Preface Frei Otto was an unrivalled source of inspiration and innovation for architecture in the second half of the 20th century. He was the great pioneer of lightweight construction. He conducted fundamental research in sustainable, resourcesaving and energy-efficient building decades before the significance of these subjects became a focus of public attention. By taking into account the prevailing climatic and local conditions as well as the users in the planning process, he opened up an entirely new approach for architecture and construction. The light floating roof of the German Pavilion at the Expo 1967 in Montreal brought worldwide recognition. Frei Otto had managed to find an adequate architectural expression of the transformation of Germany with the structure. He became internationally renowned with the unique roofs created for the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972. This publication on the occasion of Frei Otto’s 90th birthday gives insights into all important aspects of his work, which focused on the development of lightweight and natural constructions as well as the study of form-finding and self-formation processes in order to create lightweight, mobile and adaptable architecture. To this end, he established a whole universe of ideas based on membranes, cable nets and retractable roofs, umbrellas, arches, gridshells, branching and pneumatic structures. The most important milestones of his work – such as the four-point tent roof in Kassel, the German Pavilion in Montreal, the Olympic roof landscape in Munich, the Multihalle in Mannheim or the eco-houses in Berlin – are introduced in this book. The way that his ideas were recognised, picked up and developed all over the world is also illustrated. Frei Otto’s exceptional achievements have been honoured with the Royal Gold Medal awarded by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the Praemium Imperiale and the Pritzker Prize. This makes him the only German architect to have received the three most renowned architectural prizes in the world. Lord Norman Foster aptly summarised his tremendous significance in the catalogue for the Exhibition of the Work of Frei Otto 2005 in the Architekturmuseum der TU München in the Pinakothek der Moderne: “As much, then, as his extraordinary sequence of works altered the nature of architectural form in the twentieth century, his environmentalism, intelligence, and foresight have established the defining architectural mentality for the twenty-first. He is an inspiration.” Special thanks go to Frei Otto, with whom we were last able to discuss this publication and agree on the foreword “Architecture Nature” in February 2015, as well as to his wife Ingrid Otto and daughter Christine Kanstinger for their friendly support. Our gratitude is expressed to Winfried Nerdinger, the editor of the Complete Works of Frei Otto, who made a summarised version possible and supported us in our work. We would also like to thank the DETAIL – Institut für internationale Architektur-Dokumentation GmbH & Co. KG, especially Cornelia Hellstern, who took on the idea of a publication about Frei Otto with such energy and enthusiasm. Irene Meissner, Eberhard Möller Munich, March 2015
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