Jørn Utzon (b. 1918 - d. 2008) is today the most important Danish architect throughout history. He derived his earliest inspiration from foreign architects such as Alvar Aalto and Frank Lloyd Wright, whose organic conception of architecture was of great significance for Utzon's own expressive and sculptural nature-inspired architecture.
Arrival in Aalborg
The Utzon family moved to the city in the spring of 1918 from Copenhagen after Jørn’s father, Aage Utzon, was hired as a ship engineer at Aalborg Shipyard. The family settled in an apartment at Vendelbogade 8 – not far from C.W. Obel’s Tobacco Factory, Aalborg Distillery, and the Limfjord. The eldest son, Leif, was two years old upon arrival in Aalborg, and the youngest, Jørn, was an infant. He was born in Copenhagen on April 9, 1918, and baptized in Aalborg’s Budolfi Church on July 20 the same year.
Aage Utzon was trained as a ship engineer in Newcastle and had worked briefly at B & W in Copenhagen before taking the position as operations engineer at the shipyard in Aalborg. In May 1915, he married Estrid Marin Valeska Halina Olsen, who came from Ålsgårde in North Zealand but had roots in Riga.
In the summer of 1924, Jørn Utzon began attending Klostermarkskolen, a private school where his brother Leif was already enrolled. The school was located in the eastern part of the city, not far from their home on Vendelbogade. The following year, the family bought a brick villa at Nørre Tranders Vej 65 in the suburb of Vejgaard in the western part of the city. Space in the apartment had become cramped after the birth of their son Erik in 1924.
The brothers, Leif and Jørn, continued at Klostermarkskolen, and the daily route across the city along the harbor became their way to school. Jørn Utzon later recalled walking from school to Aalborg Shipyard via the harbor and how the waterfront thus became his playground and source of inspiration. He often visited his father at the shipyard, where he observed the construction of ships and, as he grew older, helped design and build ship models. After five years at Klostermarkskolen, Jørn moved on to middle school at Sant Jørgens Gade School. Academically, he struggled somewhat, as he was dyslexic. He repeated the last year of the four-year middle school before starting at the Cathedral School.
Much of his free time was spent as a Sea Scout, and Jørn became a skilled sailor. Aage Utzon was a dedicated sportsman who encouraged his sons to lead an active outdoor life. He himself was deeply involved in sailing as chairman of the Aalborg Sea Scout Troop Council and designed a 17-foot, spear-rigged boat for the Sea Scouts. The boat was named the Aalborg dinghy and was notable for being unsinkable and designed for young people. As a ship engineer and boat designer, Aage Utzon created a wide range of vessels and became particularly known for the construction of the wooden boat spidsgat.
Jørn Utzon’s maritime background from his childhood in Aalborg and the working methods he learned from his father’s boat designs and his time at the shipyard formed the foundation for much of his later work as an architect. Also prominent in the harbor environment of Aalborg and Nørresundby in the 1920s and 1930s was cement production. The significant chalk deposits in the city’s immediate surroundings enabled a true cement industry, and the city housed several cement factories during this period. The use of concrete in construction likewise became one of the essential elements in Utzon’s later architecture.
In 1930, when Jørn was 12 years old, the family traveled to Sweden to see the great Stockholm Exhibition. The exhibition introduced Functionalism as the modern lifestyle, and Aage and Estrid Utzon were so enthusiastic that they embraced the concept. Shortly after returning to Aalborg, the parents began a thorough transformation of their home’s interior. New modern furniture in functionalist style was purchased to replace the older, heavy, and dark pieces. The concept was light, space and simple design.
The inspiration from the Stockholm Exhibition led to a real shift in the family’s way of life. Jørn Utzon later recalled how they adopted new and healthy eating habits, began exercising and spending time outdoors, and he remembers, among other things, how he and his brothers received new bicycles for this purpose. The introduction to Functionalism as a lifestyle, with its focus on the natural and the simple, was thus something he grew up with at home.
In the summer of 1937, Jørn Utzon graduated from Aalborg Cathedral School with a mathematics diploma, and that same year he applied to the School of Architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. His diploma was not sufficient for direct admission, but after a month-long entrance examination, he was accepted and enrolled at the school. That same year, the Utzon family moved back to Zealand after Aage Utzon was appointed head of the repair department at Helsingør Shipyard.
Jørn Utzon graduated in 1942, but his career truly took off when, at the age of 38 (1957), he won an international architectural competition for the Sydney Opera House.
For the next many years, he worked on creating the most famous building of the century, and everything went according to plan until a change of government in 1965. The exterior of the Opera House was complete, and Jørn Utzon was about to begin work on the interior. However, the new government wanted the building finished quickly and cheaply. As a result, they stopped payments to Jørn Utzon, who withdrew from the project in 1966. Australian architects completed the construction, and the Sydney Opera House was finished in 1973.
Jørn Utzon returned to Denmark, where he began his next project: the Romer Houses in Helsingør. Many drawings and buildings later, he was entrusted with the significant task of designing the Parliament in Kuwait (1972), which was inspired by Bedouin culture. Over the years, he also built two houses for himself and his wife on Mallorca, Spain.
His career took him far around the world, but the sea, the shipyard, and the sailing ships of Aalborg remained a decisive source of inspiration for Jørn Utzon throughout his life.
He also had an overarching goal with his architecture. What he created, he created for and with people in mind. Buildings should be usable, whether for political purposes like the Parliament building in Kuwait, religious purposes like the church in Bagsværd, music and culture like the Sydney Opera House, or homes where ordinary people could live well.
In 2003, Jørn Utzon became the first Dane to receive architecture’s Nobel Prize, the Pritzker Prize. In the jury’s statement, chairman Lord Rothschild referred to Utzon’s talent in general and the Sydney Opera House in particular.
”Jørn Utzon created one of the great iconic buildings of the 20th century, an image of great beauty known throughout the world… In addition to his masterpiece, he has worked throughout his life with refinement, brilliance and quiet dignity, never with a false or jarring tone. He is therefore an exceptionally worthy recipient of the Pritzker Prize.”
Jørn Utzon grew up in Aalborg, and it was also here that he concluded his glorious career.
Jørn Utzon died at the age of 90 on November 28, 2008, leaving behind his wife Lis and their children Lin, Jan and Kim.
”I have been fortunate that the Sydney Opera House turned out so successfully, and that was because there was pioneering spirit behind it. That they even did something like that at the time in Australia reminds me very much of what is done in Aalborg. You create a new and unknown building and believe in it. That is the typical Aalborg pioneering spirit that I know from the shipyard."
It all started in Aalborg in 1918. In 2018, Jørn Utzon turned 100 years old.
It is also the 10th anniversary of the Utzon Center. We celebrate Denmark’s most significant architect throughout 2018 with exhibitions and events in Aalborg and around the world.
The many activities, gathered under the name Utzon100, included three exhibitions, one of which was shown in Aalborg, Copenhagen, Sydney and Brussels. In addition, an international magazine and a film were published, conferences and lectures were held, music was performed, and playful communication and teaching for children in schools and leisure activities all carried the imprint of Utzon100. 2018 was a Utzon100 year filled with experiences, high-level expertise and fun for all age groups.
On the occasion of the Utzon100 year, the Utzon Center, in collaboration with Louisiana Channel, produced a series of interviews with a number of personalities who, in one way or another, had Jørn Utzon in their lives.
