How Many Tiles On The Opera House Roof

The iconic roof of the sydney opera house is made from pre cast concrete ribs covered with glazed ceramic tiles.

How many tiles on the opera house roof. They were made in sweden. It is important that such a large white sculpture in the harbour setting catches and mirrors the sky with all its varied lights dawn to dusk day to day throughout the year. The own our house initiative hopes to generate 15 million towards the house s decade of renewal and launches just weeks after its 40th birthday. Sydney opera house was opened by queen elizabeth ii on 20th october 1973.

This is an extract from the publication icons which can be purchased online. The impressive and subtle chevron pattern has glossy white matte cream coloured tiles manufactured by höganäs ab. Principal curator matthew connell explores the ideas behind the creation of sydney s most famous building. Utzon had been inspired by the mosques he had seen in the middle east and north african deserts which shimmered brilliantly through the swirling dusts and sands.

Though they are meant to be self cleaning in nature they still require maintenance replacement. Glossy off white tiles make up the majority of the tiles used whilst matt bone color tiles are used at edges of tiles panels or at the edges of the shells picture 1 shows this well. Sydney opera house model. As well as the vertical pattern made by the colours and the grouting sydney opera house architecture has a horizontal pattern made by the chevron or inverted v shape in which the tiles are laid across the shell.

In his design principles published in 2002 jørn utzon would remark that the tiles were a major item in the building. Eight different tile sizes are used on the shells. On monday 125 000 of the sydney opera house s 1 056 006 tiles go on sale as part of a drive towards community ownership of the building s future. The sydney opera house s glistening roof is achieved through the use of 1 056 006 roof tiles.

The roof is covered with more than one million tiles made by swedish company höganas. Seven a380s could sit wing to wing on the site. There are more than 1 million roof tiles covering approximately 1 62 hectares sitting over the structure. The building has 6 225 square metres of glass and 645 kilometres of electric cable.

But the reason the opera house is of interest to us here at tile devil is because the exterior is covered with over one million ceramic tiles.