; timber used for 25, 37n74; Utzon Center on 45, 60n7, 189–190; Viking longships and modern 147 “Bofællesskab” collective housing 134 Borden, Gail Peter 17, 18–20 Bornholm, Svaneke Water Tower 55, 56 Botta, Mario 31 Botz-Bornstein, Thorsten 31 Boyd, Robin, The Australian Ugliness 88–90, 94 Brazil 30, 69 British National Library 210–211 Broadbent, Geoffrey: Analogic Design 127, 129–130, 158, 161, 187–188, 215; on analogies 129–130, 184, 187; on buildings ‘carrying’ meaning 215; Canonic Design 127, 130, 158, 161, 215; on climate and culture 127–128; Design in Architecture 127; Design Methods in Architecture 126; Iconic Design 127, 128, 158, 181, 215; Philosophical analogies 129, 184; Pragmatic Design 127, 158, 161, 215; Structural analogies 184; Sydney Opera House and order of design methods of 158, 161; visual analogies 184 Brodsky, Joseph 202–203 Brunelleschi, Filippo 155, 161

223

Brussels xiii, xviin7 brutalism/brutalist architects 24, 74 Buchanan, Peter 128 Cahill, John ‘Joe’ 147, 155 Calatrava, Santiago 160, 211, 215 California 30, 71, 140, 141 California State Polytechnic University 30 Canary Islands, Concert Hall at Santa Cruz de Tenerife 160 Candela, Felix 151, 154 Candilis, Josic and Woods, “MatBuildings” of xii Can Feliz 60n7, 69, 116, 117, 170 Can Lis: 2008 Utzon seminar gathering at 8; analogies in 115–116; architectural phenomenology of 115; assessment of 10–11; Baeza on 8, 115–116; Bagsværd Church and 112; Bayview House and 89, 91, 112–115; cave structures and design of 113, 115; courtyard of 112, 115; designing of 96, 112–117, 170; exterior of 112, 114; genius loci of 11; geometries in 115; interior of 7, 112, 170; materiality of 113, 170; materials used in construction of 112, 115, 170; metaphors of 113, 115; modularity of 115; organic architecture of 115; photograph of 7, 114; plan drawing for 114; “Prospect and Refuge” in 137; renovations to 116–117; site for 117, 170; sketches for 113; Skogskyrkogården and 115; transcultural architecture of 115; transcultural essentialism in 113; Utzon Center and 191; vernacular architecture and 115; windows of 170 Canonic Design 127, 130, 158, 161, 215 ‘cardboard’ architecture 109 Carter, Adrian 9, 60n7, 69, 208 Case Study House programme 71 Catalonia 31, 160 cave structures: Can Lis’ design and 113, 115; in Dipoli Student Union Building 23, 166; in Fehn’s work 207; Jeita Theatre 180–181; in Leplastrier’s work 209; in Nordic architecture 166; paintings in 129; Plato’s metaphoric allegory of shadows cast in 204; in Silkeborg Art Museum project 24, 165–169;

224

Index

Sydney Opera House seating design and 95, 166; Utsep and Aboriginal 95, 96, 177; Utzon’s interest in xiv; in Vasa Museum competition entry 166; Zumthor’s evoking of 8; in Zürich Theatre entry 140; see also Yungang Grottoes Centraal Beheer Offce Complex xii Chadirji, Rifat 111 Chandigarh 74, 75 Chengdu 81 Chen-Yu Chiu 79, 81, 84 Chermayeff, Serge, Community and Privacy 128 Chichen-Itza 71, 72, 149 chien-chia 78 China: Chengdu 81; Chongqing 81; Cien Monastery 81; European art and architecture infuenced by xiii, 50; Fisker’s visit to 50, 76; Fujian province 77, 212; The Great Wall 80; Grung’s visits to xviin2, 79–81; Guangzhou 81; Hangzhou 76; Henan province 80; Hong Kong 76, 77, 79, 81; Huayan Monastery 80; Jiangxi province 212; Mount Songshan 80; Nanjing 81; Northern Wei dynasty in 81; Petersen on glazing techniques of 50; Qing Dynasty in 76; Rasmussen’s visit to 50, 76; rice-paddy terraces of 140; Shanghai 75–77; Shanhua Monastery 80; Shanxi province 80, 166; Song Dynasty in 50–51, 75; Songyue Monastery 80; Suzhou 76, 81; terracotta warriors in 81; UtzonFrank’s collection of art from 75; Utzon’s trips to 76–77, 79–81, 100; Western Han Dynasty in 81; Wild Goose Pagoda 81; Xi’an 81; see also Beijing; Yungang Grottoes Chinese architecture: appreciation and inspiration from 160; Bagsværd Church and 81, 98, 100, 145; BotzBornstein on 31; calligraphy and 78–79; courtyards in 136; diantang structure 98; Espansiva housing system and 178; foating roofs in 25, 98, 136, 140, 160, 166; Frampton on 98; Fredensborg houses and 81, 100; Kingo houses and 81, 100, 133; Langelinie Pavilion design inspiration from 58; Liang Ssu-ch’eng on 80; Lin Yutang on 77–79; Middelboe

House and 132; Nordic Modernism and 76; pagodas 58, 81, 98, 122n91; platforms, plateaus, and podiums in 98; platforms and plateaus in 98; postmodernism and 215; Prip-Møller on 77, 81; siheyuan courtyard houses 79, 93–94, 100, 133, 136–137; Silkeborg Art Museum project and 81; Sirén’s books on 76; Skåne courtyard houses proposal and 132; Sydney Opera House and 76, 149; Sydney Opera House roof and 25, 76, 151; of temples xiv; tulou housing 212; Utzon’s interest in traditional 53, 75; see also Yingzao Fashi “Chinese Art over Three Millenia” (Sirén) 76 Chinese Buddhist Monasteries (Prip-Møller) 77, 81 Chinese Houses and Gardens (Prip-Møller) 81 Chinoiserie xiii Chiu, Chen-Yu 79, 81, 84 Chongqing 81 CIAM xiv, 52, 69 Cien Monastery 81 City in History, The (Mumford) 30 Cladera, Joana Roca 8 Clemmensen, Ebbe and Karen 86 clients 16, 26 cloud motif: in Bagsværd Church xv, 14, 59, 97, 99, 142–144, 172, 182; in Elviria commercial centre proposal 139–140; foating roofs and 160, 166; Hawaiian inspiration for 99, 142, 144–145, 182; in Madrid Opera House entry 140, 172; in Melli Bank 105, 139; in Sydney Opera House roof 151, 160, 166, 172; on Trades Union High School entry 138; in Utzon Center 191; in Wolfsburg Theatre entry 140; in Zürich Theatre entry 140 COBRA 164 Coderch, J. A. 31 colonialisation 94–95, 159 Combined Metaphors 182, 184 Community and Privacy (Alexander & Chermayeff) 128 computer-aided design 1, 10, 169, 211, 214 Congrès internationaux d’architecture moderne (CIAM) xiv, 52, 69

Index conservatism xv, 90 Constable, William 146 construction: of Bagsværd Church 158–159, 163; of Can Lis 112, 115, 170; drawings prepared before 130; model-making and prototyping in 158; primitive 128; project management in 155, 158; Scandinavian art of 170; of Sydney Opera House 1, 158, 188; of Sydney Opera House roof 155 constructive logic 50, 159–160 Constructivism 129 Copenhagen: 8Tallet complex 212, 215; Academy of Music 55; Courthouse in 66–67; crematorium proposal for 54, 55; Frederiksberg urban planning competition 132; Grundtvig Church 50, 51, 159–160; Ito’s visit to 8; Little Mermaid statue 58; Mountain Dwellings 212; Norberg-Schulz on architecture in 63; Ørested 212, 215; Paustian furniture store 14, 50, 56, 57, 59; Radiohuset concert hall 151; Tietgenkollegiet 212; World Exhibition complex competition 138 Correa, Charles 30 courtyard: in Aalto’s designs 136; for Academy of Music in Copenhagen 55; of the Alhambra 136; in Arabian architecture 108, 110, 139; at Bagsværd Church 143, 145; at Can Lis 112, 115; in Chinese architecture 136; community gathering around 133; in Fehn’s work 207; of Hellebæk Espansiva house 178; of Karelian farmhouses 136; in Kuwait National Assembly Building design 110; of Lepastrier’s Avalon house 96; in Madrid Opera House entry 140; in Mediterranean vernacular architecture 112; in Melli Bank sketch 101; organisation of buildings around 55; at Säynätsälo Town Hall 110, 191; in Third Generation of Modern Architects designs 136; in Tietgenkollegiet 212; in Trades Union High School entry 138; of traditional Danish farmhouses 10, 94–95, 133, 135–137; in transcultural architecture 133; universal themes of 136; Utzon Center’s modular pavilions around 86, 189, 191–192;

225

in Wolfsburg Theatre entry 140; in Zürich Theatre entry 140 courtyard houses: Aalto’s analogy of cherry tree fowers and 133; for Australian suburban developments 93–95; enclosure and shelter in 137; Frampton on 135–137; green common areas between 133, 137; inner focus of 137; in Iran 133; landscape with 95; metaphors in 137; in Morocco 70, 133, 136; Pallasmaa on xiv; privacy in 94, 132–135, 137; “Prospect and Refuge” in 137; siheyuan courtyard houses 79, 93–94, 100, 133, 136–137; Skåne competition proposal for 132; transcultural essentialism of 136; in vernacular architecture 136; see also Fredensborg houses; Kingo houses courtyard typology: of Bagsværd Church 77; of Fredensborg houses 81, 137; of Kingo houses 81, 133, 137; pragmatism of 94; of siheyuan houses 100; transcultural essentialism of 136 craft skills 43–44, 64 crematorium proposal 54, 55 critical regionalism: Aalto and 97; Bagsværd Church and 97, 145; Botz-Bornstein on 31; contemporary architects and 211; defnition of xiv–xv, 29; discussion of 29–31; as divergence 31; Eggener’s critique of 30; Frampton on xv, xvii–xviiin10, 10, 28–30, 97–98; genius loci and xv; “The Grid and the Pathway” on xvii–xviiin10, 29; International Style and 30; Mumford’s writings and 30, 31; neo-Kantian sense of 29, 31–32; Pallasmaa on xiv–xv, 32; post-structuralist paradigm shift, sign of 29; as resistance 31; Ricoeur’s writings and 30; role of 29; Säynätsalo Town Hall and 97; Säynätsälo Town Hall and 97; selfconsciousness and xv; strategy of xv; tectonics and xv, 10; transcultural essentialism and xiv–xv; Tzonis and Lefaivre paper on, at 1989 Pomona Meeting 30; universal civilization and xv, 30, 98; Waisman critique of 31; world culture and 98

