Architectural competitions offer opportunities to see one’s ideas realized and to see and study the world. This exhibition, “Utzon Unbuilt” focuses on two unbuilt works, Schauspielhaus in Zurich and the Madrid National Opera House, by Danish Architect Jørn Utzon, famously known as the architect of the Sydney Opera House. On display are student entries entered in a competition entitled Utzon UNBUILT, organized by the Utzon Center in collaboration with the Spar Nord Foundation. The installation was created by Wentworth’s M. Arch students enrolled in ARCH 9700: Investigations in Nordic Architecture, taught by Professor John Ellis.

For the competition students reinterpreted Utzon’s work, creating animated videos, renderings and models. To understand Utzon’s design process students analyzed the drawings, writings and artifacts Utzon left behind and researched the site and cultural influences at the time.

The hope is that a new generation of architects will begin to understand Utzon’s ideas and share knowledge of the unbuilt works and apply them in a contemporary context. The installation includes videos, architectural models, brochures and a display of topical books from the Schumann Library collection.

We invite you to a celebration and opening reception on Friday, April 26 at 3:00 p.m. in the Guarracino Gallery.

The exhibit opens on April 22 and will run through June 20, 2019.  Please join us for an opening reception in the Guarracino Gallery on April 26 at 3:00 p.m.

Slides that accompany the models and books:

We encourage you to browse or borrow books about Utzon on display from the Schumann Library collection:

Beim, Anne. Tectonic Visions in Architecture. Copenhagen: Kunstakademiets Arkitektskoles Forlag, 2004.

Drew, Philip, and Anthony Browell. Sydney Opera House: Jørn Utzon. London: Phaidon Press, 1995.

Frampton, Kenneth, and John Cava. Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1995.

Kjeldsen, Kjeld, Mette Marcus, and Kirsten Degel. Jørn Utzon: The Architects Universe. Humlebaek, Denmark: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2008.

Tyrrell, Arthur. Aalto, Utzon, Fehn: Three Paradigms of Phenomenological Architecture. New York, NY: Routledge, 2018.

For more information contact libraryexhibits@wit.edu.