What a chic: French steal our sails

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This was published 14 years ago

What a chic: French steal our sails

By Paul Bibby Urban Affairs Reporter
An artist's impression of the replica Opera House outside Paris

An artist's impression of the replica Opera House outside Paris

IF IMITATION is the sincerest form of flattery, Sydneysiders should be feeling very flattered indeed.

One of France's leading architects has proposed a replica Sydney Opera House be built on the banks of the Seine to improve Paris's outer suburbs.

Roland Castro was one of 10 architects commissioned by the President, Nicholas Sarkozy, to come up with ideas to improve the capital. His design shows a facsimile of Joern Utzon's building beside the river at Gennevilliers, on Paris's north-west fringe, which has been marred by street violence since the race riots of November 2005. The plan tries to "plant some beauty where it is now mostly ugliness," Mr Castro said.

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Utzon's son, Jan, said it was "flattering that people like the construction so much they think about re-creating it somewhere else". Mr Utzon is in Sydney to launch photographer Katarina Stuebe's book, Jorn Utzon's Sydney Opera House: A Tribute.

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