“Frei Otto’s Pneumatic Experiments for Humanitarian Design"

Frei Otto’s Pneumatic Experiments for Humanitarian Design: The ideology and technology of lightness and adaptability.

Rob Whitehead, AIA Assoc. Prof. of Architecture Iowa State University

Otto : Pritzker & Legacy

“…a researcher, inventor, form-finder, engineer, builder, teacher, collaborator, environmentalist, humanist, and creator of memorable buildings and spaces.”

-2015 Pritzker Jury Comments

“I have never done anything to gain this prize. My architectural drive was to design new types of buildings to help poor people especially following natural disasters and catastrophes...”

-Frei Otto, upon receiving 2015 Pritzker Prize

Ideologies & Design Principles: A “Broader View” “Structures with a minimum of material and time related to economy and energy.” (1984) LIGHTNESS: “The forms of relatively lightweight constructions are rarely coincidental.. “ ADAPTABILITY: “Build light and keep mobile.”

FORM: “The search for minimal architecture is simultaneously a search for the essence of material form.”

(1990) ENVIRONMENT: “Build humanely using what we have: earth, water, air.” (1996) HUMANIST/ SOCIO-POLITICAL: “My hope is that light, flexible architecture might bring about a new and open society.” –(2003)

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Pneumatics for Humanitarian Relief Efforts

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' T h e a i r s t r u c t u r e is the m o s t e f f i c i e n t s t r u c t u r a l f o r m a v a i l a b l e t o d a t e . . . it c a n b e m a d e easily p o r t a b l e a n d lends itself r e a d i l y t o t h e d e s i g n o f d e m o u n t a b l e o r r e m o v a b l e structures.'

WALTER BIRD, 1 9 6 7

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Ideology of pneumatics “From 1954 onwards, I worked…on pneus or membranes filled with air, the lightest and most tensible of any construction…”

“Soon these became the only forms I could see in everything that was alive…my study of pneus had introduced me to a completely new world of forms…”

-Frei Otto, Complete works 2004

Otto : Built Works Tents / Membranes

Products / Prototypes Pneumatics

Systems of Design and Construction First

Otto’s design process and structural analysis was an attempt to see if the logic and potential of the project would reveal itself.

He was looking for the “why” of these structures, not just a “how”…which allowed him to suggest the “what” for functional use.

Competitions

Unbuilt- Commissioned

Otto : All Works

Speculative

Built- Commissioned

Food & Shelter : Enclosing Inhospitable Places

In his 1953 dissertation, “The Suspended Roof” he presented his first design for a large-span roof for climate control, “City in the Antarctic” Not explicitly humanitarian (the roof covers a strip mine).

Systems, not functions.

Food & Shelter : Greenhouse with Water Collection

Otto, undated ‘57-’62

Flood Control, Agricultural water, and Resiliency: Hydro-filled pneus

Otto, undated ‘57-’62

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“Tensile Structures, Volume 1: Calculations�

After hundreds of drawings, models, and various design proposals, Otto uses the next section of the book to establish basic structural fundamentals of pneumatics.

He shows that they can be analyzed.

Air Structures: Inflection Points

By 1960s, BirdAir was a multimillion dollar company. 50+ different manufacturers and builders made pneumatics.

Typically smaller structures with a primary function of “shelter” “…their simplicity could hamper their future.” –Arch Forum 1959

IASS ’67 Hosted by Otto

Sessions: General Development Applications Air-Inflated Analysis and Design Tests & Materials Speakers included: Walter Bird, Victor Lundy Heinz Isler Dante Bini Cedric Price

IASS ‘67: Shelter Vs. Artistic Experience Cedric Price, 'constructive pessimism.’ Pneumatic were being used to solve 'normal structural and shelter problems' and as such could result in actions detrimental to the development of pneumatic technology.

Victor Lundy, Spaceflowers Expo 64

‘Normality’ of experience was challenged.

Graham Stevens, Atmosfield, ‘67-71

City in the Arctic, 1971 Frei Otto, Kenzo Tange, Ove Arup & Assoc.

House 40,000 people under a 2km diameter pneumatic dome in the Arctic Circle.

Concerns for ecological future combined with the promise of innovative structural technology’s ability to provide viable solutions

Shadow in the Desert, 1972 Frei Otto

Awnings and cable nets to support agricultural efforts and shelter

Products / Prototypes, 1973-88 Frei Otto

Sarabhai Tent Project, Ahmedabad, India 1973

Research Publications: Institute for Lightweight Structures, 1971-88 University of Stuttgart

Convertible Adaptable Pneumatics IL 12, 1976 A comprehensive collage of 1,000+ actual and proposed pneumatic projects.

1st Generation: The “Balloon Analogy” 2nd Generation: The “Machine Analogy” 3rd Generation: The “Biological Organisms” Includes sketches from Otto’s work in 1957-62

Research Questions How can understand Otto’s legacy in “humanitarian design”? Ideology, practice, influence?

What happened to his work in this field AND in pneus for the last 40+ years of his career?

Limited by material technology?

Design Legacy: Agricultural Dome

A g r ic u lt u r a l A ir D o m e , 2 0 1 5

by BirdAir

A g r ic u lt u r a l A ir D o m e , 1 9 7 9

by Murata and Kawaguchi.

Design Legacy: Inflated Infrastructure

Inflated Bridge Mi l i t a r y E n g i n e e r i n g Experimental E st a b l i sh me n t ( ME X E ) Cardington, UK. 1 9 6 5

Lightweight Modular Causeway US Army Engineering, 2008

Fabridam, 1957 Des i g n : N .M . l m b e r t s o n a n d A s s o c i a t e s M a n u f a c t u r e : Firestone Coated Fabrics C o m p a The first d a m s c o n s t r u c t e d b y F i r e s t o n e w e r e 1.50 m h i g h a n d 4 0 m l o n g . T o d a y t h e h e i g h t c a n b e o v e r 4 m a n d the l e n g t h o v e r 6 0 0 m .

T h e m e m b r a n e t u b e m a d e o f h e a v y n e o p r e n e coat ed p o l y a m i d f a b r i c i s s c r e w e d o n t o a c o n crete b as e in the r i v e r a n d i s f i l l e d w i t h w a t e r o r air. T h e o v e r f l o w height can b e raised or low er ed s i m p l y t h r o u g h p u m p i n g or discharging.

There are more than 2000 inflatable rubber dams around the world.

“Herein resides his deep influence: not in forms to be copied, but through the paths that have been opened by his research and discoveries.�

-2015 Pritzker Jury Comments