The building consists of two distinct elements. A solid base and some covers over her appearance slightly. The first is, in fact, the building itself and distributes all areas of service: dressing rooms, rehearsal rooms, warehouses, offices and library. It is designed as a base for the upper deck, but also has been interpreted as a large high plateau on which "serves" the spectacle, and its upper level, fully horizontal, only break in shaping the public stands of the two rooms-one for opera and concerts, and another to allow for timely access by stairs from below. This esplanade top folds into the streets in the form of a grand staircase, across its width. The entire building is angular and socket covered with dark stone, which gives a. image of solidity tectonics. Even the openings appear to have been made after building facades, so that the same stone stands as a visor to the window.
The other side of the building, deck, is a series of shell resting on a triangular corner and open up as a challenging stability. These shells covering the three spaces to the public: the theater of opera, concert hall and restaurant. Each room is covered with four pairs of valves and a restaurant with two couples. The approach of these plastic casings meets criteria opposed to those of the bottom: it is curved surfaces, white and bright idea of representing a fragmentation opposed to the idea of a unitary socket.
These ideas directors of the building were very clear from the presentation of the project in the contest until the end of the work. During the performance material was very difficult for Utzon to maintain fidelity to them by all those involved in the process. The need to work with measurable ways and that could be built by parts did not conform easily to a form of gesture and exit of the imagination.
"... planning includes even the smallest detail and takes place in an unorthodox way, where the maximum use of models and prototypes ensures nothing gets into the system before it has been carefully researched and proved to be the adequate solution to the problem ... "(Jorn Utzon)