Otto at 80.'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 a mason who works or builds in stone. See also: Stone , Otto's astonishing a·ston·ish tr.v. as·ton·ished, as·ton·ish·ing, as·ton·ish·es To fill with sudden wonder or amazement. See Synonyms at surprise. 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 Shigeru Ban (坂茂, Ban Shigeru; born 1957 in Tokyo, Japan) is an accomplished Japanese and international architect, most famous for his innovative work with paper ). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 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 ob·sess v. ob·sessed, ob·sess·ing, ob·sess·es v.tr. To preoccupy the mind of excessively. v.intr. 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 watercolour Painting made with a pigment ground in gum, usually gum arabic, and applied with brush and water to a surface, usually paper. The pigment is ordinarily transparent but can be made opaque by mixing with a whiting to produce gouache. executed during the various phases of his career. In the manner of Russian Constructivism constructivism, Russian art movement founded c.1913 by Vladimir Tatlin, related to the movement known as suprematism. After 1916 the brothers Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner gave new impetus to Tatlin's art of purely abstract (although politically intended) and German Expressionism expressionism, term used to describe works of art and literature in which the representation of reality is distorted to communicate an inner vision. The expressionist transforms nature rather than imitates it. 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 The Pinakothek der Moderne is a modern art museum, situated in the city centre of Munich, Germany. Together with the Alte Pinakothek and the Neue Pinakothek it is part of Munich's "Kunstareal" (the "art district"). , Munich, until 28 August 2005. www.pinakothek.de |
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