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Otto at 80

Architectural Review, The, July, 2005 by Christian Brensing

'I have built little. But I have built many castles in the air.' Today Frei Otto's vision is as much alive as it was fifty years ago when he began to realise his first tent constructions. Born in 1925 the son of a German stone mason, Otto's astonishing career as an architect-cum-engineer has been dominated by his persistent search for lightweight constructions and the pursuit of biological-ecological studies. Apart from his own architectural designs (for instance, the famous Lightweight Structures Institute in Stuttgart), he also became one of the greatest architectural collaborators of the twentieth century. The roll call is impressive, from the German Expo Pavilion at the 1967 Montreal Expo (Rolf Gutbrod), and the Arena for the 1972 Munich Olympics (Gunter Behnisch), to the more recent Stuttgart Highspeed Railway Station (Christoph Ingenhoven) and the Japanese Pavilion for Expo 2000 in Hanover (Shigeru Ban).

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The Munich Architectural Museum has seized the occasion of Frei Otto's 80th birthday to celebrate his life and work in a major retrospective. Three large consecutive rooms unfold the plethora of Otto's design inventions and many of the delicate models, sketches, plans and photographs have left his Warmbronn studio for the first time. Divided into themes, the displays introduce the main subjects of Otto's work. Six individual animations on tents and membranes, grid shells, cable nets, inflatables, changing roofs and bifurcations provide the visitors with the essential technical knowledge to understand the highly complex but beguilingly simple-looking models. The highlight is a recently rediscovered black steel roof model of the Munich Olympic Sports Hall which was used to simulate the actual roof loads by hanging little weights from the cable net connections. The 1:125 model still exudes some of the passionate dedication that obsessed Otto and his architect Behnisch at the time, and he has managed to retain this fondness and visionary touch with his ongoing tests for the Stuttgart 21 station.

You come away from this exhibition feeling that over the decades, Otto has become synonymous with the structural freedom which can inspire architecture. Perhaps the best proof of this is Otto's numerous but hitherto unknown sketches and drawings in pencil, ink and watercolour executed during the various phases of his career. In the manner of Russian Constructivism and German Expressionism they reveal the full potential of his architectural vision. A vision that does not stop at the conventional boundaries of architecture, but which deliberately transgresses into biological phenomena and those of the universe--a fascinating spectrum to behold.

Frei Otto: Lightweight Construction, Natural Design, Complete Works, Architectural Museum, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, until 28 August 2005. www.pinakothek.de