Sydney Opera House: A Grand Design | Presented by Kevin McCloud

As the host of the popular TV show Grand Designs, Kevin McCloud is no stranger to ambitious architectural projects. During a recent visit to Australia for a series of events, he visited Sydney Opera House to see how our Decade of Renewal is progressing.
Learn more about the Opera House's Renewal here: www.sydneyoper...
Directed by VERSUS.
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Sydney Opera House is an Australian icon and one of the busiest performing arts centres in the world. On this channel you will find performances, behind the scenes content and stories from beneath the sails. With over 40 shows a week at the Sydney Opera House there's something for everyone.
Find us on Facebook: / sydneyoperah. .
Twitter: / sydoperahouse
and Instagram: / sydneyopera. .
What's On at Sydney Opera House:
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[@SydneyOperaHouseArchive]

Thank you for watching Kevin McCloud at the Sydney Opera House, you can watch highlights from his Opera House talk here → kzbin.info/www/bejne/f6rakpacprx-jtU Subscribe for more >> soh.online/Subscribe

[@fredsalfa]

I grew up with the Opera House in Sydney so it’s almost as old as I am. It still looks amazing like nothing else in the world. Such a unique and timeless masterpiece

[@paulmurtough9360]

Just proves that even the Sydney Opera House can get better!

[@renecperez]

I had the opportunity of visiting the Sydney Opera House last weekend, I attended a concert there and I must say it was one of the best moments in my life, seeing and touching this piece of architecture was a dream since I was a little kid and the experience of being there was simply sublime. I fell in love with this beautiful city and it's icon, a well known symbol of Australia admired by the whole world.

[@raybarsamian5221]

To me the Sydney Opera Hose is the single most unique structure of the 20th Century that was built.

[@larryaleshire4907]

seeing the building in person is a truly remarkable experience...

[@LFGerm]

Not really - its a modern monstrosity. It looks nice from afar and at certain angles. But from other sides and especially closeup in person the disjointed placement of the 3 structures ( especially the restaurant), the concrete brutality of the place and the bombshelter like feeling of the undecorated conrete interior of the foyer combined with the upper interior with an elegance of an Ikea Shopping Centre in glorious light beige wood....sorry but it is nothing more than a modern attempt at making something unique, failing miserably when looked at closer. A building that constantly gets overrated because people either have no eyes or pretend to be "architectural connoisseurs".

[@dot10k]

@@LFGerm LOL. Well you are certainly in the minority there. You sneer at “architectural connoisseurs” whilst attempting to be one yourself. Give us all a break. You might not like the Opera House but do not patronise us by trying to make out that your opinion trumps ours.

[@billsmith281]

@@LFGerm well someone certainly put their cranky pants on today!

[@lyalld7852]

Agreed. I've had the privilege of doing "Backstage" tours of the place on a couple of occasions and both times were totally awesome. Such a fascinating building, and despite its faults it is still an impressive feat of both architectural design and engineering. They used to have an amazing online 3-dimensional tour which sadly had to be taken down for "security" reasons - such a shame. The refurbishment project is a great opportunity to remedy past flaws and make it even better.

[@jamescollinson2179]

I noticed at 7:18 there's an "Utzon Room". Nice of them to name a room after Jorn Utzon, the Danish architect who conceived the building, won the international design competition, and came up with the modular shell system to construct it, and then got screwed by Sydney's politicians who demanded drastic changes to cut costs. He resigned in protest and left Australia never to return.

[@tonewheel1773]

I agree entirely. Jorn Utzon was screwed by the politicians of the time. Yes, the Sydney Opera House is incredible as it is, and is indeed evolving over the years, but I can`t help but wonder how great it would have been if Utzon was allowed to carry his vision through to full fruition. It would have truly been one of the greatest, fully functioning, man-made, architectural/artistic, wonders of the world.

[@anEyePhil]

Politics is politics. Find out about the architects and engineers who had to pick up the pieces and get the job done anyway. Theirs is an extraordinary and in some ways tragic story. Blame the politicians, don't blame those who delivered the building to a budget.

[@heyitsHARLO]

exceptional work 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@edenblum5724]

Wow, another building I could spend all day in

[@damianmcwilliams2371]

It's a beautiful place.

[@samuelodyuo2566]

Magnificent! ✨

[@CarLoverPhotography]

Cool vintage pre covid era footage of human activity

[@elsuarze7]

just awesome

[@zahniblumenthal-macfarlane]

Keviiiiiinnnnn 🥰

[@kerryhamann678]

nice

[@ancientmariner7372]

A truly magnificent building. Just a pity the theatres are so inadequate for purpose.

[@philipmilne9054]

Brava

[@Anoppinion]

she is great at pointing out all the faults with the house...

[@vancemccarthy2554]

I find 11 million visits a year hard to believe. That's 30 thousand a day.

[@lyalld7852]

I agree with your maths and yes it does sound a lot of people per day, but bear in mind that as well as multiple performing venues having sometimes multiple performances in any given day, they also have business meetings, multiple public tour groups per day both in the front of house areas and the separate backstage tours. I'm picking they are also counting the patronage of the on-site businesses and may also be counting the non-paying visitors who just go there for a walk around. Each time I've been there (pre-Covid) on a nice day the place has been pretty packed with people.

[@antonytalia]

This number would also likely include visitors who come by but never enter. They may have a drink at the opera bar just outside for example.

[@fredsalfa]

What’s there motivation to lie to you?