SAW 1 – Sydney
Moving from the broad to the particular, the historic to the contemporary, SAW1 conjures a heady urban narrative revealing the social, cultural and topographic patterns and forces which have shaped Sydney. We will concentrate on two contemporary iconic structures; Aurora Place and Governor Phillip and Macquarie Towers, and the work of three architects; Renzo Piano, Richard Johnson & Jørn Utzon.
Renzo Piano is a virtuoso in the world of architecture and someone deeply imbued with a craftsman's sense of materials. The Aurora Place office and apartment buildings are his first Australian and his first high-rise structures.
Our study of these remarkable buildings works on many levels. We will explain Piano's environmental and social agenda, the irony of using a suburban–inspired material palette in the most corporate of environments, and the ways in which his apartment building does at a large scale what Aussie icon Glenn Murcutt does at a small scale in terms of specific environmental response. You will also discover the many subtle and intriguing ways in which Piano establishes a dialogue with the grand old lady down the road; his soaring ghostly–white facades playing mainsail to Utzon's billowing spinnakers.
The black-suited Melbourne firm Denton Corker Marshall's tall, dark and handsome Governor Phillip Tower + Museum of Sydney will be explored, the ideas and concepts behind the buildings discussed. The building was designed by Richard Johnson who with Utzon and his architect son Jan, is slowly realising modifications to the Opera House interior [see SAW2].
> Led by Eoghan
> when > Every Wednesday at 10.30 am. See dates for our full timetable + details. To download upcoming dates as a pdf click here. To download SAW routes map click here
Related articles
>Renzo Piano
 
SAW 2 – Utzon
Both an in-depth and textured portrait of enigmatic Danish architect Jørn Utzon, as well as the story of the 20th Centuries greatest architectural project, SAW2 draws the listener into the amazing visionary world of the architect of the Sydney Opera House.
His work was beautiful yet transcended the purely aesthetic. He worked hard yet projected the image of a balanced life. He benefited from ancient precedents whilst formulating innovation, proclaimed himself a 'builder' more than an architect, and prior to his ground breaking competition victory in 1957, he had only ever built a few small houses.
Discussing the sources of the young architect's deepest inspiration, his working methods and influences, we chart the development of Utzon's ideas and their realisation in the platform, concrete shells and ceramic skin of his Sydney Opera House. You will discover the influence of towering 20thC figures like LeCorbusier, Alvar Aalto, Eero Saarinen, Mies van der Rohe and even Picasso on Utzon's ideas, his strong connection to the brilliant & enigmatic Antonio Gaudi, as well as the ways in which his work was at once utterly contemporary yet drew many of its ideas from the architecture of the ancients.
Booted out in 1966 by the irrascible Askin government, Utzon considered the six years he spent developing the interiors of the House, none of which were realised, the most productive of his career. Using discarded drawings and models, the unrealised acoustic shells and Utzon's hanging curtains of bronze & glass will be revealed, and you can judge for yourself how much Sydney lost when he was forced to leave the building half-finished. Malice in blunderland* indeed!
SAW2 finishes with the new Utzon interiors, some of which are complete and others still on the drawing board.
* A bitter pun summarising the situation surrounding Utzon's forced resignation | Jørn Utzon
> Led by Eoghan
> when > Every Saturday at 10.30 am. See dates for our full timetable + details. To download upcoming dates as a pdf click here. To download SAW routes map click here
Related sites Related articles
>Utzon Associates
>Unfinished Business
>Sydney Opera House >Encore Maestro
>Wolanski Foundation >Return of the Master Builder
>2003 Pritzver Prize Laureate >Utzon remasters his vision
>Kingo Houses >Utzon Breaks his Silence
>Utzon Sketches >Utzon gives Opera House...
>Max Dupain photographs  
 
SAW 3 – Harbourings
Join us on this stroll around Sydney's spectacular harbour edge, from Circular Quay, through the city's great depository of memory, The Rocks, up Observatory Hill and on to Walsh Bay. The route is diverse, spectacular and full of surprising recent projects as well as gritty historical reminders of the cities industrial/maritime past.
Getting beyond the post–card view of the city and its two shimmering icons, SAW 3 reveals the city at her rawest and most spectacular, her most self–conscious and most corrupt. Beginning with Circular Quay, where the powerful forces of commerce are held back from the harbour by that bland concrete motorway – the Cahill Expressway – we will discuss Utzon's vision for the Quay, controversial plans for the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Toaster and explore the beautiful ferry terminal conversion by Queensland duo Lindsay + Kerry Clare. The radical Sirius Apartment building by Tao Gofers and Lippmann Associates KGV Sports Hall will also be discussed.
SAW 3 focuses on the breathtaking early 20th Century Walsh Bay Finger Wharves, a family of timber wharves and shore sheds that extend out into Sydney's harbour. They are the largest timber structures in the world, romantic symbols of Sydney's maritime history and the first structures in Australia to be nominated as a World Heritage Site! Over the last few years the wharves and shore sheds have been reworked into a modern residential + cultural precinct by Bates Smart and HPA with the help of renowned French architect Phillipe Robert. We will move through this incredible development and discuss the ideas and issues behind their re–development.
SAW3 concludes at Walsh Bay so please allow a 10–15 minute walk back to Circular Quay.
> Led by Eoghan
> when > See dates for our full timetable + details. To download upcoming dates as a pdf click here. To download SAW routes map click here
 