226

Index

Critical Regionalism (Tzonis & Lefaivre) 29 Crystal Palace competition 56 Cubism xiii, 69 cultural identity 18 Curtis, William J.R. 9, 9 Danish architecture 17, 43, 50, 63, 86, 133 Danish Timber Association 178; see also Espansiva housing system Danske Samvirke 134 Das Japanishe Haus (Baltzer) 82 Das Japanishe Wohnhaus (Yoshida) 82, 84, 85 Datong 80; see also Yungang Grottoes David and Goliath (Gladwell) 13 De Dominicis, Emanuele 9 Delhi 74; see also New Delhi de Monchaux, Thomas 8 Denmark: Aarhus, sports complex project in 56; Aarhus University 50; apprenticeships in 43; “Bofaelleskab” collective housing in 134; Bornholm, Svaneke Water Tower 55, 56; cultural identity of 62; Fåborg Museum 50; Federation of Danish Architects 169; furniture of 43; German occupation of, in Second World War xiii, 51, 69; Helsingør 43, 152; Helsingør Castle 67; Herning Export College 85, 86, 176, 178, 189, 192; Herning petrol station roof canopy 154; Højstrup, Trades Union High School entry 138, 139; Holte, Middelboe House 131–132; industrial design in 43; Jutland 45, 63; Norberg-Schulz on architecture in 63; societal values in 169; Sonning Prize 2; see also Aalborg; Bagsværd Church; Copenhagen; Fredensborg houses; Hellebæk; Kingo houses; Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Design in Architecture (Broadbent) 127 Design Methods in Architecture (Broadbent) 126 de Stijl 129 Detroit 82 diantang structure 98 Digerud, Jan 210 digital fabrication 214 Dipoli Student Union Building 23, 166 Displacement of Concepts, The (Schön) 185

Doctorow, Edgar Lawrence 185 Dogon tribe, architecture and rich mythology of xii Doshi, Balkrishna 215 Drew, Philip 93, 94, 97, 102, 121n87 Dubai 215 Dutch Structuralists xii, xviin2, 140–141 Dwellings (Oliver) 129 dyslexia: art and 186; boat & ship design/building/repair and 186; drawing skills and 13, 49; exhibition of work inspiring others with 189; Gaudi coping with 13; mentors, tutors, and 42; nature and 14, 49, 64, 186; Rogers coping with 13; Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and 13, 49; travelling and 42, 186; Utzon’s academic performance and 13–14, 42, 64, 189; visual imagery and 12, 186 Eames, Charles and Ray 71 East Asiatic Company (EAC) travel scholarship 76 ecological architecture 6–7 “ecological functionalism of animal constructions” 6–7 Eggener, Keith 30, 31 Egypt xii, xiv, 109–111, 129 Einstein Observatory 22 Elineberg Housing 132, 138 Elviria commercial centre proposal 139–140 emancipated rationality xiii Endless House project 162 Engel, Carl Ludwig 148 Engel, Heinrich, The Japanese House 85 Enlightenment 29 Enskede, Woodland Cemetery and Crematorium 53, 65–66, 115 Erskine, Ralph 15, 16 Escobedo, Frida 215 Escofet, Emilio 177 Escofet company 96, 177 Espansiva housing system: California Case Study House programme and 71; Chinese architecture and 178; drawing for 87; Eames and 71; Engel’s The Japanese House and 85; extension options 85, 179; Hellebæk prototype house 85–86, 178; Herning Export College and 85, 86; Japanese architecture and 85, 178; models

Index of, photograph of Utzon with 87; tectonics of 85; Utzon Center and 86, 192; Wright and 71 “Essence of Architecture, The” (Utzon) x–xi, 58 essentialism 16, 18; see also transcultural essentialism essentialist architecture 7–9, 82–83 Etherington, Bruce 121n87 “Ethical Signifcance of Environmental Beauty, The” (Harries) 94 Ethnographic Museum 120n63; see also Zui Ki Tei Japanese teahouse Euclidean geometry 23, 24, 48, 185 Evolution of designs, The (Steadman) 187 Experiencing Architecture (Rasmussen) 49–50 “Experientialist Synthesis” 204 Experimental House, The (Aalto) xviin3 expressionism xiii, 1 expressionist architecture 21, 160, 165, 211 expressionist art xiii, 49 “extended rationality” xiii, xviin8 Eyes of the Skin, The (Pallasmaa) 204 Faber, Tobias: competition proposals with Utzon 54, 56; at First International Utzon Symposium 9, 9; on Jacobsen’s work 51; at Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts 64; during Second World War 54; “Trends in the Architecture of Today” 57–58; on Utzon’s ideas 20; on Wright’s approach to architecture 54 Fåborg Museum 50 Fallingwater 71 Farum Town Centre competition entry 104–105, 106, 142, 178, 181 Fathy, Hassan xii Featurism 89, 90, 92, 93 Federation of Danish Architects 169 Fehn, Sverre: Aalto and 207; cave structures in works of 207; courtyards in designs of 207; Glacier Museum 207; infuence of Utzon on 207; Korsmo and 52, 207; landscapes of 207; Le Corbusier and 24, 207; metaphors in work of 207; in Morocco xii, xviin2; nature and 207; North African travels of xii, xviin2; on North African vernacular

227

architecture 69, 207; in PAGON Group 52, 69; and Pallasmaa on ecological functionalism 7; platforms, plateaus, and podiums of 207; Pritzker Architecture Prize awarded to 1, 207; Prouvé and 207; Teglsteinhuset 207; traditional Nordic architecture’s infuence on 207; van der Rohe and 207; Vasa Museum competition entry 166; “Verdens Ende” 207; vernacular architecture and 69, 207; Villa Busk 207; work of 1–2 Fenger, Lis 49, 51; see also Utzon, Lis fnanciers 16 Finland: on Aalto’s architecture 17, 169, 212; analogous and metaphoric inspiration from nature in 212; cultural identity of 62; environment of, into architectural form 17; Griffths on architecture of 17; Helsinki 24, 52, 68, 148–149; Japanese architecture and 17, 86; Norberg-Schulz on architecture in 17; Otaniemi 24, 166; Pallasmaa on organizing space in 17; Tampere 24, 99, 145; Turku 212–213, 213; University of Jyväskylä campus 4 Finnish Embassy, New Delhi 24 Finnish President’s Residence, Helsinki 24 Finsterlin, Hermann 160 First Fleet 146 First Generation of Modern Architects 26 First International Utzon Symposium 9, 9 Fisker, Kay 50, 75, 76, 98, 159–160 Fjeld, Emily Randall xiv Fjeld, Per Olaf xiv, 152–153 foating roofs 25, 98, 136, 140, 160, 166 Florence Cathedral 155, 161 Forbidden City 79, 149 Foreign Offce Architects 210, 211 Forés, Jaime J. Ferrer 8 Fort Macquarie 145 Foster, Norman 211, 215 Fowles, John 16 Frampton, Kenneth: on Aalto 31, 135; on architecture 32–33, 135; on Bagsværd Church 28, 97; on building culture 135; on Chinese architecture 98;

228

Index

on courtyard houses 135–137; on critical regionalism xv, xvii–xviiin10, 10, 28–30, 97–98; on cross-cultural stance of Utzon 15, 206; Eggener’s critique of critical regionalism of 30; at First International Utzon Symposium 9, 9; on Fredensborg houses 28, 135–136; Heidegger and 28; on inspirations for Utzon 20; on Kingo houses 28; on Le Corbusier and Utzon 9, 159; on light, structural mode, and topography xv; on modern movement 29; on Nordic regionalists 31, 97; on pagoda roofs 98; “Platforms and Plateaus,” analysis of Bagsværd Church based on 98; on postmodernism 28, 29; promotion of Utzon’s work by 10; on responsibility of architects 27; Ricoeur and 28; “Rise and Fall of the Avant-Garde” 29; Studies in Tectonic Culture 28, 32–33; on Sydney Opera House 136; on tectonics xv, 10, 28; “Towards a Critical Regionalism” xv, xvii–xviiin10, 10, 28–30, 97–98; on transcultural architecture 10, 28, 98; on universal civilization 28, 98; on Utopians 28; Waisman critique of critical regionalism of 31; on world culture 98 France: Paris 23, 69, 82, 101, 177 Frankfurt School 31 Fredensborg houses: Aalto’s analogy of cherry tree fowers and 52; assessment of 137; Chinese architecture and 81, 100; courtyard typology of 81, 137; cultural context for 25; Danske Samvirke and 134; Frampton on 27–28, 135–136; Japanese architecture’s infuence on 88; photograph of 134; privacy in 133, 135, 137; site of 134–135, 135; tectonics of 95; traditional Danish farmhouses and 10, 94, 137; unity of material and landscape in 70; vernacular quality of 135; wall heights for 133 Frederiksberg urban planning competition 132 French Utopians xiv Friday Mosque 44, 149, 150 Friedrich, Caspar David 66 Fromonot, Françoise 170

Fujian province 77, 212 functionalism xii, 6–7, 65, 141, 177 functionalist architecture 27–29, 65, 214 Fundamentals of Japanese Architecture (Taut) 82 Gabler, Werner 174 Gadamer, Hans-Georg, “The Relevance of the Beautiful” 171–172 Gaudi, Antoni 13, 160, 175, 177 Gauguin, Paul xiii Gauss, Carl Friedrich 162–163 Gehry, Frank 24, 159, 211 Generative design 169 Genius Loci (Norberg-Schulz) 10, 28 genius loci (sense of place): analogies, metaphors, and 186; architectural phenomenology and qualities of 3; of Bagsværd Church 28; of Can Lis 11; critical regionalism and xv; defnition of 10; Giedion on 10; of Kuwait National Assembly Building 163; at Leplastrier’s Pittwater home 208; Norberg-Schulz on 10, 29; Ricoeur on 28; of Sydney Opera House 145; transcending time and 15; understanding 2 German Expressionist architects 21, 160 German Expressionist art xiii Germany: Berlin xii, 23; Center Plan for Frankfurt am Main xii; expressionism in xiii, 21, 160; Frankfurt School 31; Potsdam, Einstein Observatory 22; Ulm School of Design 189, 191; Wolfsburg Theatre competition 140 Giedion, Sigfried: on Aalto and Finland 17; on architectural form 26; on “genius loci” 10; Kuwait National Assembly Building and 108; on Laurens 69; Mechanization Takes Command 27; Norberg-Schulz’s studies with 10, 17, 28; on organic architecture 26; on platforms, plateaus, and podiums 25; Space, Time and Architecture 26; on themes in Utzon’s work 26–27; on Third Generation of Modern Architects 10, 20, 26–27, 82–83, 104, 136; on Utzon’s concern for clients 26 Glacier Museum 207 Gladwell, Malcolm, David and Goliath 13 Glahn, Else 76

