SydneyMania, Part I - SOH

We came back from Sydney and we both totally fell in love with it - the City, the architecture, the natural environment, the crazy people and nightlife... Melbourne is nice, but no match to its archirival, which is a bustling, hectic, run-down and altogether awesome metropolis.

It'll take me a couple of days to load up everything, so I'll start with the obvious - the Sydney Opera House, a truly remarkable piece of architecture. It was a rainy day so we took the inside tour, which turned out to be a pretty nice experience.






















The bleak lower foyers and staircases (above) are designed to give the visitors an awe when they're stepping into the better lit main hall (below).








































Probably not the best shot, but here's a stolen glimpse of the interior. Check out the acoustic design of the ceiling...
















The Jorn Utzon room (below) is the only interior space that was actually designed by the same architect who designed the famous sails' structure. Utzon was so unhappy with the way his vision was carried out and the pressures from the developers, that he left the project halfway and went back to his homeland, Denmark, once the outside structure was built. The main concert hall (above) is therefore a self-sustained structure that was actually designed by another local architect.

At the age of 80, Utzon agreed to work again on his great masterpiece, which proves that even old European farts seek closure. Over the years, Utzon didn't have any particular problems of receiving many awards for his work on a project that until very recently he had ignored.
































































Pictures of people with the SOH are taken everyday and in so many ways and forms, that any attempts to shoot the structure, not to mention us next to it, have become such a cliche, but here's a proof that we were actually there...