Utzon: The defining light of the Third Generation

Authors

  • Adrian Carter Bond University
  • Marja Sarvimäki Bond University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_zarch/zarch.2018102933

Keywords:

Utzon, Giedion, Bagsværd, Can Lis, Kuwait National Assembly, Melli Bank, Sydney Opera House

Abstract

In Space, Time, and Architecture, Sigfried Giedion identified Jørn Utzon as one of the proponents and leaders of what Giedion regarded as the Third Generation of modern architecture in the 20th century. This article considers how Utzon subsequently further exemplified in later works the principles Giedion had identified as essential to that Third Generation and discusses, as Giedion did not explicitly, the significance of light in Utzon’s architecture, which plays a key role in underpinning and articulating these defining principles. This article addresses how the principles Giedion attributed to Utzon and his defining consideration of light, derived from his interpretations of his many transcultural sources of inspiration, notably including from, China, Iran, Japan, Hawaii, Mexico, and Morocco, as well as from his own Nordic realm and Europe, as can be seen in the Sydney Opera House, Can Lis in Mallorca, Melli Bank in Tehran, Kuwait National Assembly, and Bagsværd Church in Denmark, among others.

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Author Biographies

Adrian Carter, Bond University

Adrian Carter is a registered architect in Denmark, who has studied at the Portsmouth School of Architecture with Professor Geoffrey Broadbent, at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture in Copenhagen with Professor Jan Gehl and at the University of Cambridge with Professor Dalibor Vessily. As a practising architect, he has worked together with Reima Pietilä in Helsinki, Finland; Niels Torp in Oslo, Norway; Ancher, Mortlock and Woolley in Sydney, Australia; Henning Larsen and Dissing+Weitling in Copenhagen, Denmark. Currently, Head and Professor of Architecture, at the Abedian School of Architecture, at Bond University, Queensland, Australia. He has previously taught at the Aarhus School of Architecture and at Aalborg University in Denmark, where he initiated and became the Director of the Utzon Research Center, and was responsible for the realisation of the Utzon Center building on the Aalborg harbourfront, designed in collaboration with Jørn Utzon. As an expert on the work of Jørn Utzon, he has advised and contributed to the Australian Government’s Department of the Environment and Heritage’s nomination of the Sydney Opera House for World Heritage listing in 2006. In 2016, he was awarded his PhD for his thesis ’The Utzon Paradigm’ at Aalborg University. acarter@bond.edu.au

Marja Sarvimäki, Bond University

Marja Sarvimäki is an Associate Professor at the Bond University’s Abedian School of Architecture in Gold Coast, Australia. Previously she taught architectural history-theory and design studios at the University of Hawaii School of Architecture. She is born in Helsinki, Finland, and earned her MArch and PhD at the Helsinki University of Technology (currently part of the 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 the doctoral dissertation Structures, Symbols and Meanings: Chinese and Korean Influence on Japanese Architecture, which comprised extensive fieldwork in East Asia from 1987 till 1997, her work includes numerous publications on East Asian cultures as well as architectural research methodology; her most recent book Case Study Strategies for Architects and Designers: Integrative Data Research Methods was published by Routledge in June 2017.

References

2005. Jørn Utzon Logbook. Vol. II, Bagsværd Church. Hellerup, Denmark: Bløndal.
Brooks, Geraldine. 2005. Unfinished Business: Jørn Utzon returns to the Sydney Opera House. The New Yorker, October 17.
Carter, Adrian. 2016. The Utzon Paradigm: The Abstraction of Poetic Metaphor and Transcultural Tectonic Analogy. PhD Thesis. Aalborg University.
Drew, Philip. 1999. The Masterpiece. Jørn Utzon. A Secret Life. South Yarra, Victoria, Australia: Hardie Grant Books.
Ferrer Forés, Jaime J. 2006. Jørn Utzon. Obras y proyectos. Works and Projects. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili.
Frampton, Kenneth. 1983. Towards a Critical regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance. In The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Post-Modern Culture, 16-30. Seattle, Washington: Bay Press.
Frampton, Kenneth. 1996. Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Giedion, Sigfried. 1997. Space, Time and Architecture: The growth of a New Tradition. Fifth Edition. Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Hansen, Hans Munk. 2008. The Place is the Partner. In Bløndal, Torsten; Nissen, Børge; Utzon Jørn (eds.). Jørn Utzon Logbook IV/ Kuwait National Assembly. Hellerup, 18-31. Denmark: Bløndal.
Komonen, Markku. 2008. Elements in the Way of Life (interview with Jørn Utzon). In Bløndal, Torsten; Nissen, Børge; Utzon Jørn (eds.). Jørn Utzon Logbook IV/ Kuwait National Assembly. Hellerup, 8-11. Denmark: Bløndal.
Norberg-Schulz, Christian. 1981. Church at Bagsværd. Global Architecture 61.
St John Wilson, Colin. 1995. The Other tradition of Modern Architecture: The Uncompleted Project. London: Academy Editions.
Weston, Richard. 2001. Utzon – Inspiration Vision Architecture. Hellerup, Denmark: Bløndal.
Zarch10-Centenarios

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Published

2018-07-20

How to Cite

Carter, A., & Sarvimäki, M. (2018). Utzon: The defining light of the Third Generation. ZARCH. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Architecture and Urbanism, (10), 88–99. https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_zarch/zarch.2018102933

Issue

No. 10 (2018): Centenaries of the Third Generation

Section

Topic papers