Proyecto y lugar en la arquitectura dome
Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos
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Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
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4
Fig. 0
Plans of twenty selected houses (own elaboration)
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Project and place in the Jørn Utzon’s domestic architecture
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PhD Thesis
Doctoral thesis
|
Abstract
In the middle of a Danish forest, with high trees which move with the Nordic wind
under the weak sun of high latitudes, and with the help of some wooden canvases
acquired from an already completed exhibition, Jørn Utzon built a real-scale model of
his first family house in Hellebæk (1950-52) at the age of thirty-two. In the same way
that William Turner needed to be tied up on the top of a boat flagpole in order to have
a first-hand experience of one of the many storms that he had depicted in his paintings
so many times before, the young Utzon thought it was crucial to go into the model of
his own house before building it, to evaluate in situ the potential of that project in
relation to the place.
Utzon’s work is architecture interested in and attentive of the place where it is situated.
Jørn Utzon (1918-2008) is an architect of Nordic origin who discovered his own
idiosyncrasy in the Mediterranean culture, in which he resided for half of his live. This
thesis has focused on an exhaustive analysis of the relation between his domestic
architecture and the place where it is located. This issue has been often cited in the
existing bibliography, although it has never been exhaustively developed. The analysis
objective has been to attempt to find invariants and patterns that could exist in his
Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos
|
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
44 | | 00
4
domestic work in relation to this subject. For this analysis, a sufficiently large sample
has been selected: twenty houses or housing complexes (among others his own four
family houses), distributed in five countries (Sweden, Denmark, United Kingdom, Spain
and New South Wales), which constitute the third part of his domestic work, and half
of his residential constructed projects, as well as Utzon’s written texts about this
theme, and the drawings and sketches of his graphic work. The methodology used
was based on consultation of primary sources: travelling and examining in situ the
selected houses in Denmark, Sweden, Spain and Australia; living for a month in one of
the houses (Can Lis) thanks to a research grant from the Danish Government and the
Utzon Foundation; and interviewing people from his closest family and professional
circles. Furthermore, part of the thesis has been published in international media: 4th
International Utzon Symposium (7/3/2013-9/3/2014) and on the official web site of
Can Lis, an Utzon Foundation subsidiary(www.canlis.dk).
The twelve invariants discovered in relation to the project and the location of the
selected projects, have been grouped according to three elements which Utzon
continuously reflects upon in his own writings: the horizon, the sun and autochthonous
material. Elements which originate from the influence that navigation had in his life, and
from his spiritual and austere character. The story of Utzon is that of a Nordic person,
with the vocation of a navigator, who found his place in the Mediterranean culture,
surrounded with Marés stones, while silently
threshold between light and shadow.
making out the sea horizon on the
|
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
22 | | 00
4
Fig. 0
Plans of twenty selected houses (own elaboration)
3| 3
Project and place in the Jørn Utzon’s domestic architecture
|
PhD Thesis
Doctoral thesis
|
Abstract
In the middle of a Danish forest, with high trees which move with the Nordic wind
under the weak sun of high latitudes, and with the help of some wooden canvases
acquired from an already completed exhibition, Jørn Utzon built a real-scale model of
his first family house in Hellebæk (1950-52) at the age of thirty-two. In the same way
that William Turner needed to be tied up on the top of a boat flagpole in order to have
a first-hand experience of one of the many storms that he had depicted in his paintings
so many times before, the young Utzon thought it was crucial to go into the model of
his own house before building it, to evaluate in situ the potential of that project in
relation to the place.
Utzon’s work is architecture interested in and attentive of the place where it is situated.
Jørn Utzon (1918-2008) is an architect of Nordic origin who discovered his own
idiosyncrasy in the Mediterranean culture, in which he resided for half of his live. This
thesis has focused on an exhaustive analysis of the relation between his domestic
architecture and the place where it is located. This issue has been often cited in the
existing bibliography, although it has never been exhaustively developed. The analysis
objective has been to attempt to find invariants and patterns that could exist in his
Departamento de Proyectos Arquitectónicos
|
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
44 | | 00
4
domestic work in relation to this subject. For this analysis, a sufficiently large sample
has been selected: twenty houses or housing complexes (among others his own four
family houses), distributed in five countries (Sweden, Denmark, United Kingdom, Spain
and New South Wales), which constitute the third part of his domestic work, and half
of his residential constructed projects, as well as Utzon’s written texts about this
theme, and the drawings and sketches of his graphic work. The methodology used
was based on consultation of primary sources: travelling and examining in situ the
selected houses in Denmark, Sweden, Spain and Australia; living for a month in one of
the houses (Can Lis) thanks to a research grant from the Danish Government and the
Utzon Foundation; and interviewing people from his closest family and professional
circles. Furthermore, part of the thesis has been published in international media: 4th
International Utzon Symposium (7/3/2013-9/3/2014) and on the official web site of
Can Lis, an Utzon Foundation subsidiary(www.canlis.dk).
The twelve invariants discovered in relation to the project and the location of the
selected projects, have been grouped according to three elements which Utzon
continuously reflects upon in his own writings: the horizon, the sun and autochthonous
material. Elements which originate from the influence that navigation had in his life, and
from his spiritual and austere character. The story of Utzon is that of a Nordic person,
with the vocation of a navigator, who found his place in the Mediterranean culture,
surrounded with Marés stones, while silently
threshold between light and shadow.
making out the sea horizon on the