SAW 4 Public: Art, Place & Landscape *
SAW4 examines the city through its evolving attitude to the design of it's public domain, and the elements that they contain; art, architecture and landscape.
For the Eora people, the trees were an embracing home. For Europeans these same trees were full of mystery, shadows and darkness. Starting in the modern forest of concrete, skyscrapers and hard paved surfaces at Edge of Trees by Janet Laurence and Fiona Foley, we walk outwards to the green harbour wedge, through the Domain to the waters edge of Woolloomooloo Bay. The translucent Veil of Trees by Janet Laurence and Jisuk Han is the bookend.
We will map a living history on contemporary architectural, sculptural and urban projects, considering the role of art, architecture and design in the creation of some of Sydney's best loved and most used public spaces. Particular attention will be paid to projects by Lin Utzon, Brett Whiteley, Janet Laurence, Hossein Valamanesh, Lippmann Associates, Simeon Nelson, City Projects, Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, Harry Seidler, Tom Bass & Hassell Architects. We will also look at the new Art Gallery of NSW Asian Galleries extension by Johnson Pilton Walker.
> bring your swimmers > SAW 4 concludes at the Andrew 'Boy' Charlton Pool on Mrs Macquaries Road, the Domain. Please allow 20 mins return walk to either St James, Martin Place or Circular Quay train stations. Pool entry is $5 for adults, and the pool is open until 8pm (October–April). Changerooms and lockers available. The 440 Sydney Buses route to Rozelle via the QVB departs from the front of the pool. Download bus timetable here.
> Led by Simeon
> when * This walk runs infrequently and on request.
See dates for our full timetable + details. To download upcoming dates as a pdf click here. To download SAW routes map click here
Related sites  
> Dom Baths and ABC Pool  
> Sydney Sculpture Walk  
 
Custom, group & private walks
If you have a special request, particular interest or certain arrangments you need met – email SAW for a custom tour. All our walks are led by knowledgable and passionate architects, keen to show off their city. We regularly organise itineraries and tours for interstate and international groups as well as visiting University and high-school groups both within the city and to sites further afield.
Be sure to include the following information so we can quote you accurately: the size of your group, date, time, duration, telephone number, email and your specific areas of interest.
See reviews to get a clearer idea of what we offer.

 

Get SAW feet
Sydney will never look the same again!

For bookings phone +61 2 8239 2211
to contact us directly email info@sydneyarchitecture.org
web site & images by SAW
Copyright 2000 Sydney Architecture Walks
updated March 2008

 

GO TO:
SAW 1 -- SYDNEY
SAW 2 - UTZON
SAW 3 - HARBOURINGS
SAW 4 - ART, PLACE & LANDSCAPE
Custom Walks
WHEN
every wednesday and saturday at 10.30am with occasional walks scattered throughout the month. see dates for upcoming walks or download our winter timetable [900kb pdf]
MEET
all walks start at the museum of sydney (MoS), corner bridge & phillip street's, sydney - one block south of circular quay station. allow at least 2 hours for each walk. download map [900kb pdf]
COST
$25 / $20 concession + hht members [includes entry to MoS]
CUSTOM WALKS
we are happy to arrange walks around your particular interests and time frame. at SAW we are all architects. click here for more information on group walks.
 

i like fighting gravity. magic is essential in architecture
[renzo piano]

god help us all! i suppose this reckless design was chosen because it exhibits neither rhyme nor reason for it's purpose. this circus tent is not architecture but absurd effloresence
[frank lloyd wright | when asked about utzon's winning design in the sydney opera house competition | 1957 | see SAW2]

