The Utzon Center is located in the small harbor city of Aalborg and is dedicated to the man who not only gave Sydney an opera house butt also gave Australia a cultural icon. Jorn Utzon's architecture was inspired by his childhood in Aalborg where his father was a renowned boat designer and naval engineer. Although, designing the Sydney Opera House, Utzon never saw its completion. He left Sydney seven years before construction was finished and became known, to many, as a recluse architect that declined several invitations to return to Australia. Before becoming a great architect in his own right, Jorn Utzon traveled the world much like myself, perhaps leaving a mark in his own way too. He worked under Alvar Aalto and admired the work of both Gunnar Asplund and Frank Lloyd Wright. His competition entry for the Sydney Opera house consisted of only preliminary drawings and one judge in particular found it be "genius". Eero Saarinen, fully supported Utzon revolutionary design and vowed not to back another one of the many entries.
The Center is built on a prominent part of the harbor-front and is home to exhibitions, virtual presentations, and an Utzon Archive. My visit also included a social with architecture students from Aalborg but soon Danish cuisine had something more to to say than Danish the students. I too had to resort to seclusion but unfortunately not to Majorca. However, the washrooms were not too unlike the tropical Spanish Island where Utzon spent much of his time. Clearly ship construction came in handy for bathroom design because I had a bon voyage. It was clean, sleek, and gently flooded with natural light. Who knows, with that kind off performance it might just be this years Danish representative in the first ever Toilet Bowl.
