Frei Paul Otto (; 31 May 1925 – 9 March 2015) 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
''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games. An Olympic stadium is the site of the opening and closing ceremonies. Many, though not all, of these venues actually contain the words ''Olympic Stadium'' as ...
in Munich for the
1972 Summer Olympics
The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 19 ...
.
Otto won the
RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2006 and was awarded the
Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2015, shortly before his death.
Early life
Otto was born in , Germany, and grew up in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
. He studied architecture in Berlin before being
drafted into the
Luftwaffe
The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...
as a
fighter pilot in the last years of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. He was interned in a prisoner of war camp near
Chartres (France) and with his
aviation engineering training and lack of material and an urgent need for housing, began experimenting with
tents for shelter.
After the war he studied briefly in the US and visited
Erich Mendelsohn,
Mies van der Rohe,
Richard Neutra, and
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
.
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.
[ He founded the Institute for Lightweight Structures at the University of ]Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...
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
An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectator ...
. 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 more recent projects was his work with Shigeru Ban on the Japanese Pavilion at ]Expo 2000
Expo 2000 was a World Expo held in Hanover, Germany from 1 June to 31 October 2000. It was located on the Hanover Fairground (Messegelände Hannover), which is the largest exhibition ground in the world. Initially some 40 million people were exp ...
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
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
and its victims as early as 2002, Otto envisioned the two footprints of the World Trade Center 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 :de: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.[Video: ]
Animation. Stuttgart 21 – Ein Bahnhof kommt unter die Erde.
'' and pictures:
' Otto remarked in 2010 that the construction should be stopped because of the difficult geology.
Otto died on 9 March 2015; he was to be publicly announced as the winner of the 2015 Pritzker Prize on 23 March but his death meant the committee announced his award on 10 March.[ Otto himself had been told earlier that he had won the prize by the executive director of the Pritzker Prize, ]Martha Thorne
Martha Thorne is an American architectural academic, curator, editor, and author. She is the Executive Director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize and Dean in the architecture school at IE University in Madrid. Formerly, she was a curator in arc ...
. He was reported to have said, "I've never done anything to gain this prize. Prize winning is not the goal of my life. I try to help poor people, but what shall I say here — I'm very happy."[
]
List of buildings
This is a partial list of buildings designed by Otto:[
* 1957 – ''Tanzbrunnen'' pavillion ]Rheinpark
The Rheinpark (meaning: ''Rhine park'') is a 40 hectare (0,4 km²) large urban park along the right bank of the river Rhine in Cologne, Germany. The park lies between the Cologne districts of Deutz and Mülheim and includes a beach c ...
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
, Germany
* 1967 – West Germany Pavilion at Expo 67
The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It was a category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most su ...
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
, Canada
* 1972 – Roof for Olympic Stadium, Munich
Olympiastadion () is a stadium located in Munich, Germany. Situated at the heart of the '' Olympiapark München'' in northern Munich, the stadium was the main venue for the 1972 Summer Olympics.
The original capacity was maximally and officiall ...
, Germany
* 1974 – Convention Center in Mecca
Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow v ...
, Saudi Arabia
* 1975 – Multihalle, Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...
, germany
* 1977 – Umbrellas for 1977 Pink Floyd tour
* 1980 – Aviary at Munich Zoo, Germany
* 1985 – Tuwaiq Palace
Tuwaiq Palace or Towaiq Palace is a building in the Alhattan Street of the Diplomatic Quarter district in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which hosts government functions, state receptions, and cultural festivals that introduce Saudi arts and customs to t ...
, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...
, with Buro Happold
* 1987–91– Housing at the International Building Exhibition Berlin, Germany
* 2000 – Roof structure of the Japanese Pavilion at Expo 2000
Expo 2000 was a World Expo held in Hanover, Germany from 1 June to 31 October 2000. It was located on the Hanover Fairground (Messegelände Hannover), which is the largest exhibition ground in the world. Initially some 40 million people were exp ...
, Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
Germany (provided engineering assistance with Buro Happold and architectural collaboration with Shigeru Ban)
Expo 67 Montreal Canada (4).jpg, Interior view, West Germany Pavilion, Expo 67
The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It was a category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most su ...
, Montreal, Canada
Herzogenriedpark Mannheim Multihalle Deckenkonstruktion.jpg, ''Multihalle'' in Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...
UniStuttgart-IL-pjt1.jpg, Institut für Leichte Flächentragwerke, University of Stuttgart
Awards (selected)
* 1974 – Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture
* 1980 – Honorary doctorate of science from the University of Bath
* 1996/97 – Wolf Prize in Architecture[
* 2005 – Royal Gold Medal for architecture by RIBAThe man with the golden pen]
''Building.co.uk'', 2005 issue 08
* 2006 – Praemium Imperiale in Architecture
* 2015 – Pritzker Architecture Prize[Pritzker Prize for Frei Otto, German Architect, Announced After His Death]
Robin Pogrebin, ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', 10 March 2015
See also
* Gridshell
References
Further reading
* Conrad Roland: ''Frei Otto – Spannweiten. Ideen und Versuche zum Leichtbau''. Ein Werkstattbericht von Conrad Roland. Ullstein, Berlin, Frankfurt/Main und Wien 1965.
* Philip Drew: ''Frei Otto – Form and Structure'', 1976, ,
* Philip Drew: ''Tensile Architecture'', 1979, ,
* Muriel Emanuel, Dennis Sharp: "Contemporary Architects", New York: St. Martin's Press. 1980. p. 600.
* Frei Otto, Bodo Rasch: ''Finding Form: Towards an Architecture of the Minimal'', 1996,
* Winfried Nerdinger: ''Frei Otto, Complete Works: Lightweight Construction – Natural Design'', 2005, , - published on the occasion of the exhibition ''Frei Otto Lightweight Construction, Natural Design'' at the Architekturmuseum der Technischen Universität München in der Pinakothek der Moderne from 26 May to 28 August 2005, and cataloguing over 200 buildings and projects dating from the years 1951-2004
External links
*
Frei Otto's official website
''Frei Otto: Spanning The Future''
Documentary film's official Website
SL Rasch GmbH Homepage
Last recorded interview with Frei Otto, about his life and receiving the Pritzker Prize
– by uncube magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Otto, Frei
1925 births
2015 deaths
German World War II pilots
People from Chemnitz
Structural engineers
Tensile architecture
High-tech architecture
Tensile membrane structures
Washington University in St. Louis faculty
Studienstiftung alumni
Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg
Pritzker Architecture Prize winners
Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal
Wolf Prize in Arts laureates
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin
20th-century German architects
German prisoners of war in World War II held by France