Sydney Opera House Roof Tiles

We take fierce pride in its iconic sails arching gracefully above the sun drenched harbour.

Sydney opera house roof tiles. It embodies our ambitions and inspires us all to dream bigger to reach further. Sydney opera house was opened by queen elizabeth ii on 20th october 1973. Utzon s initial sketches showed these as relatively squat free form concrete sail shapes which were to be covered with white tiles. Against all odds we built the sydney opera house.

The sydney opera house is an iconic global landmark immediately recognisable by most of us. Despite their self cleaning nature they are still subject to maintenance and replacement. The opera house s roof is constructed of 1 056 000 glazed white granite tiles imported from sweden. Between 1958 and 1962 the roof design for the sydney opera house evolved through various iterations as utzon and his team pursued parabolic ellipsoid and finally spherical geometry to derive the final form of the shells.

Sydney opera house model. The sydney opera house is a multi venue performing arts centre at sydney harbour in sydney new south wales australia it is one of the 20th century s most famous and distinctive buildings. The roof of the sydney opera house has a whopping 1 056 000 glazed white granite tiles that have been imported from sweden. Finished in 1973 it s considered by many architectural experts to be the greatest building in the world not only for its raw beauty but also because of the way in which it overcame a colossal engineering impasse with apparently unfeasible architecture.

The height of the roof follows the different functions that these spaces serve. Sydney opera house was added to unesco s world heritage list in 2007 there are more than 1 million roof tiles covering approximately 1 62 hectares sitting over the structure. They were made in sweden. The eventual realisation that the form of the sydney opera house s shells could be derived from the surface of a sphere.

On monday 125 000 of the sydney opera house s 1 056 006 tiles go on. Its interior is composed of pink granite mined from tarana nsw and white birch and brush box plywood supplied from northern nsw. They are the 12 centimetre by 12 centimetre ceramic squares that in their own small way embody the ambitions of a nation. Upload a photo and short message to the virtual tile and share it with your friends.

Principal curator matthew connell explores the ideas behind the creation of sydney s most famous building. Seven a380s could sit wing to wing on the site. This is an extract from the publication icons which can be purchased online. The riddle of the shells.

But the shapes didn t work. Though they are meant to be self cleaning in nature they still require maintenance replacement. Timber illustrates the origin of the roof geometry of the sydney opera house designed by jørn utzon made by ove arup and partners england australia 1961 65.