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Sydney Opera House BUILD

Creating a better world through the Built Environment

Sydney Opera House is an internationally renowned masterpiece and home of the performing arts where design, architecture, the built environment and creativity change the way people experience the world. The building was made possible through the collaboration between architects, engineers and builders. This includes architects Jørn Utzon AC and Peter Hall, and Sir Ove Arup who was an engineer, designer and philosopher.

To celebrate this collaboration, BUILD is a new Creative Learning program that uses the lens of the Sydney Opera House building, its site and its story to explore creative explorations around STEM and built environment perspectives, through the power of the arts and architecture.

BUILD is made up of three distinct programs. For year 9 and 10 students, BUILD aims to reposition STEM subjects for young people and the careers they could have, following on from interest in these subjects. For tertiary students, BUILD explores in a leadership program, how a socially engaged built environment practice can contribute to more sustainable futures. For the Public Program, BUILD explores new intersections between the built environment, design and the arts.

I like to be on the edge of the possible.

Jørn Utzon AC

Watch the trailer

Sydney Opera House BUILD

BUILD Programs

20 May 2024 Talks & Ideas

Reimagining Spaces for Learning

Join the SOH BUILD team in a night of conversation with a futurist, an architect and artists to explore design and creating new spaces, both physical and virtual, to encourage deep engagement with learning.

Schools

Sydney Opera House BUILD: Secondary School Design Challenge

A unique Creative Learning program for year 9 and 10 students, exploring a holistic journey through STEM/STEAM subjects as inspired by the Sydney Opera House.

Schools

Sydney Opera House BUILD: Tertiary Built Environment Creative Lab

A unique Creative Learning program for tertiary students, exploring the built environment through diverse and socially engaged design perspectives. Students tackle a future-facing design challenge by collaborating in interdisciplinary teams.

BUILD Talks

An ongoing series of conversation nights, exploring new perspectives from design, architecture, engineering, science, the humanities and the arts to reflect on how these disciplines and design innovation can address the urgent issues of our times. Each talk responds to one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Program partner: Ove Arup Foundation

The Ove Arup Foundation and Sydney Opera House are working in partnership to enable BUILD over three years from 2021 through the Opera House’s 50th anniversary year in 2023. 

“An independent UK charity, the Ove Arup Foundation honours the memory of engineer, designer and philosopher, Sir Ove Arup. By funding educational programmes and initiatives, the foundation drives values of innovation and inclusive design, with a strong emphasis on sustainability and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Sir Ove Arup was involved in the original design of Sydney Opera House, which began in the 1950s, and his firm Arup continues to play a pivotal role in the building’s long-term development and preservation plan.

Danish architect Jørn Utzon won an international competition for the project in 1957. As the industry’s eminent concrete designer, Sir Ove Arup’s contribution was sought early on, and he began to turn Utzon’s freeform sketches into an architectural reality. Sir Ove Arup’s team confronted an engineering challenge that has since become one of the profession’s epic tales – the design and construction of the building’s enormous, precast concrete shells.”