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 worked with Jørn Utzon the ten years prior to his death on Opera House modifications. [see SAW2] The fruit of this collaboration is ongoing, both in Richard's work and at the Opera House itself.

cost > $25 concession / $35 adult
when > See dates FOr timetable + booking info

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 Dane'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 Sydney Opera House. You will discover the influence of towering 20thC figures like Le Corbusier, 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 irascible 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, Utzon's design of the acoustic interiors, glass walls and furniture, much of it ready for construction before he left in '66, will be discussed and you can judge for yourself how much Sydney lost when he was forced to leave the building half-finished.

SAW2 finishes with the current Opera House refurbishment, a decade-long collaboration between Utzon, his architect son Jan and Sydney architect Richard Johnson.

cost > $25 concession / $35 adult
when > See dates FOr timetable + booking info

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.

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 at 12.30pm. Please allow a 10–15 minute walk back to Circular Quay.

cost > $25 concession / $35 adult
when > See dates FOr timetable + booking info

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.

SAW 4 concludes at the Andrew 'Boy' Charlton Pool on Mrs Macquaries Road, the Domain so bring your swimmers. 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).

when > Custom walk only

If you have a special request, particular interest or certain arrangments you need met email us for a custom tour: info@sydneyarchitecture.org

SAW guides are enthusiastic and extremely well informed. They are snappy dressers and they have degrees in architecture. They are also very keen to show off their city.

See Newspaper Reviews for feedback in the national and international press.