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Jørn Utzon 1918 - 2008
Photo: Jan Utzon
The following was written by Jan Utzon on his way home from Australia.
"It is with great sadness that I have to inform you that my father, Jørn Utzon, passed away on November 29, 2008.
He lived a full life, all of the 90 years that he was given among us. He had a wonderful life for 66 years with my mother. He was a wonderful and inspiring father for us children, and he was a great and gifted architect.
I think back on my life with my father with great joy and love. To be allowed to spend so much time together with such a remarkable man, father and architect, has been a great privilege indeed.
He was the most positive person I’ve ever met. He never talked about things or people he did not like. Always only positively about what interested him. He hated gossip and slander. He often spoke with great enthusiasm about the heroes in his profession, about the many wonderful people in music and arts that he loved, about people with noble character, whatever their status in our society. He was the ever inquisitive person. Nothing escaped his keen eye. He observed the world around him with extraordinary clearness.
From all these sources of inspiration, be it the pyramids of Mexico, the temple compounds of China, the half-timbered farms of Denmark, the branch of a tree, the leaf on a flower, a stone from the beach, the pattern in the snow, the slant of the sunlight, from music, sculpture, paintings and the humanistic thinking by great philosophers, he created a world of his own, a legacy of great and modest buildings that are ours to enjoy, far beyond his lifetime.
At home he was forever the playful and inspiring father and husband. Time was never boring in his company. He always had something to tell. Something he had seen on his way through the forest, somebody he had met, an idea he was developing, forever drawing the rest of the family into his wonderful world of ideas and ideals.
He also had time to play. He and my mother took us sailing and skiing from a very early age. Whenever there was ice on the nearby lake, he was the first person to go skating. We travelled extensively and they supported us in all our interests, and gave us the most wonderful childhood imaginable.
When I talk to the many persons who have worked with him, be it architects or persons in other professions, I am struck by the positive recollection they have of their time with my father.
I see my father as a happy boy whose energy, zest for life and compassion for his fellow-man enriched the lives of everyone he was in touch with. The underlying humane spirit in the buildings he created has contributed very positively to the lives of everyone who are the fortunate users of these buildings, and will do so in many years to come.
Apart from losing a husband and father, we have lost a great creative spirit. However, through his work, his ideas and ideals and his love for his family and his fellow man, he will live on in our minds and our hearts."
Lis, Lin, Kim and Jan
Born April 9, 1918, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Jørn Utzon graduated from the city's Academy of Arts in 1942. He worked in the offices of Swedish architects Paul Hedquist and Gunnar Asplund and later with Aalto in Finland, before he established his own office in Copenhagen in 1950.
Utzon won the competition for the Sydney Opera House in 1956. The building, with its distinctive white roof shells resembling sails, is perched on the edge of Sydney Harbour.
Photo: Benjamin Johnston
He received the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2003.
“Utzon’s work shows the world that he has been there and beyond - he proves that the marvelous and seemingly impossible in architecture can be achieved. He has always been ahead of his time. He rightly joins the handful of Modernists who have shaped the past century with buildings of timeless and enduring quality.”
The Pritzker Prize jury
He also designed the National Assembly building in Kuwait City. Constructed between 1971 and 1983, the parliament building is made of concrete and its shape evokes a series of large tents, traditional meeting places for the Bedouin nomads that live in Kuwait.
Sketch courtesy Utzon Foundation
Utzon won several awards for his work, including the Order of Australia in 1985 and the Sonning Prize for contributing to European culture in 1988.
Utzon and his sons, Kim and Jan, also designed several projects in partnership.
He is survived by his wife and their three children, Kim, Jan and Lin, and several grandchildren.
“It is a great honor and wonderful feeling to be appreciated by one’s colleagues. To have been allowed to create something that enriches the lives of my fellow human beings is a wonderful gift.”
Jørn Utzon
Jørn Utzon arcspace features, sketches and books
November 30, 2008