Frei Otto

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Frei Otto
Born
Frei Paul Otto

(1925-05-31)31 May 1925
Siegmar (nowadays part of Chemnitz), Germany
Died9 March 2015(2015-03-09) (aged 89)
Warmbronn, Germany
NationalityGerman
OccupationArchitect

Frei Paul Otto (31 May 1925 – 9 March 2015) was a German architect and structural engineer. He was noted for his use of lightweight structures, in particular tensile and membrane structures.

Works[change | change source]

He designed the roof of the Olympic Stadium in Munich which was created for the 1972 Summer Olympics. He won the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2006 and was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2015.[1]

Death[change | change source]

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 president of the committee, Martha Thorne. He was reported to have said "I’ve never done anything to gain this prize. Prizewinning is not the goal of my life. I try to help poor people, but what shall I say here — I’m very happy".

References[change | change source]

  1. "Biography: Frei Otto". The Hyatt Foundation. Retrieved 11 March 2015.

Other websites[change | change source]

Media related to Frei Otto at Wikimedia Commons