an inorganic fantasy that confirms the folly of competitions
[frank lloyd wright | again! | see SAW2]
nothing more than a magnificent doodle
[robert hughes | on utzon's competition drawings for the sydney opera house | see SAW2]
the danish gary cooper, only better looking!
[australian womens weekly describing the striking 38 year-old, 6b-wielding, opera house architect jørn utzon on his arrival to sydney | see SAW2]
looking at a gothic church, you never get tired, you will never be finished with it - when you pass around it or see it against the sky. it is as if something new goes on all the time and it is so important - the interplay is so important that together with the sun, the light and the clouds, it makes a living thing
[joern utzon | in zodiac 14 | see SAW2]
and then came jørn utzon - a man of great dignity and deep intelligence. he seemed able to reduce the most complicated issues to simple terms - an essential drawing of the opera house could be on your thumbnail. his appreciation of natural phenomena was acute. he was able to transpose these qualities into architecture without direct imitation. he grew up in the reflected light of the shipyard in aalborg, with his naval architect father, so his understanding of complex curved forms was complete. he taught me to read the sections of a yacht hull by shifting stance off its centre line - and he talked of harmony. but above all he understood the power of the ancient "sites", whose original use have been lost and exist now, entirely unto themselves as places of great beauty. places of les murray's "perpetual dimension". jørn utzon has made one for us in sydney.
[richard leplastrier | 2004 spirit of nature | award acceptance speech]
human beings experience their surroundings in different degrees. if you have an extreme sensitivity to the impact of light and shapes, and the colour and space that surrounds you, then you have the inherent qualities of an architect or artist
[jørn utzon]
the concept requires the structure + architecture to be one
[jørn utzon | sydney opera house architect | see SAW2]
the sun did not know how beautiful it's light was, until it was reflected off this building
[louis kahn | referring to the ceramic skin of the sydney opera house]

"Sometimes I have thought I could wear some lipstick and a wig and go back to Australia as a woman. I would really like to see it but I would say it is very different from what I designed. I have seen many pictures and it's a completely different building. It is impossible to finish the design. This cannot be done. They would have to tear down a hell of a lot of things and close the Opera House down for some years. This would not be fair to the people of Sydney."
[jørn utzon | october 31, 1992. see winter]

Sydney's White Elephant?
the sydney morning herald (smh), june 1962
Opera House Estimate Ludicrous
the daily mirror, august 1962
Utzon Given Deadline
the sun, july 1964
State Govt. Gravely Concerned
smh, september 1965
Angry Clash On Fee
smh, march 1966
Opera House Would Never Be Finished: Hughes
smh, march 1966
Secret Talk With Utzon Collapses
the daily telegraph, march 1966
Exit Mr Utzon
smh, april 1966
[newspaper archives of the day testifying to the hysteria whipped up by liberal leader askin and his chief utzon head-kicker, the irascible country party member for armidale (later sir) davis hughes]
well things have changed. the time of utzon would be, is over. utzon today would have been jailed or tarred and feathered even more than he was. ah and thrown out. i mean, unless you perform on time, on cost, within the politics and the social aspirations of the community, you’re dead
[philip cox | see in the mind of the architect for full abc transcript]

nature is the great book, always open, that we should force ourselves to read.
[antonio gaudi | quoted in barcelona by robert hughes ] 

architecture is not an art independent from reality. real architecture, real painting, real poetry, real music is never detached from physicality. architecture is at the edge, between art and anthropology, between society and science, technology and history. sometimes memory, too, plays a part. architecture is about illusion and symbolism, semantics, and the art of telling stories
[renzo piano  | see SAW1]
i'm not interested in an australian architecture at all... i am far more interested in an architecture that responds to place, culture, technology and climatic conditions... and i care about all those things very deeply. there is also cultural context and availability of materials. once we better understand these issues we might produce something that responds to the place for very tangible, clear reasons. this doesn't make it an australian architecture
[glenn murcutt | steel profile | june 2002]
glenn murcutt's a top bloke (but a crazy driver)
[troppo's phil harris + adrian welke]
for this is how we experience this
sydney place; from oblique angles and
in–between spaces; from the edges of sydney’s ever–shifting shapes, shadows and moods. its palimpsest layers, fragments of the unbuilt and the unbuildable; its sensuous materiality of rich textures highlighted by the shifting patterns of sydney light and shade; its strange wounded beauty of
rawness, toughness and even carelessness
about its fragile nature and the scars and stains of weathering past lives and tempests.
[dr peter emmett | sydney - metropolis, suburb, harbour] 
a pastry usually tastes better if it looks nice. a cream pastry, now that looks nice - in fact, there is nothing I mind as long as it looks nice.
[arne jacobsen]

[sydney's] harbour is nothing more than an operatic diva, reflecting back images of our banal desire.
[paul carter | see SAW3]

well I think that the only art that politics knows is the art of compromise, right, and in space terms and light terms and form terms, i think with the architect there should be no compromise, but it’s a fine line between being confident in expressing oneself beautifully through form and life of a city and so forth, and arrogance. i think one has to have the confidence to do it properly, but one should never be arrogant and lose sight of the whole sort of human drama because that’s at the heart of it all. if one doesn’t appreciate - and appreciate means to make better over time - the human drama, the dance of life, then i think all is lost
[richard leplastrier]