Frei Otto the German born architect and structural engineer sadly passed away a week today. The untimely passing comes just two weeks before he was to be awarded the Pritzker Prize, architecture’s most significant award. The Pritzker jury commented that Otto”…..embraced a definition of architect to include researcher, inventor, form-finder, engineer, builder, teacher, collaborator, environmentalist, humanist, and creator of memorable buildings and spaces” and made the award in recognition of “his visionary ideas, inquiring mind, belief in freely sharing knowledge and inventions, his collaborative spirit and concern for the careful use of resources.”
Frei Otto was noted for the tensile and membrane structure of the 1972 Olympic Games stadium in Munich, the German pavilion for the 1967 World Expo in Montreal, and the soaring steel mesh aviary at Munich Zoo. These works influenced renowned architects such as Norman Foster, Michael Hopkins and Nicholas Grimshaw.
For the Guardian article on Frei Otto please click here
For more information on Frei Otto please click here