Index Glasgow, Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre 211 Goad, Philip 27, 84, 157 “Golden Pavilions, Memories and Studies from Japan” (Sirén) 82 Goossens, Eugene 145–146 Gothenburg Courthouse 66 Grand Bazaar in Isfahan: Falum Town Center competition entry and 104, 105, 142; Farum Town Centre competition entry and 104, 105, 142; indirect lighting from above in 103–105, 139, 171; Kuwait National Assembly Building and 108, 110; Melli Bank and 103–105, 139; photograph of 104; Sydney Opera House and 149, 150 Great Wall, The 80 Greece xii, xiv, 22, 31, 73 Greenway, Francis 145 Griaule, Marcel xii “Grid and the Pathway, The” (Tzonis & Lefaivre) xvii–xviiin10, 29 Griffths, Gareth 17, 86 Gropius, Walter 82–83 Grundtvig, Nikolaj Frederik Severin 63 Grundtvig Church 50, 51, 159–160 Grung, Geir xii, xviin2, 52, 69, 79–81 Guangzhou 81 Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao) 211 Guggenheim Museum (New York) 166, 169 Haan, Hermann xii Hadid, Zaha 24, 215 Haering, Hugo xviin1 Hakka people 212 Hangzhou 76 Hansen, Hans Munk 104, 105 Hansen, Oscar 141, 142 Hara, John 100–101, 103 Harries, Karsten, “The Ethical Signifcance of Environmental Beauty” 94 Hawaii: Asian infuence in 99; Bagsværd Church and 97–99, 142, 144–145; cloud motif inspiration from 99, 142, 144–145, 182; Honolulu 84, 101, 103; Japanese architecture in 99; Kailua Beach 99; Lanikai Beach 99, 144, 182; Liu on Utzon’s teaching years in 96; Oahu 97, 99, 103; sketch of clouds over by Utzon 99, 144–145; University

229

of Hawaii at Manoa, School of Architecture 96–97, 100–101, 102, 121n87, 206–207; Utzon’s rented houses in 99; Utzon’s visits to 84, 96, 103 Hedquist, Paul 52 Heidegger, Martin 17, 27–29, 130 Hellebæk: Espansiva prototype house in 85–86, 178; Mikami’s visit to 173; Moneo working with Utzon in 210; Utzon’s house in 69, 88, 131, 131, 188 Helsingborg, Elineberg Housing 132, 138 Helsingør 43, 152; see also Kingo houses Helsingør Castle 67 Helsinki 24, 52, 68, 148–149 Henan province 80 Herning 86 Herning Export College 85, 86, 176, 178, 189, 192 Herning petrol station roof canopy 154 Hertzberger, Herman xii Herzog & de Meuron 204, 215 Hilberseimer, Ludwig Karl 70 Hiroshima, Itsukushima Shinto Shrine 83, 84 History and Truth (Ricoeur) 30 Höganäs 127, 151 Højstrup, Trades Union High School entry 138, 139 Hokusai, Katsushika 173 Hölderlin, Friedrich 130 Holl, Steven 24, 33 Holt, Jack 48 Holte, Middelboe House 131–132 Holyoak, Keith 186 “Homage to Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach” tapestry 156 Homage to the Square paintings (Albers) xiii Hong Kong 76, 77, 79, 81 Honolulu 84, 101, 103 horizontality xvi, 82 hortus conclusus 136, 137 Houses and People of Japan (Taut) 82 Huayan Monastery 80 Hughes, Davis 83, 155–156 Hughes, Robert 149 hulê 43 hutong alleyways 79, 133, 137 Huxtable, Ada Louise 2 Iconic Design 127, 128, 158, 181, 215 “imaginative rationality” 204

230

Index

Imhotep 129 Impressionists xiii India: Baha’i Lotus Temple 161; Chandigarh 74, 75; Correa’s regionalist architecture in 31; Delhi 74; Finnish Embassy by Pietilä in 23–24; Jam Masjid 74; Le Corbusier’s urban design in Chandigarh 74, 75; Mughal architecture in xiv; New Delhi 24, 161; platforms, plateaus, and podiums in 73–74; “Platforms and Plateaus” on 73–74; platforms in 73–74; stupas in 81; Taj Mahal 145 Indigenous Aboriginal culture and arts 96 Ingels, Bjarke 212, 215 Intangible Metaphors 23, 182, 184 International Style 22–23, 30, 163 Inuyama, Meiji Mura outdoor museum 82 Iran: courtyard houses in 133; feldwork by Carter and Sarvimäki in 123n119; Isfahan xiv, 44, 44, 103–105, 110, 149–150; Tehran, Melli Bank 101, 103, 103–105, 108, 139, 142; see also Grand Bazaar in Isfahan Iraq 104, 105, 123n119 Irming, Mogens 56 Isfahan xiv, 44, 44, 103–105, 110, 149–150; see also Grand Bazaar in Isfahan Ishikawa, Sarah, A Pattern Language 128 Ishimoto, Yasuhiro 82–83 Islamic architecture: abstract, geometric nature of 162; additive architecture with 105; Bagsværd Church and 10, 139, 142; Farum Town Centre competition entry and 104–105, 106, 142, 178, 181; Le Corbusier and Utzon’s inspiration from 103; in Melli Bank 101, 103, 103–105, 108, 139, 142; nature in, abstraction of 145; Skåne courtyard houses proposal and 132; Sydney Opera House and 149; Utzon’s inspiration from 69, 103–104; see also Arabian architecture “isolated pictorial metaphor” 184 Italy: Florence Cathedral 155, 161; Futurists in 22; Nordic architects

inspiration from xii; Rome xiv, 66; Valle’s regionalist architecture in 31 Ito, Toyo 8, 211, 215 Itsukushima Shinto Shrine 83, 84 Jacobs, Jane M. 30 Jacobsen, Arne 23, 48, 51, 54, 117, 177 Jaeger, Thomas Arvid 208 Jain, Bijoy (Studio Mumbai) 215 Jam Masjid 74 Japan: 1854 opening of ports in xiii; enclosed stone gardens in 136; Fisker’s visit to 76; Grung’s visits to xviin2, 81; Hiroshima 83, 84; Inuyama, Meiji Mura outdoor museum 82; Itsukushima Shinto Shrine 83, 84; Katsura Imperial Villa 82–85; Korsmo’s trip with Kahn to xiv; Kyoto 82–85, 136; Nara 83, 83; Ryoanji Temple 83–84, 136; Taut’s visit to 82; Todai-ji temple 83; Tokyo 82; Utzon’s visits to 82, 83, 100 Japanese architecture: Aalto and 23, 54, 84, 99–100, 120n57; additive architecture and 85–86; Ando’s regionalist 31; applicability of 86; appreciation and inspiration from 160; Asplund on 88; Bagsværd Church and 84, 99, 145; Baltzer on 82; Clemmensens and 86; Danish architecture and 17, 86; Espansiva housing system and 85, 178; essentialist expression in 82–83; Farum Town Centre competition entry and 142; Finnish architecture and 17, 86; fying geese foorplan of 85; Fredensborg & Kingo houses and 88; Griffths on 86; in Hawaii 99; Hellebæk house and 88, 131; landscape and 84; Le Corbusier and 82; Leplastrier’s study of 208; Maegawa’s modernist 82; of Metabolists 142; Nordic architecture and xiii, 86, 99–100; open plan in 131, 142; organic architecture and 85; PAGON Group infuenced by 88; Pallasmaa on xiii, 86; “Platforms and Plateaus” on 84, 98, 122n91; Sakakura’s modernist 82; seasonal changes in 88; Sirén on 82; Sørensen and 86; stone gardens in 136; structuralism and 142; Tangible Metaphors to 23; tatami mat as the

Index module of 85; Taut on 82; torii gate 83, 84; Utzon’s interest in traditional xiv, 53, 82, 83; Wickberg on 86; Wright infuenced by 82, 88, 142; Yoshida on 82, 84; see also Zui Ki Tei Japanese teahouse Japanese House, The (Engel) 85 Japonisme xiii, 17, 82 Jeddah sports complex project 179–181 Jeita Theatre proposal 166, 180, 180–181 Jencks, Charles 26 Jensen-Klint, P.V. 50, 51, 159–160 Jiangxi province 212 Jinping, Xi 215 Johnson, Mark 182, 183, 186, 203–204 Johnson, Richard 9, 9, 156, 207–208 Johnson Wax Building 105 Johnson Wax factory offce 129 Johnson Wax Laboratory Tower 58, 59 Jorn, Asger 49, 163–164, 167 “Jørn Utzon’s Synthesis of Chinese and Japanese Architecture in the Design for Bagsværd Church” (Chen-Yu Chiu et al.) 84, 120n63 Jutland 45, 63 Kahn, Louis I.: at 1959 international architect’s congress 140–141; American Beaux-Arts vs. modernism xiv; archetypal elements reinterpreted by 23; architectural approach of 204; background of xiii–xiv; biography of xiv; childhood on Saaremaa xiii–xiv; French Utopians, interest in xiv; geometries in work of xiv; On Growth and Form and 58; infuence of 206; Korsmo’s trip to Japan with xiv; Kuwait National Assembly Building and 109; Lundberg and Digerud infuenced by 210; on materials used in architecture 171; National Assembly Complex in Dhaka 31; Norberg-Schulz on 29; Nordic architecture and xiv; in PAGON Group xiv; Piranesi, interest in spatial fantasies of xiv; in Second Generation of Modern Architects 26; served and servant spaces of 105, 150; on Sydney Opera House 171; transcultural architecture of xiv; at University of Pennsylvania 100; Utzon and xiii–xiv, 101–102, 102

