Read the Correspondent Article

Winter 2015 SILENT KILLER DR. KAZEM BEHBEHANI ON THE FIGHT CAPITAL ASSETS AGAINST DIABETES BANKING DOYENNE BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT NEMAT SHAFIK LYNNE DAVIS ON EMINENT BRITISH PRINTERS BARNARD & WESTWOOD CULTURE CLASH BARUCH SPIEGEL RETHINKING SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION IN KUWAIT OUTER SPACES SALMAN ZAFAR EXTOLLS THE NEED FOR GREEN UTZON UNTOLD KUWAIT NATIONAL ASSEMBLY: THE MAKING OF A MASTERPIECE IN CONVERSATION HaIlIng from a DanIsh desIgn dynasty, Jan Utzon speaks to Charlotte Shalgosky about workIng wIth hIs father, the globally-recognIzed Jørn Utzon, on hIs desIgn of the KuwaIt NatIonal Assembly. Jan Utzon greets me warmly, even and environmental sympathies in his native Denmark he is strikingly most eloquently; a building that, tall. Looking much younger than his when it frst opened, epitomized seventy-plus years his limber frame the simplicity and the sensitivity of and sparkling eyes are remarkably Utzon’s understated brilliance as reminiscent of his father, Jørn, much as his love of the Middle East. with whom he worked so closely Even before it was completed, the throughout his life. late British architectural critic Stephen Gardiner wrote “When fnished, it Jørn Utzon died in 2008 having won will be one of the great buildings almost every architectural prize of the world”. and accolade, and having been lauded for his visionary designs. In 1968, when the competition Columbia University Professor, to design the Kuwait National Kenneth Frampton, wrote in the Assembly was being held, Jan Harvard Design Magazine “Nobody was just starting out on his own can study the future of architecture career in architecture in Denmark; without Jørn Utzon”. he had already been working with his father on the groundbreaking But while his name will forever be design for Bagsværd Church in the synonymous with his inimitable outskirts of the Danish capital. Jørn Sydney Opera House in Australia, invited Oktay Nayman, a top Turkish it is the great sweeping strokes of architect with whom he’d worked - Jan Utzon Kuwait’s National Assembly that in Sydney, to make the drawings InternatIonal archItect show his architectonic craftsmanship for the competition proposal that 48 49 culture and traditions of Kuwait, to consider entering a similar both places were rooted in historic competition to design Kuwait’s seafaring traditions, shipbuilding and National Assembly. Australia’s loss shellfsh, especially oysters, shells would be Kuwait’s gain. of which have been found on 8th and 9th century archeological sites Jørn Utzon’s innate curiosity in Kuwait. in different cultures, styles of building and especially vernacular The tall windows at the entrance of architecture, added to his Kuwait National Assembly building Scandinavian roots and work in allowed the turquoise sea to be Aalborg shipyards, gave him a seen and Kuwait’s strong sunlight vocabulary unlike any other. His to food into the building’s main early wanderings through Saudi central corridor. Stephen Gardiner Arabia, Morocco and Iran and his claimed this was no coincidence: impromptu foray into China in the “…Here there is an echo of the sea; late 1950s (where he jumped off an The Utzons, Jørn (left) and Jan (right) the Kuwaitis lifeline for survival”. offcial tour and ventured solo into the rarely seen Chinese hinterland) he would ultimately win; he asked traffc. Jørn leapt from the car and glassware produced by other family Even in his some of his early sketches would all profoundly inspire and Jan to make the frst model of the returned within minutes, clutching members. This meticulous nature of the Kuwait National Assembly infuence his work, including the Kuwait National Assembly. a large pebble grabbed from the could be found in the boat-building Utzon incorporated the sea, always National Assembly. Today, perched side of the road. Taking out a pen techniques and scale models that connecting man and nature. When across from the glittering shores Speaking to me from Istanbul Oktay he signed the rock and held it up to Aage Utzon created which would Jan visited, he often rented a boat of the Gulf on Kuwait City’s main says that “From the frst sketches, so his audience jubilantly “That will be infuence Jørn immensely. It was to view the site from the water. coastal artery, Utzon’s gloriously simple and so beautiful a concept, I the color of the National Assembly Aage who helped Jørn build the serried columns that form the thought it was a winner”. He speaks building!” frst model of Sydney Opera House. Jørn Utzon’s work in Australia and National Assembly’s unmissable warmly of Jørn’s charisma that in his controversial early departure from exterior façade are juxtaposed with many ways, has been inherited by Geoff Pollitt later confesses that Aage Utzon’s voluptuous, hand-built the Sydney Opera House project an avenue of interior columns