Opera House Revamp Raises Questions of Form vs. Function
Announcement posted by DesignBuild Source 13 Jul 2012
While architectural icons are often so named due to their function as a cultural asset, their aesthetic plays a big part in the public’s acceptance and admiration of them.
Most can quickly name and recognise architecture that represents national pride, and more often not recognise foreign icons. The Empire State Building, the Shard and, perhaps most relevantly to an Australian community, the Sydney Opera House stand as buildings of this calibre.
However, according to Sydney architect Ken Woolley, a professor at the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, the architectural integrity of Australia’s most iconic built space may be challenged in order to allow for a functional upgrade.
In the Australian, Woolley spoke of an acoustics upgrade currently being undertaken at the Sydney Opera House. This includes, as he explains, replacing ‘serrated timber batten paneling at the front of (concert hall) boxes’ with a ‘bland white sheet.’
Woolley explains that these upgrades are being undertaken as a result of a mistake made by original acoustics consultant Vilhelm Jordan which has resulted in diffraction grating, or ‘a blurring of high frequency sounds at the rear of the auditorium.’
The Sydney architect believes that not only are the works unnecessary but they will ‘destroy the architecture quality of the room and are foreign to its layout.’