231

Kailua Beach 99 Kaleva Church 24, 99, 145 Kama’aina Apartments 103 Kant, Immanuel 31 Karnak 109–111 Kathmandu Valley 75 Katsura (Gropius, Tange, & Ishimoto) 82–83 Katsura Imperial Villa 82–85 Kenya 101 Khan Murjan building 104 Kierkegaard, Søren 63 Kiesler, Frederick 24, 162, 165 Kilinçer, Nur Yildiz 84 Kingo houses: Aalto’s analogy of cherry tree fowers and 52, 133; Arabian architecture and 133; assessment of 3, 137; Chinese architecture and 81, 100, 133; courtyard typology of 81, 133, 137; cultural context for 25; Danske Samvirke and 134; Frampton on land settlement pattern of 28; Japanese architecture’s infuence on 88; Mountain Dwellings project and 212; North Africa and 133; orientation of 133; privacy in 132, 137; as “Romerhusene” 133; size and cost restrictions for state mortgages for 133; Skåne courtyard houses proposal and 132; tectonics of 95; traditional Danish farmhouses and 10, 94, 133, 137; unity of material and landscape in 70; wall design for 132 Klint, Kaare 179 Klippan, St. Peter’s Church 115 Knutsen, Knut 202 Komonen, Markku 4 Koolhaas, Rem 212, 215 Korsmo, Arne: additive architecture idea from 52; Fehn and 52, 207; Grung and 52; in Hedquist’s offce 52, 207; interest in nature of 52, 172; invitation to Utzon to join in Oslo 52, 69; in Japan xiv; legacy of 2; in Mexico 71; modernist architecture of 52; Norberg-Schulz and 28, 52; in PAGON Group 52; during Second World War 52; as a teacher and mentor 52–53, 207; in US xiv Kouzmin, Alexander 154 Kresge Auditorium 147, 151

232

Index

Kunio Maegawa 82 Kurshaal Congress Centre and Auditorium 210 Kuwait 31, 103, 108, 123n119 Kuwait National Assembly Building: additive architecture in 111, 181; assessment of 10; Chadirji’s submission for 111; competition proposal for 108–109; courtyard in 110; departments in 105–108, 181; designing of 96, 111–112; environment of 108; Farum Town Centre competition entry and 181; genius loci of 163; Giedion and 108; Grand Bazaar in Isfahan and 108, 110; idealistic political metaphoric statement in 109–110; indirect lighting from above in 108; International Style and 163; Kahn and 109; Melli Bank and 108; Nayman working on 210; renovations to, after Iraqi occupation 123n119; sketches for 107, 111; tectonic integrity in 111; tectonics in 10, 105, 109; transcultural essentialism in 10; vernacular architecture of 111, 163; white concrete canopy of 109–110, 110 Kylberg, Carl 49 Kyoto 82–85, 136 Lakoff, George 182, 186, 203–204 Langelinie Pavilion design 58, 59, 150 Lanikai Beach 99, 144, 182 Las Vegas 215 Latin American architecture 31 Laurens, Henri 69 Lauritzen, Wilhelm 151, 154 lawyers 16 Lebanon, Jeita Theatre proposal 166, 180, 180–181 Le Corbusier: analogies used by 129; art of 157; as brutalist architect 24, 74; Chandigarh’s urban design by 74, 75; CIAM founded by 69; Fehn and 24, 207; in First Generation of Modern Architects 26; Frampton on Utzon and 9, 159; Greek inspirations for 22; hands at prayer inspiration for roof 129; Hellebæk home tapestry by 69, 157; infuence of 206; Islamic architecture inspiring 103; Japanese architecture and 82; Jorn and 164;

letter to, by Utzon 69–70; Lundberg and Digerud infuenced by 210; material expression admired by Utzon 24; Middelboe House and 132; modernist architecture of 18, 22, 132; Norberg-Schulz on 29; Oeuvre Complète 51; Ronchamp 129, 166; sculptural and narrative works of 23; Silkeborg Art Museum project and 166, 168; as student of culture xvi; Sydney Opera House tapestry by 157; Utzon’s meeting with 69; vernacular architecture and xii, 18 Lefaivre, Liane xvii–xviiin10, 29–31, 97 Léger, Fernand 69 LEGO 153, 190 leitmotiv 55 Le Klint lampshades 179 Leplastrier, Richard: Australian architecture of 96, 208–209; Avalon house 96; Bayview House work by 96, 208; on “beautiful idea” 172; Bilgola Beach house 173; on boat & ship building/design/repair and sailing 46–48; cave structures and 209; on engineers 46; at First International Utzon Symposium 9, 9; Japanese architecture studies of 208; Japan visits by 208; Palm Garden House 208; palm leaves inspiring 173; Pittwater home 208, 209; on Sydney Opera House 156, 208; Utzon’s infuence on 189, 208–209 Le Trois Soeurs (Léger) 69 Lewerentz, Sigurd 50, 53, 65–66, 115, 170 Liang Ssu-ch’eng 80 Limfjorden 47, 189, 191 Lincoln Centre 27 Lindqvist, Sven 66 Lion Island 48 Liu, Leighton 96–97, 100, 102, 121n87 Loos, Adolf 24 Louis I Kahn: The Nordic Latitudes (Fjeld) xiv Lund, Nils Ole 19, 20, 62 Lundberg, Jon 210 Lundgaard & Tranberg 212 Lutheranism 16 Luzu Temple 80 Lyngby Crematorium and Graveyard xviin3 Lynn, Greg 168

Index Madrid Opera House 140, 172 Maegawa, Kunio 82 Magney House 178 Maillart, Robert 151, 154 Mallorca: 2008 Utzon seminar on 8; Can Feliz 60n7, 69, 116, 117, 170; Utzon’s move to 112; see also Can Lis Mandrup, Dorte 215 mannerism 153 Marotta, Vince 18 Martinussen, Kent 212 Masaharu, Takasaki 168 Massachusetts, Cambridge 211 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 147, 151 Masterpiece, The (Drew) 102, 121n87 Masuda, Tomoya 208 “Mat-Buildings” xii materiality: in Bagsværd Church 171; of Can Lis 113, 170; of Danish furniture 43; depth and thickness of 170; of Moneo 210; of Monte Albán 149; nature and 175; tectonics and 33; in Tietgenkollegiet 212; in Utzon’s architecture xvi, 24; Wilson on, in alternative modernism xviin1 Matisse, Henri 96 Mayan architecture: at Chichen-Itza 72, 149; imagery of xv; inspiration from 25, 71; in metaphoric terms 137–138; at Monte Albán 73, 149; Sydney Opera House and 18, 25, 72, 149; at Teotihuacan 73; Utzon on xvi, 71–73, 149; at Uxmal 149 Mayan civilization 2 Mayan culture xvi–xvii Mechanization Takes Command (Giedion) 27 Meiji Mura outdoor museum 82 Melbourne 147 Melli Bank 101, 103, 103–105, 108, 139, 142 Mendelsohn, Erich 22 Mental Leaps (Holyoak & Thagard) 186 Meridian Gate 98 Metabolists 142 metaphors: Aalto’s use of 23–24, 172; abstracting, into architectural design 54, 126, 158–162, 172, 175, 185–186, 203, 211, 214–215; Antoniades on 182, 184; architectural form and 172; in architecture 172, 182–186; Aristotle on 183, 204; in Bagsværd

233

Church xv, 10, 14, 28, 59, 97, 99, 142–144, 145, 172, 182, 204; Berggren on 184; in Calatrava’s works 160; of Can Lis 113, 115; as catalyst for architectural visions 159, 172; Combined Metaphors 182, 184; in courtyard houses 137; craft skills and 43; in crematorium proposal 54; defnition of 183; Doctorow on 185; in Fehn’s work 207; Gadamer on 171; Gaudi’s use of 160; genius loci and 186; geometry and 160; German Expressionists, Nietzsche, and use of 21; as “imaginative rationality” 204; Intangible Metaphors 23, 182, 184; “isolated pictorial metaphor” 184; Lakoff and Johnson on 182, 186, 203–204; language-centric view of 182; in modernist architecture 22; Pietilä‘s use of 23–24, 172, 175; of platforms, plateaus, and podiums 137–138; of platforms and plateaus 137–138; in postmodernism 185; in Säynätsälo Town Hall design 23; Schön on 185; in Silkeborg Art Museum project 168; “structural” 184; in Sydney Opera House 10, 25–26, 158–162; Tangible Metaphors 23–24, 182, 184; “textural” 184; transcultural essentialism and use of 214–215; universal 130, 182; visual 43, 99, 115, 144–145; see also analogies Metropolitan Museum of Art 82 Mexico: Barragán’s regionalist architecture in 31; Chichen-Itza 71, 72, 149; Korsmo’s visit to 71; Mayan civilization 2; Mayan culture in xvi–xvii; modernity and indigenous architectures in xii; Oaxaca, Monte Albán 71, 73, 149; “Platforms and Plateaus” on pre-Columbian sites in xvi–xvii, 71–73; Pueblo settlements in 93; pyramids in, on Albers’ paintings xiii; Utzon’s visits to 71–73, 93, 137, 149; Uxmal 71, 149; Yucatan 71, 149; see also Mayan architecture Miaoying Monastery 80 Michigan, Detroit 82 Middelboe House 131–132 middens, Indigenous Aboriginal 146 Middle East: Arab–Israeli war (1973) 102–103; Egypt xii, xiv, 109–111,

