A design can grow like a tree, Jørn Utzon explains: “If it grows naturally, the architecture will look after itself.”
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About his life
Danish architectJørn Utzon was born in 1918. While in secondary school, he began helping his father, director of a shipyard in Alborg, Denmark, and brilliant naval architect, by studying new designs, drawing up plans and making models. This activity opened another possibility—that of training to be a naval architect like his father.
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When he graduated from theAcademy of Fine Artsin 1942, he, like many architects affected by World War II, fled to neutral Sweden where he was employed in the Stockholm office ofHakon Ahlbergfor the duration of the war. He then went to Finland to work withAlvar Aalto.
What are his most famous works?
For various reasons, Utzon resigned as architect to the project in 1966, but theOpera House, which is considered to be one of the most important 20th-century works of architecture, made Utzon world-famous and resulted in his being given commissions far and wide, including the阵线B”ank in Teheran(1963) and theparliament buildingin Kuwait (1978-85).
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In Denmark Utzon has only been responsible for a small number of buildings: in addition to some of the country’s earliest high density low buildings from around 1960, there isBagsværd Church(1977) andPaustian’s furniture store(1987) in the Nordhavn district of Copenhagen. In April 1998 Utzon received the Sonning Award and in May 2003 he won thePritzker Prize.
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His other well known projects include theFredensborg Housing Estate(1959-62), theKingo Housing Estate(1956-58) and theSkagen Nature Center(2001), all in Denmark.
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TheKingo Housesin Helsingør are sixty-three L-shaped houses that were built in rows following the contours of the site, providing views for each house, and access to sunlight and shelter from the wind. The Kingo Houses are often praised for their combination of simplicity and inventiveness.
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What are the main features of Utzon’s style?
Utzon has created a style marked bymonumentalcivic buildings.
He transcends architecture as art and develops his forms into poetic inventions that possess thoughtful programming,structural integrityandsculptural harmony.
Utzon had a Nordic sense of concern fornaturewhich, in his design, emphasized thesynthesis of form, material and function for social values. His fascination with the architectural legacies of theancient Mayas,Islamic world,ChinaandJapanenhanced his vision. This developed into what Utzon later referred to asAdditive Architecture的经济增长模式,比较他的方法nature. A design can grow like a tree, he explained: “If it grows naturally, the architecture will look after itself.”
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info source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B8rn_Utzon#Influence
http://www.archinomy.com/case-studies/268/jorn-utzon-and-his-works
http://www.pritzkerprize.com/2003/bio
http://www.pritzkerprize.com/2003/bio
http://denmark.dk/en/meet-the-danes/great-danes/architects/joern-utzon