A DAY AFTER HIS DEATH, FREI OTTO NAMED 2015 PRITZKER PRIZE WINNER
German architect Frei Otto was named the winner of the Pritzker Prize yesterday, according to the New York Times_’ Robin Pogrebin.
The announcement was abruptly moved up after his death on Monday—two weeks before he was originally supposed to have been named this year’s laureate of the prize.
A pioneer of so-called soap-bubble architecture, Otto’s perhaps best known for roof canopies designed for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, notes Pogrebin. A natural at collaborations, he worked with Shigeru Ban on Japan’s pavilion for the 2000 Hannover Expo in Germany and with Rolf Gutbrod on the West German pavilion at the Montreal Expo of 1967.
Winner of the eighteenth annual Praemium Imperiale prize for architecture, awarded by the Japan Art Association, Otto was also the recipient of the Royal Gold Medal for architecture from the Royal Institute of British Architects.
“He has embraced a definition of architect to include researcher, inventor, form-finder, engineer, builder, teacher, collaborator, environmentalist, humanist, and creator of memorable buildings and spaces,” said the jury.
