Utzon Special Edition JU1 Pendant launched to mark 50 years of Sydney Opera House

Danish furniture manufacturer And Tradition is the custodian of various iconic Scandinavian designs, including those of Jørn Utzon's lighting. Their newly introduced edition of the JU1 pendant draws a respectful thread from Utzon's early design days to the present, while also highlighting his skill as both designer and architect. Launched as part of the Sydney Opera House's 50th anniversary, the Utzon Pendant in a new "Steel Blue" colour is the outcome of And Tradition's research into Utzon's body of work in Denmark, Spain and Australia, across which blue hues were a consistent source of inspiration to Jørn Utzon.

Utzon's lamp and the Opera House may not share the same scale or cultural gravitas, but both were born of the architect's penchant for sailboats, nature, and the sea. His 1947 lamp can be thought of as a precursor to the Opera House; the layered steel shade was inspired by the young designer's time at the shipyard where his father worked as a naval architect and his exposure to ship engineering drawings. These influences continued to inform Utzon's design oeuvre, with the Opera House representing the conceptual apex (Utzon studied nautical maps of the harbour before commencing the design). The Utzon JU1 Pendant combines four steel components constructed through deep drawing and spinning - metal-shaping techniques developed by the navy - into a lyrical, wave-like form that softly disperses light with a calculated (and typically Danish) precision.

Save a few optimizations to suit modern production, the lamp's organic silhouette has largely gone unchanged since 1947; the anniversary edition debuts a "Steel Blue" colour that Utzon loved and used in many of his buildings, including sea-side family residences in Denmark and Majorca. The curvaceous, deep-blue lacquered metal's high-gloss finish reflects light in much the same way as the sea's surface. The sheen is also reminiscent of the pearly ceramic glaze on the Opera House's Swedish-made, chevron-shaped roof tiles, which so beguilingly reflect Sydney's sky from dawn to dusk. And Tradition's creative and brand director, Els Van Hoorebeeck, said, "The more time we spent digging through archival materials, the more we saw the 'Steel Blue' shade reappear in his work. Additionally, since the Sydney Opera House is surrounded by water, 'Steel Blue' also serves as a reference to this, making the colour and high-gloss finish a wonderful tribute to its 50-year anniversary."

In conjunction with the product launch, on 19 October 2023, Jørn Utzon's design legacy was honoured with an intimate discussion hosted by And Tradition, Cult and the Utzon Centre. The lamp was displayed in the Utzon Room during the conversation, impressing upon the audience the relationship between the lighting design, the building, and the nearby sea.

The conversation resonated with me on many levels - I lived in Copenhagen for six years, visited Utzon's home-turned-museum in Majorca, and was raised by a seafaring father - but there is also something inherently relatable about stories of the Opera House and Utzon's design genius. The whole audience was moved by the common themes of family, friendship, and nature that underpinned every tale told about Utzon's daring project; despite being not only one of the world's most recognizable buildings but also infamous for its political and construction challenges, the Opera House is, ultimately, a deeply personal work.

The Utzon Special Edition in "Steel Blue" is available in Australia through Cult - and, naturally, it is suitable for both houses and boats.