Adam made this 4-minute video for Sydney Opera House's Greening the House program in late 2014. It shows how Jørn Utzon’s architectural design principles established a path towards sustainability for the House.
"By being in contact with our surroundings, we find our way into architecture's innermost being… The true innermost being of architecture can be compared with that of nature's seed.” — Jørn Utzon (1918-2008)
In designing the Sydney Opera House, architect Jørn Utzon was took a leaf from nature's book. The Utzon Design Principles cite inspiration from sources including the harbour setting and nature's organic forms, colours and textures. Headlands, palm leaves, snow & ice, shells, clouds, waves, ribs — these are some of the diverse elements that can be recognised in this remarkable example of organic architecture (additive architecture, to use Utzon's term). Though constructed 1959-73 the building includes many features that are today recognised as hallmarks of sustainable design.
"I have made a sculpture… when you pass around it or see it against the sky… something new goes on all the time… together with the sun, the light and the clouds, it makes a living thing.”
Filmmaker: Adam Sébire
Producer: Naomi Martin
Music: "Green Leaf" and "Eliza's Aria"
from The Wild Swans (Suite from the Ballet) by Elena Kats-Chernin
used by permission from Boosey & Hawkes, London.