The Legend: Frei Paul Otto

This legend was born in 31 May 1925 in Siegmar, Germany. He was an architect and a structural engineer. When it concerns the use of lightweight materials there was no one better. He specializes in the use of tensile and membrane structures.

He was a man of many talents. In 1945, he was conscripted as a fighter jet in the WWII. During the same period he intern in Prisoners of War Camp near Chartres.

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.

CAREER HIGHLIGHT

Frei Otto started his Private practice in 1952 after returning to Germany. His first notable work was at Bundesgartenschau (Federal Garden Exposition) in Kassel. It was a "saddle-shape cable-net music pavilion. He obtained doctorate in 1954 on Tensile Constructions.

He 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 in1967 and the roof of the 1972 Munich Olympic Arena.

The Olympic Stadium Munich.

 Hall at the International Garden Exhibition, 1963, Hamburg, Germany

The 1967 International and Universal Exposition or Expo 67, 1967, Montreal, Canada

Selected Awards 

•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 RIBA  2006 – Premium Imperiale in Architecture
•2015 – Pritzker Architecture Prize

Pritzker Award and Death.

Death is an inevitable end no mortal can resist it call. 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  made an impromptu announcement of  his award on 10 March.

Frei Otto was best known for his lightweight structural style and his collaborative, holistic approach to architecture, Otto -- who had sadly passed away on March 9 -- is the 40th laureate of the Pritzker Prize and the second laureate from Germany.

Past recipients in recent years include Shigeru Ban (2014), Toyo Ito (2013), Wang Shu (2012), Eduardo Souto de Moura
(2011), SANAA (2010), and Peter Zumthor (2009). Laureates receive a $100,000 grant, a formal citation certificate, and a
bronze medallion based on the designs of famed Chicago architect Louis Sullivan.

It was reported that  Otto himself had been told earlier that he had won the prestigious prize by the executive director of the Pritzker Prize, Martha Thorne. 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."

Tributes

Zaha Hadid has paid tribute to "inspirational and enlightening" late German architect Frei Otto, while Norman Foster said Otto's "extraordinary structures altered the nature of architectural form in the 20th century".

Foster added that Otto's "environmentalism, intelligence and foresight have established the defining architectural mentality for the 21st [Century]."

"We first met in Germany early in my career and he became a dear friend," Hadid told Dezeen, following news that the architect had posthumously been awarded the Pritzker Prize

I believe Architect/ Engineer Frei Otto died happy at age 89 in Warbronn, Germany.

Further Reading about him, his works, and awards here on:
Wikipedia
Bustler

Yours

Klem

BUILDING ART: THE LIFE AND WORK OF FRANK GEHRY Paul Goldberger

From Pulitzer Prize–winning architectural criticPaul Goldberger: an engaging, nuanced exploration of the life and work of Frank Gehry,undoubtedly the most famous architect of our time. This first full-fledged critical biography presents and evaluates the work of a man who has almost single-handedly transformed contemporary architecture in his innovative use of materials, design, and form, and who is among the very few architects in history to be both respected by critics as a creative, cutting-edge force and embraced by the general public as a popular figure.

Building Art shows the full range of Gehry’s work, from early houses constructed of plywood and chain-link fencing to lamps made in the shape of fish to the triumphant success of such late projects as the spectacular art museum of glass in Paris. It tells the story behind Gehry’s own house, which upset his neighbors and excited the world with its mix of the traditional and the extraordinary, and recounts how Gehry came to design the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, his remarkable structure of swirling titanium that changed a declining city into a destination spot. Building Art also explains Gehry’s sixteen-year quest to complete Walt Disney Concert Hall, the beautiful, acoustically brilliant home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Although Gehry’s architecture has been written about widely, the story of his life has never been told in full detail. Here we come to know his Jewish immigrant family, his working-class Toronto childhood, his hours spent playing with blocks on his grandmother’s kitchen floor, his move to Los Angeles when he was still a teenager, and how he came, unexpectedly, to end up in architecture school. Most important, Building Art presents and evaluates Gehry’s lifetime of work in conjunction with his entire life story, including his time in the army and at Harvard, his long relationship with his psychiatrist and the impact it had on his work, and his two marriages and four children. It analyzes his carefully crafted persona, in which a casual, amiable “aw, shucks” surface masks a driving and intense ambition. And it explores his
relationship to Los Angeles and how its position as home to outsider artists gave him the freedom in his formative years to make the innovations that characterize his genius.

Finally, it discusses his interest in using technology not just to change the way a building looks but to change the way the whole profession of architecture is practiced.

Paul Goldberger is my favorite architectural critics. I have no doubt that this is a master piece about a master of architecture.

The book is sold for $35.00 here.

Information from bookhampton.com was used in this report.