that the following generations of creatively- there was no way to control the sailing boats can be seen at Aalborg’s in 1966 produced “extraordinarily refect Chinese bamboo, sliced so as minded Utzons, “especially Jan”. He color consistency of the hundreds Utzon Center, surrounded by endless malicious publicity and negative to create a crescent-shape cut-out at recalls Jørn’s own description of of precast concrete elements that displays of Utzons’ drawings, models criticism” according to American its tip. Immense bottle-shaped pillars the design for Kuwait as ‘the art of were being fabricated on site. In and photographs, as well as regular architect Frank Gehry, who went appear invisibly interlocked with an noble simplicity’. the end, the entire building was seasonal exhibits. Lasse Andersson, on to praise Utzon for persevering undulating precast concrete canopy subjected to the indignity of an all- the Center’s Director, points out the through the vitriolic backlash “to build that crowns the porte-cochère, the To formalize the project, Jørn few to over whitewash. delicate curves of the boat’s prow a building that changed the image roof being inspired by the fowing Kuwait to meet HH the Amir. He and and turns to a small scale-model of of an entire country.” fabric of Bedouin tents. Jan were met at Kuwait airport by Over lunch, in barely-accented English, Sydney Opera House. The shape of Geoff Pollitt a young British engineer Jan describes his father’s upbringing the Opera House roof is unmistakably When the Opera House was ultimately The many modular elements that give who had been hired to manage the in the northern Denmark town of a refection and repetition of the fnished, it was evident that many of the National Assembly’s footprint a build. Pollitt warmly recalls the two Aalborg and how creativity coursed shape of the front of the boat, those tiny, but technically brilliant mosaic-like effect refect a concept tall Danes towering over the fowing through two previous generations mounted vertically. details of Utzonian genius — that has been traditionally used white dishdashas in the Arrivals Hall. of Utzons. such as the original plan for the widely across the Far East, South Though Jan and Jørn would work The family had grown up surrounded internal acoustics–had been sorely East Asia and the Middle East, where together on the National Assembly It was Aage Utzon, Jørn’s father, by nature and Jørn and Jan’s works overlooked. extended families live in shared from the early designs of the 70s a highly respected naval engineer are deeply infuenced by landscape. quarters and spaces, connected through to the National Assembly’s who brought his family to live in Though Jørn was not academically After what Jørn himself termed “the to courtyards, pools or gardens. This completion in 1982, it was Jan who Aalborg. Aage Utzon was known gifted, he had barely scraped through scandal” of Sydney, the Utzons is the Utzon genius. In an interview did the traveling to and from Kuwait. for his thoroughness and attention his school exams, he quickly became relocated to Hawaii. In 1968 Jørn Jørn Utzon explained that large Pollitt tells how while driving the to detail – a virtue keenly embraced a talented draughtsman. On a trip was encouraged by respected British structures were “much more easily guests to the Sheraton Hotel in Kuwait by the later generations of Utzons, to the Utzon Center in Aalborg I architect Sir Leslie Martin—who, and naturally managed by building City Jørn yelled for the driver to stop not just in architecture or drawings, refect how the Utzons’ home town coincidentally had been one of the complexes which are divided up on a busy roundabout in chaotic but in the textiles, ceramics and shared striking parallels with the judges of the Sydney competition, into different entities”, and told of Self-portrait, Jørn Utzon 50 51 Precast concrete is assembled in sections his inspiration in part, by the work play. Thus Kuwait National Assembly contribution to global architecture of the great Finnish architect, Alvar brought together a vast array of that exemplifed the brilliance of Aalto. This same modular design infuences and building techniques Utzon and the farsightedness of interspersed with courtyards and that crept into later projects such as Kuwait’s leadership. colonnades can also be seen in the the Paustian furniture showroom and two homes Jørn built for his family restaurant in Copenhagen where we Almost a century after his birth, on the Spanish island of Mallorca. are taking lunch. From the restaurant I the Utzon legacy lives on in Jørn’s fnd myself facing a strangely familiar children and grandchildren, who are In the Jørn Utzon Logbook, Volume IV white concrete arcade comprising continuing that creative bloodline. Prefab, published by Editon Bløndal, of tall regular columns and a high- Jørn Utzon underlines how the vaulted, precast concrete canopy.

Load more