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

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,

, Montreal, Canada Herzogenriedpark Mannheim Multihalle Deckenkonstruktion.jpg, ''Multihalle'' in

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 PrizePritzker 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

References

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