234

Index

129; Iraq 104, 105, 123n119; Kuwait 31, 103, 108, 123n119; Lebanon, Jeita Theatre proposal 166, 180, 180–181; Turkey, Istanbul 211; United Arab Emirates, Dubai 215; Utzon’s trips to 93, 103, 108; vernacular architecture in 104; see also Iran; Kuwait National Assembly Building Mikami, Yuzo 151–152, 173 minimalism 7–8, 16 Missouri, St. Louis, Washington University in 211 Mitsunaga, Dwight 101 modernism: austerity of 26; avantgarde architects and 29; Chinese architecture and 76; ideals of vs. Scandinavian traditions 170; Japanese architecture and 86; vs. Kahn’s American Beaux-Arts xiv; nature, affnity for 52–53; Nietzsche and 21; Nordic xiv; reactions to 214 “Modernisme” 160 modernist architecture: architectural phenomenology and 3; Asplund as father of Scandinavian 52; on buildings as objects in landscape 136; classicism and 22, 65; expressionist architecture and 21; Fathy’s, based on Egyptian and Arabic xii; International Style and 23; of Jacobsen 23, 51; Kiesler on rationalisation and standardisation in 24; of Korsmo 52; of Le Corbusier 17, 22, 132; machine as metaphor for 22, 185; manifest destiny of 28; materials used in 204; metaphors used in 22; nature and xvi, 136; Norberg-Schulz on 29; the primitive and 157; Skogskyrkogården as transition from classicism to 65; technology used in 3; universality of 16; vernacular architecture and xii, 18; Wilson on “the other tradition” of xvii, xviin1, 23, 25, 136 modern movement: Bauhaus 22; evolving into International Style 23; First Generation of Modern Architects 26; Frampton on 29; Knutsen and 202; metaphoric idealism of, Nazis and 22; Second Generation of Modern Architects 26; Third Generation of Modern

Architects 10, 20, 26–27, 82–83, 104, 136 Mølvig, Thomas 9 Moneo, Rafael 204, 210 Mongolia xviin2 Monte Albán 71, 73, 149 Moore, Charles 210 “More beautiful everyday objects” (Paulson) 62 Morocco: Aalto’s visits to xvii, xviin3; Atlas Mountains 70, 93; courtyard houses in 70, 133, 136; Fehn’s visits to xii, xviin2; Grung’s visits to xii, xviin2; projects by Utzon in xviin2, 69–70; Säynätsälo Town Hall xviin3, 23, 97, 110, 191; Utzon’s visits to xii, xviin2, 69–70, 103, 108 morphê 43 Mountain Dwellings 212 Moussavi, Farshid 211 Mughal architecture xiv multiculturalism 32 Mumford, Lewis 30, 31 muqarnas 44, 149, 150 Murcutt, Glenn: at 6th International Aalto Symposium 6; Aalto and 210; on additive architecture 178, 210; on ‘architecture of the essential’ 6; Australian architecture of 1–2, 96, 210; on Australia’s art loss when Utzon left 157; on ecological architecture 6; Leplastrier and 209; Magney House 178; Pallasmaa on xvi; Pritzker Architecture Prize awarded to 1; Sydney Opera House and 1, 157; on Utzon’s architecture 157 Murray, Peter 155 Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm see Zui Ki Tei Japanese teahouse Museum of Modern Art, Architecture without Architects exhibition xii–xiii My Country and My People (Yutang) 77–79 Myers, Peter 9, 84, 146 Nakamura, Masao 120n62 Nanjing 81 Nara 83, 83 National Assembly Complex in Dhaka 31 National Gallery, Amerika Bygger exhibition at 54

Index nature: Aage Utzon’s studies of 47; additive architecture from 175–176; analogies in 47, 159, 168, 172; architectural form from indigenous 23; beauty from 171, 202–203; Crystal Palace design inspiration from 56; dyslexia and 14, 49, 64, 186; “The Essence of Architecture” on 58; Fehn and 207; inspiration from 13, 171–175, 186, 212; Islamic abstraction of 145; Knutsen on 202; Korsmo’s interest in 52, 172; Langelinie Pavilion design inspiration from 58; Lin Yutang on 77–79; materiality and 175; modernist architecture and xvi, 136; Nordic architecture and 52–53, 64, 202, 212; organic architecture and 25, 174–175; Plato on 171; Steadman on 187; Thompson on 58; transcultural architecture and 1, 14; “Trends in the Architecture of Today” on 57–58 Nayman, Oktay 108, 210–211 Nazis 22 Nepal 75 Nervi, Pier Luigi 15, 151, 152, 154 Netherlands xii, xviin2, 54, 63, 140–141 Nevada, Las Vegas 215 New Caledonia, Noumea, Tjibaou Cultural Centre 211 New Delhi: Baha’i Lotus Temple 161; Finnish Embassy 24; see also Delhi New Essentialsim (Borden) 18 New Mexico xviin2 New York: Guggenheim Museum 166, 169; Lincoln Centre 27; Metropolitan Museum of Art 82; Museum of Modern Art xii–xiii; TWA Flight Center building 147; TWA Terminal at JFK Airport 151 New Yorker magazine 8, 30 Niemeyer, Oscar 30 Nieto Sobejano 210 Nietzsche, Friedrich 21 Nissen, Børge 105–108 Nobis, Philip 9, 9, 156 “Noble Poverty” design culture 16 Norberg-Schulz, Christian: on Aalto 29; on architectural form 17; on architectural phenomenology 10, 27, 28–29; Architecture 10, 28; on Bagsværd Church 99; on Danish

235

architecture 63; and fgurative in architecture 27, 29; on functionalist architecture 27–29; Genius Loci 10, 28; Giedion, studies with 10, 17, 28; Griffths on 17; Heidegger and 17, 27, 28; on Idea and identity 17; on Jutland 63; on Kahn 29; Korsmo and 28, 52; on Le Corbusier 29; on modernist architecture 29; on Nordic architecture 17, 62–63; in PAGON Group 28, 52, 69; on phenomenological understanding of architecture 10, 27, 28–29; on plains of Skåne 63; postmodernism and 28, 29; on Wright 29; on Zeeland 63 Nordic architecture: 1930 Stockholm International Exhibition and 64–65; Australian architecture and 210; boat & ship design/building/repair and 190; cave structures in 166; Chinese architecture and 76; context of 62; design culture of 17, 62; emotional and physical needs of an individual in 52–53; factors affecting 62; Frampton on regionalists in 31, 97; humanising approach in 52–53; Italy inspiring xii; Japanese architecture and xiii, 86, 99–100; Kahn and xiv; landscapes of 52–53, 150, 212; Lund on 62; model-making and prototyping in 154; nature and 52–53, 64, 202, 212; Norberg-Schulz on 17, 62–63; North African infuences on xviin2; political & social values and 62; Scandinavian sensibility and integrity of design in 2; traditional, infuence on Fehn of 207; Wilson on “The Other Tradition of Modern Architecture” 25 Nordic Modernism xiv North Africa: Atlas Mountains 70, 93; Egypt xii, xiv, 109–111, 129; Fehn’s travels in xii, xviin2; French architects in xviin2; Grung’s travels in xii, xviin2; inspiration from 93; Kingo houses and 133; Nordic architecture infuenced by xviin2; Utzon’s travels in xii, 69–70, 103; van Eyck’s travels in xviin2; vernacular architecture in xiv, xviin2, 69, 104, 207; see also Morocco Northern Beaches 89–91, 95, 96, 103, 177; see also Bayview House

236

Index

Norway: Bærum, Teglsteinhuset 207; cultural identity of 62; Glacier Museum, Vangsnes 207; Korsmo’s invitation to Utzon to go to 52; Korsmo’s invitation to Utzon to go to Oslo 52, 69; PAGON Group in xiv, 28, 52, 69, 88, 202; Suldal Power Station 79, 81; Tjøme, “Verdens Ende” 207 Notes on the Synthesis of Form (Alexander) 128 Noumea, Tjibaou Cultural Centre 211 Nytapola Temple 75 Oahu 97, 99, 103 Oaxaca, Monte Albán 71, 73, 149 objectivism 203–204 Oeuvre Complète (Le Corbusier) 51 Oliver, Paul 4–5, 129 On Growth and Form (Thompson) xiv, 58, 187 Ørested 212, 215 Øresund strait 63 organic architecture: Aalto and 9, 52, 133, 175; additive architecture and 54, 175; analogies in 52, 175; architectural form in 175; of Can Lis 115; Fromonot on 170; geometry and 175; Giedion on 26; Japanese architecture and 85; Jeddah sports complex project and 180; of Karelian farmhouses 136; landscape as key part of 174–175; in Langelinie Pavilion design 58; materials used in 174–175; nature and 25, 174–175; of Pietilä 23–24; in Sydney Opera House 26, 161; van der Rohe on 70; Wright on 174–175 Organic Architecture, An (Wright) 175 Oslo 52, 69 Östberg, Ragnar 67, 149 Otaguro, Kelvin 101 Otaniemi, Dipoli Student Union Building 24, 166 Other Tradition of Modern Architecture, The (Wilson) xvii, xviin1, 23, 25, 136 pagodas 58, 81, 98, 122n91 PAGON Group xiv, 28, 52, 69, 88, 202 Pallasmaa, Juhani: at 6th International Aalto Symposium 6–7; on aesthetic aspirations in Finland and Japan 17;

on architectural phenomenology 17; on architecture 213–214; on Bagsværd Church 205; on beauty 203; birthday tribute to Utzon from 7, 205; on courtyard houses xiv; on craftsmanship 43; “Cultural fusions and creative amalgamations” xii–xvii; on ecological functionalism 6–7; The Eyes of the Skin 204; on Finns and space 17; on Japanese architecture xiii, 86; on learning 42; on materials used in architecture 171, 204; on regionalism xv, 32 Palm Beach, Utzon’s home in 89, 91, 95, 96, 177 Palm Garden House 208; see also Bilgola Beach house Papua New Guinea 6 parametric design 214 Paris 23, 69, 82, 101, 177 Paris Pavilion (1937) xiii particularism 18 Pattern Language, A (Alexander, Ishikawa, & Silverstein) 128 Paulson, Gregor, “More beautiful everyday objects” 62 Paustian furniture store 14, 50, 56, 57, 59 Pehnt, Wolfgang 21 “Peking” (Fisker) 76 Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania 100–101 Pensions Institute 105 performance-based design 214 Petersen, Carl 50, 75 Petersen, Gunnar Biilmann 49 Philosophical analogies 129, 184 Piano, Renzo 211 Picasso, Pablo 18, 96 Pictorial History of Chinese Architecture, A (Sicheng) 80 “Pictures from a Journey to China” (Rasmussen) 76 Pietilä, Reima and Raili: Aalto and 24; analogies used by 175; BotzBornstein on 31; Dipoli Student Union Building 23, 166; Finnish President’s Residence, Helsinki 24; Kaleva Church 24, 99, 145; landscapes of 150; metaphors used by 23–24, 172, 175; New Delhi, Finnish Embassy in 24; organic architecture of 24; Sief Palace

