La vida de un proyecto: la Opera de Sídney The Life of a Design: the Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House has undoubtedly become a work capable of representing its city and, perhaps, Australia as a whole. On the other hand, it is also one of the most unique works of architecture of the third quarter of the 20th century. However, as it is well known, the process that led from Jørn Utzon's brilliant competition entry to the finished work and its international recognition was not without difficulties. This paper explores the process of architectural materialisation, taking the Sydney Opera House as an exemplary case study, and argues that a project need not be a closed, sealed and lifeless document that allows the realisation of a work that has been completely defined beforehand without any kind of alteration; on the contrary, the construction of a work of architecture necessarily implies its transformation in a process of negotiation with multiple parameters, some of them impossible to foresee in advance. Utzon's entry for the Sydney Opera House not only responded to the competition brief but also raised a number of questions. The answer to these questions could only be found through the development of the project.