Sydney Opera House Roof Tiles

Sydney opera house model.

Sydney opera house roof tiles.

Its interior is composed of pink granite mined from tarana nsw and white birch and brush box plywood supplied from northern nsw. And the finishing tiles. As construction of the podium began in sydney jørn utzon and his team of architects back in hallebaek explored how to build the opera house s shell shaped roof. They were made in sweden.

The sydney opera house s glistening roof is achieved through the use of 1 056 006 roof tiles. Despite their self cleaning nature they are still subject to maintenance and replacement. For such an enormous construction the tiles are not particularly large around 120 mm square. The nature of this challenge was to ensurethe watertightness of the joints between the various components thatformed the roof system.

Sydney opera house was added to unesco s world heritage list in 2007 there are more than 1 million roof tiles covering approximately 1 62 hectares sitting over the structure. Sydney opera house was opened by queen elizabeth ii on 20th october 1973. Even today they are known as the sydney tile. The roof of the sydney opera house has a whopping 1 056 000 glazed white granite tiles that have been imported from sweden.

Glossy off white tiles make up the majority of the tiles used whilst matt bone color tiles are used at edges of tiles panels or at the edges of the shells picture 1 shows this well. The impressive and subtle chevron pattern has glossy white matte cream coloured tiles manufactured by höganäs ab. Like all tiles the tiles on the opera house which have come to be known as the sydney tile are made of fired clay. This is an extract from the publication icons which can be purchased online.

What s more you can buy them to use at home. The connection detail between the elements of the sydney opera house roof was a complex design challenge. The tiles supporting lidswith their fixing brackets. Principal curator matthew connell explores the ideas behind the creation of sydney s most famous building.

Between 1958 and 1962 the roof design for the sydney opera house evolved through various iterations as utzon and his team pursued parabolic ellipsoid and finally spherical geometry to derive the final form of the shells. Timber illustrates the origin of the roof geometry of the sydney opera house designed by jørn utzon made by ove arup and partners england australia 1961 65. Seven a380s could sit wing to wing on the site. The tiles used in the sydney opera house construction are 120mm square.