death is a scandal, said elias canetti. I wonder if it feels that way at ninety.
time is a scandal.
to utzon's admirers, the real scandal may well be that the great man ended his career so early in life.
after the sydney debacle and within only a few years, utzon produced a line of brilliant and still neglected projects that sought to apply the lessons learnt from his australian experiments in prefabrication and complex geometry. in them, he demonstrated that the site-specific, human, even ecstatic approach of aalto and frank lloyd wright could be realized with the rational tools of industrial production proposed by the bauhaus - the two opposite traditions of modernist architecture reconciled in a single man's work.
all contradictions can be temporarily reconciled with the application of infinite energy - and utzon's energy and invention seemed infinite in these projects.
alas, precious little was built.
the zürich theatre was cancelled only after they had started clearing the ground and picasso and arp had sketched out the art work that was to be integrated with the structure; the school in herning never went beyond the prototype you can still visit; the stage in lebanon shown here fell victim to the civil war; even a museum to his old friend asger jorn was given to another architect after utzon had produced two profoundly original projects, the second one even cheap to build.
I remember coming across an interview with one of the people responsible for the asger jorn museum. he had overheard utzon commenting on one of jorn's wild paintings that he dreamt of working with the same freedom. there was no way we could have given the commission to such an irresponsible man, said the dignitary, they had to give the project to an architect who could deliver in time and on budget.
they couldn't have been more wrong. no one remembers a project for being on time.
when the national assembly in kuwait was cancelled in the late seventies, utzon called it quits and closed down his office. according to people near him, he quoted asplund who had said (and this is possibly apocryphal) that architecture isn't worth dying for when he had worn himself out at only 55.
and when the kuwaitis returned, utzon's oldest son was left in charge with the architect himself acting merely as an advisor. that was the part he played for the rest of his life, an advisor to his two architect sons. helping to give them the successful career he had never had and lending his name to projects that to my mind were not worthy of it.
utzon, the architect's architect, finally placed his family above personal ambition. what is there not to admire about this man.
the photo shows one of utzon's unbuilt post-sydney works,
subterranean theatre, jeita grotto, lebanon 1968.
architect: jørn utzon, 1918-2008.
this steel structure was intended as an underground stage, inserted into the jeita caves in lebanon. the civil war put an end to it. some of you may recognize the interior of calatrava's recent auditorio de tenerife, reminding us that in a strange way utzon's time is now - even if his many unbuilt ideas will be realized by other architects.
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Thompson Photography 2 months ago | reply
It is indeed odd that he (or potential clients?) have kept a distance from smaller-scale housing projects. As far as I know, he has only one to his credit. And that was designed rather early in his career. And, yes, his buildings are expensive. Very expensive. I read somewhere that the CAS campus cost well over a billion dollars. The final building in the ensemble, known as the Agora, has not been 100% completed because of budget issues (according to a contact here on Flickr who lives in Valencia).
Despite that, his buildings have a grace, beauty, daring and organic quality which really draws me in!
Matthew-1 2 months ago | reply
I've seen a few Calatrava bridges in Spain, and his large complex in Valencia, but the most memorable project I've seen by him is the BCE Galleria in Toronto. It is a long interior atrium space linking a string of new and restored buildings and is in fact very respectful of context (and integrated seamlessly into) while at the same time being monumental and unapologetically bold.
I think your brain is right in holding the designer to account seir+seir, as every architect must be, but the man is a major architectural talent.
seier+seier 2 months ago | reply
well, I am sorry, but I have to agree :)
I would never question his talent or even the fact that some buildings should be allowed to be very, very costly. but some of the values that underlie his works - and his clients, of course - I am not in agreement with those.
again, the early works appear different to me - I have always wanted to see the galleria in toronto. it looks wonderful and even organically integrated in its context.
are some of his structures - and the architect himself, perhaps - the victim of his age? of the false idea that endless investment in spectacular infrastructure will somehow pay off? (well, spain, did it?) and of the noise and bling of the bubble economy? what would someone with calatrava's talent beginning his or her career do today?
Matthew-1 2 months ago | reply
Excellent question, he began in Europe at an opportune time without a doubt.
I think in southern Europe or the USA, that beginning talent would be lucky to even have a job given the obvious inter-generational ponzi scheme that is playing itself out now.
I could never understand how Spain could afford all that cultural investment, or how unskilled Americans could afford big new houses.
It was all a chimera as we now know, and I think we have only seen the beginning of the ultimate consequences. Architects are not to blame for this however, they only responded to the powers that rule the roost as they can only ever do.