2.  Sixth largest country in the world  Same size as the 48 mainland U.S. states  The world’s flattest, smallest continent  Lowest pop. density in the world : 2 people per square kilometer.  Produces most of the world’s wool and beef  Home to the Great Barrier Reef  Only country that has it’s own continent  Pop. = 21,262,641

3.  Designed by Danish architect Jǿrn Utzon in 1957  Design competition with no cost limit, it just required two performance halls  In 1966 Jǿrn Utzon resigned, and Ted Farmer got the job.  In 1999 Jǿrn Utzon was re-engaged and developed plans for future changes to the building.

6. Design

8.  It cost 102,000,000 $AU to build.  It conducts 3000 events each year  Provides guided tours to about 200,000 people each year  Has an annual audience of 2 million for its performances  Includes 1000 rooms  It is 185 meters long and 120 meters wide  It took 7 years to build the model and 17 years to build the actual building.

9.  Has 2194 pre-cast concrete sections as its roof  Has roof sections weighing up to 15 tons  Has roof sections held together by 350 km of tensioned steel cable  Has over 1 million tiles on the roof  Uses 6225 square meters of glass and 645 kilometers of electric cable  The Opera House covers 4.5 acres of land  It contains five main performance spaces, a recording studio, five restaurants, and four souvenir shops.

10. INTERIOR

11. CONCERT HALL

13.  The Sydney Opera House has its own opera written about it called the “Eighth Wonder”.  The opera house was amongst the 20 finalists in the New Seven Wonders of the World project of 2007  233 designs were submitted for the ‘Opera House Design Competition’, held in 1956  In January 1956 Jǿrn Utzon was announced the winner and was awarded a prize of 5000 pounds.  The original estimate of the cost was 7 million, but the final cost was 102 million.

16.  The vaulted roof shells were designed by Utzon in collaboration with international engineers Ove Arup & Partners  The final shape of the shells are derived from a single imagined sphere.  Each shell is composed of pre-cast rib segments radiating from a concrete pedestal and rising to a ridge beam.  The shells are faced in glazed off-white tiles while the podium is clad in earth-toned, reconstituted granite panels.  The glass walls are a special feature of the building, constructed according to the modified design by Peter Hall.  There is 67,000 square feet of glass used for windows that are located in the roofs

17. Sydney Opera House in the fog

18.  The base of the Sydney Opera House is 611 ft. long and 380 ft. wide. If the builders could build 65 square ft and hour, how many hours would it take for them to build the base of the Sydney Opera House???

19.  Multiply L x W = total area of base in square ft.  Divide total area by the rate.  3,572 hours

20.  Jǿrn Utzon started out building it, but after he quit Peter Hall took over.  It surpassed the price expectation by 95 million dollars.  The roof is made up of special shells specifically designed for it.  It is a national landmark of Sydney  It is still a very popular site today, 52 years after its creation.