Sydney Opera House

This week's theme is curved.

The Sydney Opera House and its curved roof--made up of 1,056,000 white tiles-- is one of the must-see sights of the world.  Construction of this great iconic building began in 1959 after Jorn Utzon, a Danish architect, won an international design competition.  The building was not without controversy and in 1966 Utzon quit the project, leaving a consortium of Australian architects to design a compromised interior.  The building was formally completed in 1973, at a cost of $102 million.

The site of the Opera House, Bennelong Point, was originally used by aboriginal fisherman to discard shells.  The "middens," piles of white shells accumulated over thousands of years, were white clay quarries for the aboriginals.  The clay collected at this spot was used as ceremonial body paint. Today, aboriginal spokesmen are adamant that Jorn Utzon was inspired to design the shell-like shape of the modern day opera house after the ancient aboriginal middens.