Additive Architecture

He realized that his own architecture reflected the same principle, just as the transitions in primitive societies between family, village and the surrounding world have visible links revealing differences, relations and distances.

[2] Utzon observed the additive approach in Chinese temples whose stacked timber structures are basically identical, differing only with the size of the building.

In his "Additive Architecture" manifesto in 1970, he tells us how he saw the phenomenon reflected in a group of deer at the edge of a forest or in the pebbles on a beach, convincing him that buildings should be designed more freely rather than in identical box shapes.

[4] Examples of the Additive Architecture approach in Utzon's work can also be seen in his designs for the unbuilt Silkeborg Museum, the Farum Town Centre proposal, the Herning expansion plan including a "school town" and the flexible Espansiva approach for low-cost housing which only resulted in a prototype.

Perhaps the best example of all is the proposal for a major sports centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, based on the use of a limited number of repeating elements.