Sydney Opera House turns 50 and here are 7 visualized rejected proposals

The iconic Sydney Opera House was inaugurated exactly 50 years ago, on October 20, 1973, by Queen Elizabeth II, and here are presented 7 visualized proposals that were rejected during the international design competition.

Furthermore, the international design competition for the Sydney Opera House was launched on the 13^th of September 1955 by New South Wales premier, Joseph Cahill.

The competition’s criteria for the redevelopment of the old tram depot into an opera house specified a large hall with a seating capacity of at least 3,000 people, a small one with a 1,200-person seating capacity, and parking space for 100 cars, among other technical specifications.

Architects from 32 countries submitted 233 entries, and the competition concluded in 1957 with the winning design of Danish architect Jørn Utzon, which was resurfaced from a final cut of 30 rejected entries by the Finnish American architect Eero Saarinen.

Its spectacular design posed many challenges, including Utzon’s resignation, during construction, which started on March 1^st, 1959, and was originally scheduled to last until January 26, 1963, and come at a budget of 7 million Australian dollars.

However, the project’s completion came roughly ten years delayed, in 1973, and 1,357% over-budget, costing about 100 million Australian dollars.

The iconic design of its arched roof involved one of the earliest known uses of computers in structural analysis and includes a layer of about one million glazed-white granite tiles which took three years to develop and are called the Sydney Tile.

As for the entries submitted, they were required to include black and white drawings and small concise reports. In 2019, NeoMam studios went on to research those entries and visualize seven of them by means of 3D rendering.

These renderings are featured in the image gallery below.