Index Complex 31; Sydney Opera House and 150; Tampere Library 24; Zooamorphic architecture of 24 Pigem, Carme 214–215 Pikionis, Dimitris xvii piloti posts 22, 132 Pinós, Carme 215 Piranesi xiv Pittwater 91, 208, 209 “Placing Resistance” (Eggener) 30 platforms, plateaus, and podiums: for Academy of Music in Copenhagen 55; as an architectural element 71, 137; in Avalon house 96; in Birkehøj housing project 140; of Can Feliz 117; in Chinese architecture 98; for Crystal Palace project 56; of Elineberg Housing 132; in Elviria commercial centre proposal 140; in Fehn’s work 207; Giedion on Utzon’s use of 25; of Hellebæk house 131; of Helsinki Cathedral 148–149; in India 73–74; at Leplastrier’s Pittwater home 208; in Madrid Opera House entry 140; metaphors of 137–138; of Moneo 210; of Sydney Opera House 138, 146–151, 157, 160–161; in Trades Union High School entry 138; in transcultural architecture 136; in University of California, Berkeley, Art Gallery 140; of Utzon Center 189, 192; vantage point of 137; in Wolfsburg Theatre entry 140; in Zürich Theatre entry 140; see also Mayan architecture “Platforms and Plateaus” (Utzon) xvi–xvii, 71–74, 84, 98, 122n91, 138 Plato: on art 204; on the beautiful, the ethical, and the true 171; Canonic Design and 130; on essence of an entity 42–43; on Idea 18; idealism of 18; metaphoric allegory of shadows cast in cave 204; on nature 171; Platonic forms 8; Säynätsälo Town Hall and forum for debate of 23 poesis 32 Poetics (Aristotle) 183 Poetics of Architecture (Antoniades) 182 Poetry, Language, Thought (Heidegger) 130 Polo, Alejandro Zaera 210, 211 Polynesia xiii Pomona Meeting – Proceedings, The (Amourgis) 30

237

Porto Petro see Can Lis Portugal 31 postmodernism: analogies in 215; Antoniades on 185; austerity of modernism and 26; avantgarde architects and 29; Chinese architecture and 215; decoration in 33; Frampton on 28, 29; historicist 25, 185, 214; Jencks on 26, 29; media-fed consumerism of 29; metaphor use in 185; NorbergSchulz and 28, 29; in Norway 210; ornament in 214; scenographic tendency of 28; Sydney Opera House and 26, 28, 29; symbolism in 25, 215; tectonics and 33 postmodernist architecture 210 post-structuralist paradigm shift 29 Potsdam, Einstein Observatory 22 Pragmatic Design 127, 158, 161, 215 Prairie Houses 142 Priestley, Joseph 186 the primitive 21, 79, 157 primitive art 18 primitive construction 128 primitive cultures 27 primitivism xiii, 18 Prip-Møller, Johannes 50, 76–77, 81 Pritzker Architecture Prize 1–2, 6, 207, 211 Progressive Arkitekters Gruppe Oslo Norge (PAGON) Group xiv, 28, 52, 69, 88, 202 “Prospect and Refuge” theory 137 Prouvé, Jean 207 provincialism 15, 64, 205–206 Purism 129 Pythagoras 130 Racine, Johnson Wax Laboratory Tower 58, 59 Radiohuset concert hall 151 RAIA 146 Raphael 156 Rasmussen, Steen Eiler 49–50, 75–76, 98, 156 “Rationalism and Man” (Aalto) xviin8 rationalism/rationality xiii, xviin8, 204 Raumplan 24 RCR Arquitectes 214–215 realism 4 realistic architecture 25 Rees, Lloyd 160

238

Index

Refective Practitioner, The (Schön) 12 regionalism xv, 30–32; see also critical regionalism regionalist architecture xv, 30–32 “Relevance of the Beautiful, The” (Gadamer) 171–172 Renaissance xiv, 136 Ricoeur, Paul 28, 30 “Rise and Fall of the Avant-Garde” (Frampton) 29 Rogers, Richard 13, 211 Rome xiv, 66 Ronchamp 129, 166 Rothko 115 Royal Australian Institute of Architects 156 Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts: 1945 Minor Gold Medal theoretical design competition 55; Abben at 84, 101; craft skills training at 43, 50, 128; Faber at 64; Fisker at 50, 75, 98; Rasmussen at 49–50; UtzonFrank at 49; Utzon’s acceptance into 13, 49; Utzon’s graduation from 51, 69; Yingzao Fashi in library of 50, 75–76 Royal Institute of British Architect’s Gold Medal 2 Rudofsky, Bernard xii–xiii, 129 Rüedi, Peter 8 Russian Constructivists 22 Ryoanji Temple 83–84, 136 Saaremaa xiii–xiv Saarinen, Eero 71, 82, 147, 151–152 Saga of Sydney Opera House, The (Murray) 155 St. Henry’s Ecumenical Art Chapel 212–213, 213 St. Louis Airport 82 St. Peter’s Church 115 Sakakura, Junzo 82 Sanaksenaho, Matti 212–213, 213 San Sebastian, Kurshaal Congress Centre and Auditorium 210 Santa Cruz de Tenerife concert hall 160 Saqqara, Step Pyramid 129 Saudi Arabia 31, 179–181 Säynätsälo Town Hall xviin3, 23, 97, 110, 191 Scharoun, Hans xviin1 Schön, Donald 12, 185 Schrøder, Poul 49

Scotland, Glasgow, Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre 211 Second Generation of Modern Architects 26 Second World War: Aalto’s work during 4, 52; Danes exiled to Sweden in xiii, 51; European emigration after 89; Faber during 54; German occupation of Denmark in xiii, 51, 69; industrialisation of the building industry after 154; Korsmo during 52; Utzon during 51–54, 65, 68, 69, 179 Seidler, Harry 96, 156 Senate Square 148–149 Shanghai 75–77 Shanhua Monastery 80 Shanxi province 80, 166; see also Yungang Grottoes Shu, Wang 31, 215 Sicheng, Liang 80 Sief Palace Complex 31 siheyuan courtyard houses 79, 93–94, 100, 133, 136–137 Silkeborg Art Museum project: Aalto and 168; additive architecture for 142; analogies in 168; architectural form in 167; Bagsværd Church and 165; boat & ship design/building/ repair and 166, 168; cave structures in 24, 165–169; ceramic tiles for 167; Chinese architecture and 81; computer-aided design and 10; design for 24, 158, 164–169; Farum Town Centre competition entry and 142; geometry in 162, 167; Guggenheim Museum and 166; Jorn on 164; Le Corbusier and 166, 168; metaphors in 168; model for 165; Ronchamp and 166; site for 142; sketches for 143, 164; Sobejano on 166; transcultural architecture in 24; as visionary 4; Yungang Grottoes and 10, 24, 80, 165–166, 168 Silverstein, Murray, A Pattern Language 128 Simonsen, Svend 142 Sirén, Osvald 75–76, 82 Situationist International movement 164 Siza, Alvaro 31 Skåne 62–63, 132 Skogskyrkogården 65; see also Woodland Cemetery and Crematorium

Index Skrzynski, Joseph 9, 156 “Sky Line” (Mumford) 30 Smithson, Alison and Peter 141 Sobejano, Enrique 166, 210 Songshan, Mount 80 Songyue Monastery 80 Sonning Prize 2 Sørensen, Erik Christian 86 South America xii Southampton University 152 South in Architecture, The (Mumford) 30 South Korea 31 Space, Time and Architecture (Giedion) 26 Spain: Aalto’s visits to xvii, xviin3; Alhambra’s Moorish garden courtyards 136; Barcelona, Escofet in 96, 177; Catalonia 31, 160; Elviria commercial centre proposal 139–140; Madrid Opera House 140, 172; San Sebastian, Kurshaal Congress Centre and Auditorium 210; see also Mallorca spidsgatter boats 45, 46, 188, 190 standardisation xiii, 88 Steadman, Philip, The Evolution of designs 187 Steen-Møller, Henrik 64 Step Pyramid at Saqqara near Memphis 129 Sticks and Stones (Mumford) 30 Stockholm: 1930 International Exhibition 64–65; City Hall 67, 149; Enskede, Woodland Cemetery and Crematorium 53, 65–66, 115; Ethnographic Museum xiii, 120n63; large-scale developments in, after Second World War 23; National Gallery, Amerika Bygger exhibition at 54; see also Zui Ki Tei Japanese teahouse Structural analogies 184 structuralism xii, xviin2, 140–142; see also post-structuralist paradigm shift “structural metaphor” 184 Studies in Tectonic Culture (Frampton) 28, 32 Studio Mumbai 215 Stutchbury, Peter 209 subjectivism 203–204 Suldal Power Station 79, 81 suspension 69 Suzhou 76, 81 Svaneke Water Tower 55, 56

239

Sweden: cultural identity of 62; Danes exiled in, in Second World War xiii, 51; Helsingborg, Elineberg Housing 132, 138; Klippan, St. Peter’s Church 115; low-cost housing competition in Skåne 132; new progressive political, social, and cultural systems from 64; Skåne 62–63, 132; see also Stockholm Switzerland 31, 96, 140 Sydney: Aboriginal cave near Utzon’s offce in 95, 96, 177; Aurora Palace 211; Bayview 89–91, 103; Bennelong Point 145–150, 155, 170; Bilgola Beach 173; Boyd on 90; Indigenous Aboriginal middens in 146; journey from, to site offce at Bennelong point 91; location of 89; Northern Beaches 89–91, 95, 96, 103, 177; Palm Beach, Utzon’s home in 89, 91, 95, 96, 177; Palm Garden House 208; Pittwater 91, 208, 209; Sydney Tram Depot 145–146; Wynyard Station 146; see also Bayview House; Sydney Opera House Sydney Opera House: 1956–1957 competition for 15, 79, 147–152; Aage Utzon and 26, 46, 154, 158; Aalborg Shipyard and 64; Aalto and 68, 68, 150; acoustics of 150, 173–174; additive architecture for 142, 177; analogies in 10, 14, 59, 150, 153–154, 158–162, 172–174; architectural form of 26, 33, 167; Arup on 32; Asplund and 150; assessment of xvii, 10; base for 25; Bennelong Point site 145–150, 155, 170; boat & ship design/ building/repair and 26, 64, 148, 152, 154, 158, 161, 188; Boyd on 89; Broadbent’s order of design methods and 158, 161; cave structures and seating design of 95, 166; Chinese architecture and 76, 149; colonialisation and 159; Concert Hall at Santa Cruz de Tenerife and 160; construction of 1, 158, 188; corridor ceilings of 96; craft skills used in 44; as an exemplar of transcultural essentialism in architecture i; as expressionist architecture 160; external colonnade for 72; “ffth facade” of 147; fnish of the concrete

