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Structural reality and architectural editing: the four invisible columns of the Sydney Opera House

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2023

Paolo Tombesi ,
Paolo Stracchi  and
Luciano Cardellicchio
Paolo Tombesi*
Affiliation:
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland.
Paolo Stracchi*
Affiliation:
University of Sydney, Australia.
Luciano Cardellicchio*
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
*
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
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Abstract

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In modern architectural debate, buildings are made by their description in the literature as much as they are defined by the reality of their construction. On this point, a relatively small glitch in the celebratory narrative of the roof of the Sydney Opera House – four columns that do not appear in the descriptions of the building – offers the opportunity to reflect on the generation of architecture’s canons and perhaps the perceived need to elevate the subject matter by abstracting the engineering of its construction. While questioning the reasons for the absence of the columns from the biographies of the building, the article articulates the value of embracing even the smaller details in projects' histories.

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Full Paper
Information
arq: Architectural Research Quarterly , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , March 2023 , pp. 49 - 60
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press