Ove Arup

Sir Ove Nyquist Arup is ranked among the foremost architectural structural engineers of his time.

Born in 1895, he witnessed firsthand the extraordinary transformations modernity wrought during the 20th century – transformations to which he demonstrably contributed through his great influence on architecture and engineering.

Arup had a complex and pivotal role in the story of the Sydney Opera House. He was mentor and friend to Utzon, lead engineer, deft businessman and project manager, as well as a champion for the synthesis of engineering and architecture and the quest to create a perfect building – all of these roles were wrapped up in an eccentric, energetic man.

That central role is reflected in the UNESCO listing, which describes the Sydney Opera House as “a great architectural work of the 20th century that brings together multiple strands of creativity and innovation in both architectural form and structural design. A great urban sculpture set in a remarkable waterscape, at the tip of a peninsula projecting into Sydney Harbour, the building has had an enduring influence on architecture.”

After reading in the Times of London of the winning design for a national opera house in Sydney, Ove Arup wrote to Utzon to congratulate him and offer the services of his firm, Ove Arup and Partners.

Two days after Arup penned his letter, Utzon flew to London and met with two of the competition judges, the head of architecture at Cambridge University, Sir Leslie Martin, and eminent American architect Eero Saarinen (pictured), to discuss the way forward.

During these discussions, Martin suggested Ove Arup and Partners for the engineering, and introduced Jørn and Ove for the first time. Weeks later Utzon agreed to work with Arup.

Arup's top engineers spent an extraordinary amount of time and effort over approximately three years to find a solution to Utzon’s design for the roof of the Sydney Opera House.

In this detail from the Red Book in 1958, we see evidence of Arup’s concerns for the structural integrity of the roof design. From the beginning of their collaboration, Arup gently encouraged Utzon to pursue a geometry that would allow for repetition and therefore prefabrication.

However, Utzon remained convinced and encouraged in his conviction by Arup’s partner, Ronald Jenkins, that a shell structure with the smooth finish of an egg, as in his competition drawings, would be possible, despite the unique form required for each shell.

As early as 1958, Arup had suggested that the soffits of the shells (their interior surface), be ribbed to strengthen and articulate them. By June 1961, three years into the design of the roof, Jenkins, a senior partner at Arup, was dismissed from the project by Arup himself. Both men were frustrated that an appropriate engineering solution to Utzon's forms had still not been found.

Jenkins, a renowned mathematician and recognised expert on shell structure, never worked again.

Architect Yuzo Mikami, who worked for both Utzon and Arup during the project of the Sydney Opera House, recounts a summer afternoon in Utzon’s home town of Hellebæk, Denmark, when Utzon challenged Arup to cut a birthday cake into 17 even pieces.

According to Mikami: “[Ove] cut the whole cake into four parts, one slightly larger than the rest. Next, the smaller ones were cut into four equal pieces, and the larger one into five, all exactly the same angle, thus completely identical …

“A couple of years later, in the development of the roof geometry, a sphere was cut into 98 identical rib pieces, thus making the roof finally buildable through an industrialised building method which was advocated by Ove Arup.”

Arup’s signature design contribution to the Sydney Opera House, aside from his work on the roof, was the flowing form of the Concourse beams that support the Monumental Steps and reach up into the building, ending in the foyers of the concert and opera halls.

Pictured here in the Utzon Room, one of only two internal spaces of the Sydney Opera House finished to Utzon's design and specifications, the form dominates – a reflection of how valued a contribution to the finished building it was considered by the architect.

In Utzon's submission sketches, it was suggested that the Concourse area under the Monumental Steps would require some form of colonnade to support the weight of the structure above. When Arup saw this detail, he dismissed the need for the columns, describing instead the undulating shape of the now famous Concourse beams.

The beams, in their final design, so successfully dispersed moments of stress that no additional vertical support was necessary. They provide a beautiful and dramatic sweeping form to the underside of the Monumental Steps, which continues up through the levels of entrance finishing just under the beginning of the vaulted arches.

Arup, Zunz and Michael Lewis of Arup’s Sydney office became crucial figures in the project’s engineering team from 1962 onward.

Unlike Arup and Zunz, Lewis was underwhelmed by Utzon and in hindsight can be seen to have contributed to Utzon’s withdrawal from the project.

Lewis did not share Arup and Zunz's admiration for Utzon nor the relationship they had developed with him over time. Later in the year, Lewis would write to Zunz, "Unlike you and Ove I have not learnt to love Jørn yet and I doubt very much I ever will."

Lewis felt that everyone had been seduced by Utzon. He would later reflect, "that romantic view is, however, a very real view, and that's what I walked in on. I said – please, in what way are they gods? Why is everyone seduced around here? And I suppose that also affected my approach."

One of the many hundreds of working drawings by Arup engineers in documenting the construction of the Sydney Opera House. Here we see the chevron tile lids that hold almost 1 million tiles to the surface of the vaulted and side shells.

In the wake of Utzon's withdrawal from the project in 1966, Ove Arup and Partners continued to work on the project, creating a permanent schism between the two men and ending their friendship.

Arup in 1968 discussing the conflict of not resigning in support of Utzon.

When Utzon withdrew from the Sydney Opera House project - forced to resign, as he saw it, by the Minister for Public Works - Arup found himself in the very difficult position of having to decide whether to support Utzon and in so doing also resign from the project.

The government sought assurances this would not happen, but the issue affected Arup deeply – it became a philosophical crisis and a complex intersection between personal and professional behaviour and ideals.

Although a division had been growing for some time, the outcome permanently estranged the two friends and eminent colleagues.

Years later, a mutual friend of both men, structural engineer Povl Ahm, took Arup to Hellebæk. Leaving Arup in a hotel room, he went alone to see Utzon at his home in the hope of reuniting old friends, but Utzon refused to see Arup.

The two men met one last time in 1978, at a reception in London for Utzon, who had won the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, at which point they shook hands and spoke a few brief words, to each other.