Sydney Opera House Tile Roof Structure

Seven a380s could sit wing to wing on the site.

Sydney opera house tile roof structure.

Sydney opera house model. The roof of the sydney opera house has a whopping 1 056 000 glazed white granite tiles that have been imported from sweden. Sydney opera house was opened by queen elizabeth ii on 20th october 1973. They re laid out not as squares but rather as diamond shapes and although from a distance the opera house appears to be white there are actually two tile colours and textures on display glossy white and matt cream.

For such an enormous construction the tiles are not particularly large around 120 mm square. 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. This is an extract from the publication icons which can be purchased online. Principal curator matthew connell explores the ideas behind the creation of sydney s most famous building.

The roof structure consists of over 2 400 precast arch units placed on cast in situ concrete pedestals. The impressive and subtle chevron pattern has glossy white matte cream coloured tiles manufactured by höganäs ab. They were made in sweden. As construction of the podium began in sydney jørn utzon and his team of architects back in hallebaek explored how to build the opera house s shell shaped roof.

Though they are meant to be self cleaning in nature they still require maintenance replacement.