Sails, Octopuses and Beds: Collective Creativity at the Sydney Opera House

On 20 October 1973, Queen Elizabeth II inaugurated the Sydney Opera House. A true construction feat, this building which bears Jørn Utzon’s signature has also become one of the greatest examples of "collective creativity" in the history of twentieth-century architecture. Fifty years later, L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui has published a special issue about the story behind the roof of one of the world's most emblematic opera houses, a story illustrated by previously unpublished documents, presented here for the first time thanks to the care of the authors of this special issue: Paolo Tombesi, Paolo Stracchi et Luciano Cardellicchio. "With its dancing structures, the construction of the Sydney Opera House was its very first performance", they told L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui

A piè di Opera. La fabbrica delle vele per la Sydney Opera House

The history of the design decisions directly related to the construction of the Sydney Opera House remains largely anecdotal. A rich group of items recently discovered in Australia may now start filling this gap, as documents brought to light include the drawings issued by the general contractor to build the concrete formwork for the shells, drawings of the temporary structures and falsework, site images, and contractor’s notes. All in all, the drawings display sophisticated combinatory solutions for attaining the structural form required whilst introducing repetition and flexibility in the making of the discrete pieces. While suggesting a remarkable combination of manufacturing and structural shrewdness, these blueprints call into question the canonical history of the building roof’s famous “sails” and the rhetoric of the “spherical solution” used to arrive at them

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

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.ISSN:1359-1355ISSN:1474-051

Table4_Circular economy in construction: A systematic review of knowledge gaps towards a novel research framework.docx

The current growing interest in the circular economy (CE) offers extensive opportunities to promote the adoption of more sustainable consumption and production practices across industries, which is a top priority in achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The construction sector’s shift towards circular models is key to reducing carbon emissions and resource depletion but brings along considerable complexities and challenges, given the industry`s fragmented and conservative nature. Research on CE in construction has been growing exponentially over the past few years, producing a substantial amount of new knowledge in a short time. This study conducted a systematic review to map and synthesise the reported knowledge gaps in the literature. The analysis included forty-one (41) articles published between 2017 and 2022. One hundred fifty-five (155) knowledge gaps were identified and categorised according to seven (7) CE research dimensions—economic, environmental, governmental, methodological, societal, sectoral, and technological—and twenty-six (26) thematic sub-clusters. Findings critically analyse knowledge gaps’ frequency of occurrence over time and across dimensions. A new framework for CE implementation is proposed to support critical discussion and identification of future research trajectories towards a systemic transition to a circular economy in the construction sector. The framework identifies three innovation domains: circular product, circular process, and circular platform.</p