The German architect Frei Otto won the Pritzker Prize by virtue of his “airy tent-like structures and other inventive feats of engineering,” said the New York Times. However, Otto died right before the announcement was to be made. The Pritzker, which usually goes to a living architect, is regarded as architecture’s highest honor, according to The New York Times. “The committee said it was the first time that the winner had died before it was announced.“
He has embraced a definition of an architect to include researcher, inventor, form-finder, engineer, builder, teacher, collaborator, environmentalist, humanist, and creator of memorable buildings and spaces,” the Pritzker jury said in its citation. Otto died in Germany on March 9 at the age of 89. He may not be a well-known name, but he designed the 1972 Olympic Games stadium roof canopies and was widely respected in the profession. He designed Japan’s pavilion for the 2000 Hannover Expo in Germany in collaboration with Shigeru Ban, using paper and sand, which allowed the structure to be taken down and recycled, according to designboom.com, an architecture history site.
Tomomi Fujiwara, a sophomore in graphic design from Japan, shared her opinion about Otto’s design, “From taking a look of the appearance of Mr. Otto’s work, I feel his design is very lively. He combines buildings and nature together; it makes the builds have vitality. Also, the color is so clear, for those large outside architectures, having enough day-lighting is important.”Yuki Nyzi, a freshman majoring in psychology, shared her opinion from the viewpoint of anthropology. “
I feel that those architects’ contributions are not for themselves or the specific group of people. It is more for society and humanity. They share their design concepts, living concepts through those buildings, and people who see them will get inspired and cultivate artistic sense ”A member of the Pritzker jury and a past laureate, the British architect Richard Rogers had said, “Frei Otto is one of the great architects and engineers of the 20th Century. His work has inspired and influenced modern architecture, as we all learn to do more with less, and to trade monumental structures for the economy, light, and air.
”Otto’s work has been widely acknowledged. Besides this Pritzker, also received the Royal Gold Medal for architecture from the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2005, and won the 18th annual Premium Imperiale prize for architecture in 2006, said the New York Times. Uploaded March 20, 2015