Steven Holl: Architect

Rating:
Summary: The most critical book ever written on Utzon.
Review: Francoise Fromonot does not only write a book on the Sydney Opera House, she unveils with mastery the works of a great architect who was unknown through the fame of his masterpiece(the Sydney Opera House). The book maps an ingenious trajectory of the complex relationship of one mans' lifetime work through a central piece (the Opera house) and his other projects. Fromonot is an architect-writer who undrestands and heighlights the delicate relationship of Utzon's Oeuvres necessary for understanding this one and only architectural symbol of Australia. She is miles ahead of the recently published Ph.Drew's soap opera account of Utzon's personal life for the comprehension of his architecture. Perhaps Drew mistakes Soap and Sydney, since the only common denominator is the Opera. Fromonot makes a piece of architecture and a film wrapped in a book, it is a gift to Utzon for all his contribution to architecture.

Rating:
Summary: Danish Dynomite!
Review: Jorn Utzon is one of those Danish architects that rarely gets the attention of those familiar with Danish architecture and design. Although he indeed worked with the likes of Arne Jacobsen, Kay Fisker, Sverre Fehn, Gunner Asplund, and Alvar Aalto; his Opera House, still to this day surrounded in the cloud of it's controversiality, remains where Utzons's name most often appears. Of course there isn't an overabundance of material on Utzon either, which makes Fromonto's book something of a rareity and a special treat. The book thoroughly discusses how the Opera House came about, of course from both Utzon and the Sydney sides. It also finnishes with the circumstances to which Utzon and Opera House are on difficult terms, but Fromonot does not sacrifice the years of heart and soul that Utzon put into this masterpiece with typical tabloid stories of his incompetence. No, this book present the Opera House in every detail of it's inception and construction. I would have liked to see some finished images of the interiors, but I would imagine in the chronology of the book that the presentation of the Opera House ends where Utzon no longer worked on the project and instead moves onto some of his later accomplishments. Anyone interested in the Opera House will be amazed at how complex and how fundamentally beautiful the structure really is.

Rating:
Summary: Danish Dynomite!
Review: Jorn Utzon is one of those Danish architects that rarely gets the attention of those familiar with Danish architecture and design. Although he indeed worked with the likes of Arne Jacobsen, Kay Fisker, Sverre Fehn, Gunner Asplund, and Alvar Aalto; his Opera House, still to this day surrounded in the cloud of it's controversiality, remains where Utzons's name most often appears. Of course there isn't an overabundance of material on Utzon either, which makes Fromonto's book something of a rareity and a special treat. The book thoroughly discusses how the Opera House came about, of course from both Utzon and the Sydney sides. It also finnishes with the circumstances to which Utzon and Opera House are on difficult terms, but Fromonot does not sacrifice the years of heart and soul that Utzon put into this masterpiece with typical tabloid stories of his incompetence. No, this book present the Opera House in every detail of it's inception and construction. I would have liked to see some finished images of the interiors, but I would imagine in the chronology of the book that the presentation of the Opera House ends where Utzon no longer worked on the project and instead moves onto some of his later accomplishments. Anyone interested in the Opera House will be amazed at how complex and how fundamentally beautiful the structure really is.