Aage Utzon

Aage Utzon (born 1885) was educated as a naval engineer in Newcastle and worked for a few years at the B&W Shipyard before he was offered the position of works engineer at Aalborg Shipyard.

After the arrival in Aalborg, Aage Utzon began constructing sharp-sterned vessels of wood in his spare time. This type of boat was very fast and seaworthy, so it soon became popular and made Aage Utzon a renowned boat designer.

Read more about the Spidgatter Shipyard

Aage Utzon was a very active person to whom nature and the sea were very important. Therefore, he contributed to the foundation of Aalborg Søspejdertrop (Aalborg Sea Scouts) where both og his sons, Leif and Jørn Utzon, were members. Encouraged by his sons, he even constructed a so-called "Aalborg Jolle" (Aalborg Boat) in 1929 that gained such popularity that it was chosen in 1940 as the official training boat for sea scouts in Denmark.

Aage Utzon had major influence on Jørn Utzon´s work methods as an architect. Among other things, he taught Jørn Utzon to be very through and to pay attention to even the smallest detail of a structure. Jørn Utzon also adopted som technical boat construction methods such as producing cross-sectional models and precise large-scale models.

Both Jørn Utzon and his father were skilled model constructors, so as a young man, Jørn Utzon helped his father build models of the sharp-sterned vessels, and in return, Aage Utzon later helped his son build the first model of the Sydney Opera House.

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