Frei Otto

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Frei Paul Otto was a German architect and structural engineer noted for his use of lightweight structures, in particular tensile and membrane structures, including the roof of the Olympic Stadium in Munich for the 1972 Summer Olympics. • Otto won the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2006 and was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2015, shortly before his death. • Career: • He began a private practice in Germany in 1952. • He earned a doctorate in tensioned constructions in 1954. • His saddle-shaped cable-net music pavilion at the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Garden Exposition) in Kassel 1955 brought him his first significant attention. • Otto specialised in lightweight tensile and membrane structures, and pioneered advances in structural mathematics and civil engineering. • In 1958, Otto taught at Washington University in St. Louis' Sam Fox School of Design Visual Arts where he met Buckminster Fuller. • Otto founded the Institute for Lightweight Structures at the university of Stuttgart in 1964 and headed the institute until his retirement as university professor. Major works include the West German Pavilion at the Montreal Expo in 1967 and the roof of the 1972 Munich Olympic Arena. • He has lectured worldwide and taught at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, where he also designed some of the research facilities buildings of the school's forest campus in Hooke Park. • Until his death, Otto remained active as an architect and engineer, and as consultant to his protégé Mahmoud Bodo Rasch for a number of projects in the Middle East. • One of his projects was his work with Shigeru Ban on the Japanese Pavilion at Expo 2000 with a roof structure made entirely of paper, and together with SL Rasch GmbH Special and Lightweight Structures he designed a convertible roof for the Venezuelan Pavilion. • In an effort to memorialise the September 11 attacks and its victims as early as 2002, Otto envisioned the two footprints of the World Trade Centre buildings covered with water and surrounded by trees; his plan includes a world map embedded in the park with countries at war marked with lights and a continuously updated board announcing the number of people killed in war from 11 September 2001, onward. • On request of Christoph Ingenhoven, Otto designed the Light eyes for Stuttgart 21.– drop-shaped overlights in the park, that descend onto the tracks to support the ceiling. Otto remarked in 2010 that the construction should be stopped because of the difficult geology. • Otto died on 9 March 2015. • • Philosophy: • For Otto, the mission of architecture is to be harmonious with nature. He believes every detail needs to be in agreement with the laws of the universe. This attempt to reconcile development with the natural world makes Frei Otto a prophet to the modern field of sustainability. • • Awards and Recognitions: • Thomas Jefferson Prize and Medal in Architecture by the University of Virginia in 1974 • the Medaille de la recherché et de la technique by the Academie d’Architecture, Paris, in 1982 • the Grand Prize and gold medal by the Association of German Architects, also in 1982 • 1980 Aga Khan Award for Architecture (together with Rolf Gutbrod) for the conference centre in Mecca • 1998 Aga Khan Award for Architecture (together with Omrania and Happold) for the Diplomatic Club, Riyadh • Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, London, in 1982 • Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers, London, in 1986. In 1996 • Grand Prize of the German Association of Architects and Engineers, Berlin. In 2005 • Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) • Japan Art Association Praemium Imperiale in Architecture in 2006 • Thomas Jefferson Prize and Medal in Architecture by the University of Virginia in 1974 • the Medaille de la recherché et de la technique by the Academie d’Architecture, Paris, in 1982 • the Grand Prize and gold medal by the Association of German Architects, also in 1982 • 1980 Aga Khan Award for Architecture (together with Rolf Gutbrod) for the conference centre in Mecca • 1998 Aga Khan Award for Architecture (together with Omrania and Happold) for the Diplomatic Club, Riyadh • Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, London, in 1982 • Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers, London, in 1986. In 1996 • Grand Prize of the German Association of Architects and Engineers, Berlin. In 2005 • Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) • Japan Art Association Praemium Imperiale in Architecture in 2006 • TAG • #Towfiq_Hasan • #Frei_Otto • #Adolf Loos • #Adrian Smith • #Toyo Ito • #Vo Trong Nghia • #Walter Gropius • #Wang Shu • #WOHA • #Zaha Hadid • #highlights

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