240

Index

in 25; Foster and 211; Frampton on 136; future development, refurbishments, and redesign of 156–157, 207–208; genius loci of 145; geometry in 25, 130, 158–162, 165, 167, 174–175; Glacier Museum and 207; Goad on 27, 157; Goossens on 145–146; Grand Bazaar in Isfahan and 149, 150; grand public staircase of 18–19, 148; Helsinki Cathedral and 37n65, 148; “Homage to Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach” tapestry for 156; Hughes on 83, 155–156; as an iconic symbol 25, 148, 157–158, 160–162; interior of 127; Islamic architecture and 149; Jencks on 26, 29; Jorn’s ceramic reliefs for 164; Kahn on 171; Langelinie Pavilion design and 150; Le Corbusier’s tapestry for 157; Leplastrier working on 156, 208; Lundberg working on 210; Mayan architecture and 18, 25, 72, 149; metaphors in 10, 25–26, 158–162; model-making and prototyping for 154, 158, 161; Murcutt and 1, 157; Myers on 146; Nayman working on 210; organic architecture in 25, 161; as organic expressionism 175; as “The Other Taj Mahal” 151, 161; Pallasmaa on 205; photograph of 2, 148; Pietilä and 150; platforms, plateaus, and podiums of 138, 146–151, 157, 160–161; “Platforms and Plateaus” on 138; postmodernism and 26, 28, 29; prize money and design fee for 79; public talk by Utzon about 100; Rasmussen on 156; “Red Book” for 68, 68, 79; Rees paintings of 160; Rogers on 211; Saarinen’s sketches for 147, 151–152; sculptural abstraction and technical innovation of 3; seating, Utsep furniture system for 166, 177; as Sydney’s Acropolis 150; team working on 207; tectonics in 10, 157; tectonics integrity in 157, 162; Thompson and 187; timber fooring in 25; transcultural architecture in 10, 25–26, 147–149, 158, 161–163; Utzon as lead architect for 96, 156; Utzon Center and 192; van der Rohe on 70; “Verdens Ende” and 207; vernacular

architecture and 161; water, relation to 25, 67; window mullions of 14, 14, 59, 154, 173; Yingzao Fashi and 51, 76; Yungang Grottoes and 166; see also Sydney Opera House roof “Sydney Opera House, The” (Utzon) 146–148 Sydney Opera House roof: Arup on 152–153; Asian foating roofs and 25, 160; Baha’i Lotus Temple and 161; ceramic tiles for 25, 44, 127, 151, 171; Chinese architecture and 25, 76, 151; cloud motif in 151, 160, 166, 172; construction of 155; Florence Cathedral dome and 155, 161; Friday Mosque’s ceramic clad dome and 149; geometry of 25, 152, 152–153, 161; gilding of 67, 67; gold-colored interior 149; Indigenous Aboriginal middens and 147; metaphoric imagery of 25–26, 148; Mikami on 151–152; Moneo working on 210; orange sections inspiring 25, 101, 153–154; palm leaves inspiring ribbed under-structure of 14, 59, 153–154, 173, 174; paraboloid egg-like 152; platforms, plateaus, and 138; sail-like silhouette of xv, 25, 147; sketch for 67, 152; Stockholm City Hall and 67; tectonics in 160; viewing of 158; Viking longships and 147; wave-like ceiling beneath 173–174; Yingzao Fashi and 76 Sydney Tram Depot 145–146 symbolism 25, 215 Symonds, Ralph 154 Tahiti xiii, 82 Taj Mahal 145 Takasaki Masaharu 168 taksan 32 Taliesin East 70 Tampere 24, 99, 145 Tampere Library 24 Tange, Kenzo 82–83, 141, 208 Tangible Metaphors 23, 182, 184 Tao-tzu, Wu 66 Taut, Bruno 21, 82 Technics and Civilization (Mumford) 30 tectonic culture 28, 29, 32–33 tectonic integrity: adherence to 26, 159–160; architectural phenomenology and 11; Fisker and

Index 159–160; Koolhaas and 212; of Kuwait National Assembly Building 111; in Sydney Opera House 157, 162; in Tietgenkollegiet 212 tectonics: architectural form and 33; in Bagsværd Church 10, 28, 143; Borden on 18–20; of Can Feliz 117; craft skills and 44; critical regionalism and xv, 10; defnition of 33; of Espansiva housing system 85; Frampton on xv, 10, 28; of Fredensborg houses 95; Holl on 33; of Kingo houses 95; in Kuwait National Assembly Building 10, 105, 109; materiality and 33; postmodernism and 33; in Sydney Opera House 10, 157; in Sydney Opera House roof 160; in transcultural architecture xv, 10; transcultural essentialism and 33 Teglsteinhuset 207 Tehran, Melli Bank 101, 103, 103–105, 108, 139, 142 tekton 32 Tenerife, Concert Hall at Santa Cruz de 160 tensegrity structures 214 Teotihuacan 73 “textural metaphor” 184 Thagard, Paul 186 Theorema Egregium 163 Third City, The (Myers) 146 Third Generation of Modern Architects 10, 20, 26–27, 82–83, 104, 136 Thompson, D’Arcy Wentworth xiv, 58, 187 Thorvaldsen, Bertel 169 Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Nietzsche) 21 Tiananmen Square 80 Tietgenkollegiet, student halls of residence 212 Timeless Way of Building, The (Alexander) 128 Tjibaou Cultural Centre 211 Tjøme, “Verdens Ende” 207 Todai-ji temple 83 Tokai University teahouse 86 Tokyo 82 Tokyo Imperial Hotel 82 Tomoya Masuda 208 torii gate 83, 84

241

“Towards a Critical Regionalism” (Frampton) xv, xvii–xviiin10, 10, 28–30, 97–98 Toyo Ito 8, 211, 215 Trades Union High School entry 138, 139 Tranberg, Lene 212 transcultural architecture: in Bagsværd Church 10, 28, 145; Botz-Bornstein on 31; of Can Lis 115; context and 15; courtyards in 10, 133, 136–137; critical regionalism and xv, 98; discussion of Utzon and 97–99; foating roofs in 136; Frampton on 10, 28, 98; Fromonot on 170; of Kahn xiv; Lund on originality of 20; Marotta on 18; nature and 1, 14; Pallasmaa on xv, 32; platforms, plateaus, and podiums in 136; vs. postmodernism 26; vs. realistic architecture 25; vs. regionalist architecture xv; role of 29; in Silkeborg Art Museum project 24; in Sydney Opera House 10, 25–26, 146–149, 158–159, 161–163; tectonics in xv, 10; of Utzon family home 21 Transcultural Architecture (BotzBorstein) 31 transcultural essentialism: analogies and 1, 126, 158, 214–215; architectural form, ideas, and 18; in Bagsværd Church 163; in Can Lis 113; of courtyard typology 136; critical regionalism and xiv–xv; discussion of 11–12, 16–21, 202–215; vs. Featurism 93; of foating roofs 136; on identity 18; imagination and 25; of Ito 215; in Kuwait National Assembly Building 10; metaphor use and 214–215; need for critical 5; as a paradigm in contemporary architecture 9; Sydney Opera House and i; tectonics and 33; in Tietgenkollegiet 212; of Utzon 206–207, 214–215; of Zumthor 215 transculturalism 12, 32–33, 76 “Travel in China” (Rasmussen) 76 “Trends in the Architecture of Today” (Faber & Utzon) 57–58 tulou housing 212 Turkey, Istanbul 211 Turku 212–213, 213

242

Index

TWA Flight Center building 147 TWA Terminal at JFK Airport 151 Tzonis, Alexander xvii–xviiin10, 29–31, 97 Ulm School of Design 189, 191 United Arab Emirates, Dubai 215 United Kingdom, British National Library 210–211 United States (US): 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago 82; Alaska xviin2; Beaux-Arts tradition in xiv; California 30, 71, 140, 141; Korsmo’s trip with Utzon to xiv; Michigan 82; Missouri 211; Nevada 215; New Mexico xviin2; Pennsylvania 100–101; St. Louis Airport 82; Wisconsin 58, 59; see also Hawaii universal architecture 30 universal civilization xv, 28, 30, 98 “Universal Civilization and Natural Cultures” (Ricoeur) 30 universal culture 135, 137 universalism 18, 32 University of California, Berkeley, Art Gallery entry 140, 141 University of Hawaii at Manoa, School of Architecture 96–97, 100–101, 102, 121n87, 206–207 University of Jyväskylä campus 4–8 University of Pennsylvania 100–101 Uno-X company 86, 178 Unseen Utzon exhibition 156 Urban Prospect, The (Mumford) 30 “Use and abuse of metaphor, The” (Berggren) 184 Usonian houses 71, 131 Utopians xiv, 28, 165 Utsep 95, 96, 166, 177, 179 Utzon (Weston) 97, 121n87 Utzon, Aage: at 1930 Stockholm International Exhibition 65; at Aalborg Shipyard 45, 64, 188; boat & ship design/building/repair by 10, 45–47, 60n7, 148, 188; death of 96; infuence of 43, 64; Jørn’s wish to follow in footsteps of 13, 49; model-making and prototyping by 43, 45, 46, 154; nature studies of 47; as a naval architect 45, 188; Sydney Opera House and 26, 46, 154, 158; on timber for sailing boats

