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September 30, 2004
Royal Institute of British Architects
Frei Otto wins the Royal Gold Medal
The German architect and engineer, Frei Otto,
whose pioneering tensile structures and grid shells
inspired architects such as Richard Rogers,
Michael Hopkins and Ted Cullinan, is the winner
of one of architecture’s most prestigious prizes,
the Royal Gold Medal. George Ferguson,
President of the RIBA made the announcement
at today’s meeting of the RIBA Council.
Born in 1925 in Siegmar, the son and grandson of
sculptors, Frei Otto had an early formative interest
in flight and construction, spending hours making
model aeroplanes. He served with the German
Air Force as a pilot during the war. When taken
prisoner he acted as architect for the prisoner of
war camp where being in charge of building and
repair with an acute shortage of materials led him
to consider building with the least possible materials.
His first hand experience of the laws of aerodynamics
and the principles of stretching membranes over
light frameworks were to influence his later practice
as an architect. After the war Otto studied at the
Technical University in Berlin. During the 1950s
Otto’s interest in pre-stressed tensile systems of
construction developed – the tents that have made
him famous were to follow. He is responsible for
the revival of the tent as a feature of modern architecture.
In 1955 he tested for the first time his ideas on
structures requiring a minimum of time, energy and
cost, in practice. Frei Otto’s concern with functional,
minimalist structure links him to the Bauhaus, whilst
his interest in the applications of modern technology
and research into natural forms have made him one
of the most influential German architects.
Speaking today, George Ferguson commented:
“It will give me the greatest pleasure to present
Frei Otto with the Royal Gold Medal. He has always
been one of my engineering and architectural heroes
and has a genuine claim to be one of the real greats
of the twentieth century. I hope he will recognise this
as the crowning of a truly outstanding and pioneering
career.”
Key to some of Frei Otto’s buildings was his long term,
highly productive relationship with the Stroymeyer
Company, one of the world’s leading tent-making
companies. Important tent structures designed by, or
with Otto’s involvement include the bandstand at the
1955 Federal Garden Exhibition in Kassel, Germany,
the entrance arch at the same exhibition in Cologne in
1957, and the Snow and Rocks pavilion at the Swiss
national exhibition in Lausanne in 1964. Further work
on cable network structures – tent-like buildings which
can be much lighter and span greater distances than
conventional buildings – led to some of Otto’s most
famous projects: the West German Pavilion at the
Montreal Exposition in 1967 and the roofs over several
of the sports structures at the 1972 Olympic Park in Munich.
Frei Otto was a visiting Professor at Washington, Yale,
Berkeley, and Harvard universities, as well as at M.I.T.
He also held a Professorship at the Technical
University in Berlin where he himself studied at the
beginning of his career. He has received many
international awards and honours, and has published
a variety of works on tensile and pneumatic structures.
Given in recognition of a lifetime’s work, the Royal
Gold Medal is approved personally by Her Majesty the
Queen and is given annually to a person or group of
people whose influence on architecture has had a
truly international effect.
The Jury for this year’s Royal Gold Medal was chaired
by RIBA President George Ferguson and included
Amanda Baillieu, Editor of RIBA Journal; Sir Jeremy
Dixon, architect of the Royal Opera House London;
Royal Gold Medallist Lady Patty Hopkins; engineer
Tony Hunt; past RIBA President Michael Manser CBE;
CABE Commissioner Sunand Prasad; and Sir Michael
Wilford CBE.
Frei Otto will be presented with the Royal Gold Medal
at the RIBA on 16 February 2005.
© Atelier Frei Otto Warmbronn