Sydney Opera House: Utzon Sails, Concert Hall, Forecourt Views and Guided Tours

Standing on Bennelong Point at the eastern entrance to Sydney Cove, the Sydney Opera House is one of the defining masterpieces of twentieth-century architecture and has been inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2007. Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon after winning an international competition in 1957 and formally opened on 20 October 1973, its interlocking precast concrete shells rise up to 67 metres above the harbour water.

Why the roof shells look the way they do

For years after Utzon's sketches won the competition, engineers at Ove Arup and Partners struggled to calculate how to build the free-form sails until Utzon realised in 1961 that every single shell section could be cut from the geometry of a single sphere of identical 75.2-metre radius. This spherical solution allowed 2,194 precast concrete rib segments to be cast on site and tensioned together with steel cables. Instead of flat white paint, the outer surface of the shells is clad in 1,056,006 Swedish-made Höganäs ceramic tiles arranged in chevrons of glossy white and matte cream, which self-clean in the rain and shift in tone from bright ivory at midday to warm gold at sunset. During the winter Vivid festival (covered in our best time to visit Sydney guide), three-dimensional light projections map directly across the tiled sails.

Walking the free exterior vs booking an interior tour or performance

Anyone can walk around the granite Monumental Steps, the Western Broadwalk, and the Northern Broadwalk tip of Bennelong Point free of charge at any time of day. However, you cannot enter the performance halls without either a show ticket or an official guided tour booking. Six separate venues sit beneath the shells and the podium:

• The Concert Hall: Housed under the largest set of eastern shells, featuring white birch timber panelling, the 10,154-pipe Sydney Opera House Grand Organ (the largest mechanical tracker-action organ in the world), and upgraded acoustic reflectors where the Sydney Symphony Orchestra performs.
• The Joan Sutherland Theatre: Occupying the second major shell group, serving as the Sydney home of Opera Australia and The Australian Ballet.
• The Utzon Room, Drama Theatre, Playhouse and Studio: Located within the red-granite podium; the Utzon Room is the only interior space completed entirely to Jørn Utzon's own design, featuring a floor-to-ceiling eastern harbour window and a colourful woollen wall hanging designed by Utzon.

Bennelong Point's Indigenous history and cooling seawater system

Long before European arrival, the tidal point and small island at the eastern edge of Sydney Cove was known to the Gadigal people as Tubowgule ("where the knowledge waters meet") and piled high with oyster middens. After 1788 it was named Bennelong Point after Woollarawarre Bennelong, a senior Wangal man of the Eora Nation for whom Governor Arthur Phillip built a small brick hut on the point in 1790. Beneath the building's granite podium, Utzon and his engineers also pioneered an early sustainable cooling system that pumps seawater directly from Sydney Harbour through thirty-five kilometres of circulating pipes to air-condition the theatres and exhibition halls without cooling towers on the roof.

Where to photograph the Opera House and how to pair your visit

Three angles give you completely different perspectives of the building. First, walk twenty minutes east along the Farm Cove path in the Royal Botanic Garden to Mrs Macquarie's Point to frame the white shells directly in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Second, walk across to Campbell's Cove or the Overseas Passenger Terminal terrace in The Rocks for a full western broadside view across Sydney Cove. Third, board the public F1 or F2 ferry from Circular Quay (explained in our getting around Sydney guide) to photograph the northern tips of the shells from the water, then return in the late afternoon for a drink and Sydney rock oysters on the lower concourse at Opera Bar.