24, 37n74, 45; Utzon Center on 45, 60n7, 189 Utzon, Jan: collaborating with 206; at First International Utzon Symposium 9, 9; Herning petrol station roof canopy 154; interviewing 85; in Japan 83; Kuwait National Assembly Building competition presentation models by 108; on parents 21; at University of New South Wales 83; on Utzon Center 192–193; Utzon’s return to Denmark for birth of 52 Utzon, Jørn: 1924 photograph of 45; Aalborg concert hall project 54; Aalto’s infuence on 69; Aarhus sports complex project 56; in Ahlberg’s offce 52; aim of 16; airport, sketch for underground 3, 4; on architects 205; architectural phenomenology of 28–29; on architecture 3, 15, 48–49, 52, 129, 205; on art 3, 48–49; Australian architecture, impact on 157, 209–210; Australian House and Garden article 91–94; as an avantgarde architect 166; as an avantgarde artist 163; Bellahøj housing competition 54; on Bennelong Point 146–150, 170; Birkehøj housing project 140; birth of 45, 63; Can Feliz 60n7, 69, 116, 117, 170; childhood and youth of 45–48, 64–65; on clients and contractors 16; cost-effective pragmatism of 127; crematorium proposal 54, 55; cross-cultural interests of xiv; Crystal Palace competition 56; design methodology of 10, 15; desire to follow in father’s footsteps 13, 49; Elineberg Housing 132, 138; on emancipated rationality xiii; on engineers 16; English spoken in offce of 15, 206; “Essence of Architecture, The” (Utzon) x–xi, 58; essentialist architecture of 8; experiential approach of 42; expressionist architecture and 211; on family home design 21; Farum Town Centre competition entry 104–105, 106, 142, 178, 181; Frederiksberg urban planning competition 132; in Hedquist’s offce 52, 207; Hellebæk house 69, 88, 131, 131, 188; Herning Export College 85, 86, 176, 178, 189, 192; Herning petrol station

Index roof canopy 154; hunting, fshing, and sailing by 14, 47–48, 49, 64, 172; on idea sources 20, 37n65; individuality and modernity of work of 169; Islamic architecture inspiring 69, 103–104; on Jacobsen’s work 23; Japanese architecture, interest in xiv, 53, 82, 83; Jeddah sports complex project 179–181; Kahn and xiii–xiv, 101–102, 102; Kama’aina Apartments 103; Korsmo’s trip to US with xiv; Langelinie Pavilion design 58, 59, 150; Le Corbusier’s material expression admired by 24; Le Corbusier’s meeting with 69; Leplastrier on insight and inspiration of 189; Madrid Opera House 140, 172; marriage of 51; materiality of architecture of xvi, 24; on Mayan architecture xvi, 71–73, 149; Melli Bank 101, 103, 103–105, 108, 139, 142; in Mexico 71–73, 93, 137, 149; Middelboe House 131–132; model-making and prototyping by 1, 43, 46, 127, 188; in Morocco xii, xviin2, 69–70, 103, 108; motto of 158; in PAGON Group xiv, 52; Pallasmaa’s birthday tribute to 7, 205; Paustian furniture store 14, 50, 56, 57, 59; photograph of 14, 27, 87, 95, 190; “Platforms and Plateaus” xvi–xvii, 71–74, 84, 98, 122n91, 138; Pritzker Architecture Prize awarded to 1–2; realistic architecture of 25; regionalist architecture of 31, 32; reputation of 154; on role of architect 16; at Royal Danish Academy of Arts 13, 49–50; Saarinen, visits to 71, 82; during Second World War 51–54, 65, 68, 69, 179; self-portrait of 13; Sonning Prize awarded to 2; in Space, Time and Architecture 26; student research by 50–51; Svaneke Water Tower 55, 56; “Sydney Opera House, The” (Utzon) 146–148; teachers and mentors of xiii, 49–50, 52–53; in Third Generation of Modern Architects 10, 26–27; Trades Union High School 138, 139; Tranberg’s birthday tribute to 212; transcultural essentialism of 206–207, 214–215; “Trends in the Architecture of Today” (Faber & Utzon) 57–58; University of California, Berkeley, Art Gallery 140, 141; at University

243

of Hawaii at Manoa, School of Architecture 96–97, 100–101, 102, 121n87, 206, 207; Utsep 95, 96, 166, 177, 179; at Utzon Center’s initial planning meeting 45, 60n7; Utzon Logbook IV (Bløndal, Nissen, and Utzon) 105–108; visiting siheyuan courtyard houses 79; Wolfsburg Theatre competition 140; working for Aalto 52, 68, 84; World Exhibition competition 138; Zürich Theatre 140; see also Bagsværd Church; Bayview House; Can Lis; dyslexia; Espansiva housing system; Fredensborg houses; Kingo houses; Kuwait National Assembly Building; Silkeborg Art Museum project; Sydney Opera House; Utzon Center Utzon, Kim 9–10, 83–85, 192, 206 Utzon, Lin 77, 83, 86, 145 Utzon, Lis 21, 52, 70–71, 83–84, 92; see also Fenger, Lis Utzon Archive 11, 74, 190–193 Utzon Center: on Aage Utzon 45, 60n7, 189; additive architecture in design of 176, 189–190, 192; on art 189, 191; assessment of 193; Bagsværd Church and 191; on boat & ship design/building/repair 45, 60n7, 189; Can Lis and 191; cloud motif in 191; design of 9–11, 189–192; Espansiva housing system and 86, 192; Herning Export College and 86, 189, 192; initial LEGO concept model of 190; meetings to discuss 45, 60n7, 69, 189; photograph of 191; platforms, plateaus, and podiums of 189, 192; Ulm School of Design and 189, 191; workshops in 10, 189–193 Utzon-Frank, Aksel Einar 49, 75 Utzon Logbook IV (Bløndal, Nissen, and Utzon) 105–108 Utzon Park 95, 96, 177 Utzon Research Center, Aalborg University 9, 9 Utzon’s Sphere (Mikami) 151–152 “Utzon: The Defning Light of the Third Generation” (Sarvimäki) 123n119 Uxmal 71, 149 Valle, Gino 31 van der Rohe, Mies 6–8, 22–23, 26, 70, 131, 206–207

244

Index

van Eyck, Aldo xii, xviin2, 140–141 Vangsnes, Glacier Museum 207 Vasa Museum competition 166 Venturi, Robert 150, 210 “Verdens Ende” 207 vernacular architecture: Aalto and 23; analogies to 136–137, 140; as an ‘architecture of the essential’ 5; of the Australian tin shed in 6; authentic essential integrity of 18; Can Feliz and 117; Can Lis and 115; courtyard houses in 136; courtyard in Meditteranean 112; craft skills and 44, 128; Danish traditional brick as 133; defnition of 4–5; evolution of 128; Fehn and 69, 207; Fredensborg houses and 135; of Kuwait National Assembly Building 111, 163; Le Corbusier and xii, 17; Meditteranean xii, 93; in Middle East 104; modernist architecture and xii, 18; in North Africa xiv, xviin2, 69, 104, 207; Oliver on 4–5; of Pikionis in Greece xii; Sydney Opera House and 161; Utzon’s interest in 127–129; world culture and 5, 129 verticality xvi Via Appia 66 Viipuri Library 173 Viking longships 147 Vilalta, Ramon 214–215 Villa Busk 207 Villa Mairea xiii visual analogies 129, 184 visual metaphor 43, 99, 115, 144–145 Vitruvius, Marcus Pollio 173, 184 Vola fttings 117 von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang xvi Wagner, Ulla 120n62 Wahhabism policy 31 Waisman, Marina 31 Washington University 211 water waves 173 Weston, Richard: on architecture 49, 204; on art 49; on Farum Town Centre competition entry 105; at First International Utzon Symposium 9, 9; on Gehry and Utzon 159; Liu, interview with 121n87; on Melli Bank 105; on Svaneke Water Tower 55; Utzon (Weston) 97, 121n87; on Utzon’s sketch in “Platforms and Plateaus” 98

white architecture 22, 65 Wickberg, Nils Erik 86 Wild Goose Pagoda 81 Wilson, Colin St. John xvii, xviin1, 23, 25, 136, 210–211 Wisconsin, Racine, Johnson Wax Laboratory Tower 58, 59 Wistisen, Preben 55 Wittgenstein, Ludwig xvii, 31 Wolfsburg Theatre competition 140 Woodland Cemetery and Crematorium 53, 65–66, 115 Woolley, Ken 210 world culture 5, 12, 98, 129, 159, 171 World Exhibition complex competition 138 World Fairs xviin7, 82 Wright, Frank Lloyd: in Amerika Bygger exhibition 54; Asian culture infuencing 53–54, 82; Espansiva housing system and 71; Fallingwater 71; Guggenheim Museum (New York) 166, 169; an idealised American mythology in works of 23; infuence of 206; Japanese architecture’s infuence on 82, 88, 142; Japanese woodblock prints collected by 82; Johnson Wax Building 105; Johnson Wax factory offce 129; Johnson Wax Laboratory Tower 58, 59; Langelinie Pavilion design inspiration from 58, 59; Lundberg and Digerud infuenced by 210; Norberg-Schulz on 29; open plan in houses by 71, 142; on organic architecture 174–175; Organic Architecture, An (Wright) 175; Prairie Houses 142; Taliesin East 70; Tokyo Imperial Hotel 82; Usonian houses 71, 131; Utzon’s visit to 71, 175; water lily forms used by 129 Wynyard Station 146 Xi’an 81 Yachting World Keelboat 48 Yamazaki, Minoru 82 Yingzao Fashi: 1919 monochrome edition of 75, 76; 1925 color edition of 76, 81, 98; additive architecture and 76, 142; Grung’s copies of 80; in library of Royal Danish Academy

Index of Fine Arts 50, 75–76; one-story building with double eaves in 98; A Pictorial History of Chinese Architecture on 80; Rasmussen’s use of 76; Sirén’s copy of 75; Sydney Opera House and 51, 76; UtzonFrank’s copy of 75–76 Yoshida, Tetsuro 82, 84, 85 Yucatan 71, 149 Yungang Grottoes: Buddhist sculptures and carvings in 81, 166, 168; description of 165–166; Grung and Utzon’s trip to 79, 80–81; pagodas and 81; photograph of 80, 168; relief of pagoda in 81; Silkeborg Art Museum project and 10, 24, 80, 165–166, 168; Suldal

245

Power Station and 81; Sydney Opera House and 166 Yutang, Lin 77–79 Zarathustra 21 Zeeland 63 Zooamorphic architecture 24 Zui Ki Tei Japanese teahouse: building of 53, 86; infuence of xiii, 99–100; photograph of 53; reconstruction of 86; reference for xviin6; visits to 86; Wagner book on 120n62 zumizuo foundations 98 Zumthor, Peter 8, 204, 215 Zunz, Jack 155 Zürich Schauspielhaus project 96 Zürich Theatre competition 140