Jorn Utzon and Professor Romaldo Giurgola, the architects responsible for two of Australia’s most iconic buildings havel been honoured at a special ceremony at Sydney University where they were awarded honorary degrees.
The Danish architect Jorn Utzon won the international competition for the design of the Sydney Opera House in 1957. He worked on the project in Denmark until 1963 and then spent the years until 1966 in Australia before resigning in controversial circumstances. In 1999 Utzon accepted a brief from the Sydney Opera House Trust as a design consultant to prepare a statement of Design Principles that address the future needs of the Opera House while at the same time safeguard the integrity of his vision.
Professor Romaldo Giurgola is internationally acclaimed as one of the most distinguished architects in Australia. Educated at the University of Rome and Columbia University, he created one of the world’s leading architectural firms - Mitchell/Giurgola - with offices in many parts of the world including Mitchell/Giurgola and Thorpe Architects in Sydney and Canberra. The firm is responsible for a wide range of award-winning civic, cultural, commercial and educational buildings in the major cities of Italy, the US, Sweden, Singapore and Australia.
In 1980 Professor Giurgola won the open design competition for Australia’s new Parliament House from 329 entries, and came to Australia at the invitation of the Federal Government. Since then he has remained here and become and Australian citizen. Although officially retired, he continues an active involvement with his firm in Australia and overseas, and serves on the National Planning Authority in Canberra.
Utzon was represented at the ceremony by his son Jan, also an architect, who is currently working on the Opera House refurbishment.
Source: Building Products News.