This handsome book on Jørn Utzon, the well-known but little-understood 20th-century architect, delves into his work in a way few monographs do. Utzon, who was Danish, is best known for his Sydney Opera House, a brilliant project but one that took many years to build and encountered numerous budgetary and technical problems.
The author, Michael Agaard Andersen, concentrates on Utzon's work rather than his life. Andersen provides little biographical information, though some seeps into the text as he discusses the various building types that the architect explored, along with Utzon's collaborations, competition entries, extensive travels, and respect for landscape. He does not discuss Utzon's buildings and projects chronologically, or by type. Instead, he organizes the book by themes, titled Place, Method, Building Culture, Construction, Materiality, and Ways of Life. In some cases, this is helpful; in others, it is confusing, because he tends to change his point of view from one chapter to another.
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