He began a private practice in Germany in 1952. He earned a doctorate in tensioned constructions in 1954.[1] His saddle-shaped cable-net music pavilion at theBundesgartenschau (Federal Garden Exposition) inKassel 1955[2] brought him his first significant attention.
Until his death, Otto remained active as an architect and engineer, and as consultant to hisprotégéMahmoud Bodo Rasch for a number of projects in the Middle East. One of his more recent projects was his work withShigeru Ban on the Japanese Pavilion atExpo 2000 with a roof structure made entirely of paper, and together withSL Rasch GmbH Special and Lightweight Structures he designed a convertible roof for the Venezuelan Pavilion.[5] In an effort to memorialise theSeptember 11 attacks and its victims as early as 2002, Otto envisioned the two footprints of theWorld Trade Center buildings covered with water and surrounded by trees; his plan includes a world map embedded in the park with countries at war marked with lights and a continuously updated board announcing the number of people killed in war from 11 September 2001, onward.[6]
On request ofChristoph Ingenhoven, Otto was consultant for special construction for the design of the "Light eyes" forStuttgart 21.[7] – drop-shaped overlights in the park, that descend onto the tracks to support the ceiling.[8][9] Otto remarked in 2010 that the construction should be stopped because of the difficult geology.[10][11]
Otto died on 9 March 2015; he was to be publicly announced as the winner of the 2015Pritzker Prize on 23 March but his death meant the committee announced his award on 10 March.[12][13] Otto himself had been told earlier that he had won the prize by the executive director of the Pritzker Prize,Martha Thorne. He was reported to have said, "I've never done anything to gain this prize. Prize winning is not the goal of my life. I try to help poor people, but what shall I say here — I'm very happy."[13]
Conrad Roland:Frei Otto – Spannweiten. Ideen und Versuche zum Leichtbau. Ein Werkstattbericht von Conrad Roland. Ullstein, Berlin, Frankfurt/Main und Wien 1965.
Muriel Emanuel, Dennis Sharp: "Contemporary Architects", New York: St. Martin's Press. 1980. p. 600.ISBN0-312-16635-4
Frei Otto, Bodo Rasch:Finding Form: Towards an Architecture of the Minimal, 1996,ISBN3-930698-66-8
Winfried Nerdinger:Frei Otto, Complete Works: Lightweight Construction – Natural Design, 2005,ISBN3-7643-7231-1,ISBN978-3-7643-7231-6 - published on the occasion of the exhibitionFrei Otto Lightweight Construction, Natural Design at the Architekturmuseum der Technischen Universität München in der Pinakothek der Moderne from 26 May to 28 August 2005, and cataloguing over 200 buildings and projects dating from the years 1951-2004
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