Finding Form: Towards an Architecture of the Minimal.Frei Otto Frei Paul Otto (31 May, 1925) is a German architect and structural engineer. Life Otto studied architecture in Berlin before being drafted into the Luftwaffe as a fighter pilot in the last years of World War II. is well known. Bodo Rasch is his pupil, both in his office and at Stuttgart's Institute for Lightweight Structures, and has specialised in taking Frei Otto's ideas to the Holy places of Islam. This book is an expanded version of the catalogue of the exhibition held at Munich on the occasion of Otto & Rasch receiving the Deutsche Werkbund Bayer prize. There have been various other books on Frei Otto: this one excels in explaining, in simple language, the studies and experiments at the Institute of Lightweight Structures which gave shape for many of the great tents that look so effortless ef·fort·less adj. Calling for, requiring, or showing little or no effort. See Synonyms at easy. ef  fort·less·ly adv. when seen illustrated in the architectural magazines. This book is a passionate plea for lightweight structures, and Otto's more conventional buildings, such as the Berlin housing, are ignored. Heavy structures, we are told, are the architecture of power, they outlive out·live tr.v. out·lived, out·liv·ing, out·lives 1. To live longer than: She outlived her son. 2. their usefulness so that the world has too many buildings but always needs new ones. Otto, the philosopher, sees art and technology getting closer to nature. The exact sciences have crowded out the natural sciences and it is our duty to reverse this process, lightweight structures are more in harmony with nature, more life friendly, more environmentally friendly Environmentally friendly, also referred to as nature friendly, is a term used to refer to goods and services considered to inflict minimal harm on the environment.[1] and hence the architecture of the future. Nature does not waste, so as computers can handle ever greater masses of data, so we have structures resembling wasps' nests, spiders' webs, soap bubbles soap bubble An adjective referring to a dilated, smooth-contoured cyst-like or ballooned, occasionally loculated space(s). See Physaliferous Bone radiology An expansile, often eccentric, vaguely trabeculated space with a thin, sclerotic, sharply defined margin, . When dealing with large enclosures, or the need for shading See Phong shading, Gouraud shading, flat shading and programmable shading. from the sun in the hot countries of the Middle East, these arguments are utterly convincing. These may not be everyday problems for architects in the UK, but we can all be glad that Frei Otto has built with such beauty, and that he is not only an artist but also a research scientist and philosopher, who goes for results where his studies and his sensibilities take him without being held back by precedent. Bodo Rasch looks to the architecture of Islam for precedent so his tents are less inventive and more styled, nevertheless he has pushed technology in various other ways, such as the solar powered opening and closing devices for his tented tent·ed adj. 1. Covered with tents. 2. Sheltered in tents. 3. Resembling a tent. structures. JOHN WINTER |
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