Académique Documents
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Frei Otto
Conversations:
A Princeton Architectural Press series
Other titles in this series
Santiago Calatrava
978-1-56898-325-7
Le Corbusier
978-1-56898-196-3
Louis I. Khan
978-1-56898-149-9
Rem Koolhaas
978-1-88523-202-1
Ian McHarg
978-1-56898-620-3
Paul Rand
978-1-56898-725-5
Peter Smithson
978-1-56898-461-2
A Conversation with
Frei Otto
Contents
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Illustration Credits
The Fundamentals of
Future Architecture
Frei Otto | 1997
Architecture
The art of building is old, as old as man the builder. Until today,
it does not really require the architect. The architect has existed
for about six thousand years, and the engineer builder for 150
years. For millennia, the art of building played, if not the main
role, at least a fundamental role in all culturesin technology, in
natural sciences, and in art. The division between art and science
is relatively new. Throughout history, the architects tasks have
grown and with them the specializations of all the buildingrelated professions. The architect needed help from the detailoriented scientist with mathematical gifts. Architecture is called
the mother of the arts; the engineer is its child who now claims
independence.
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towards energy, that is, in the effort to save material and energy,
to care for the environment, and to optimize construction.
Building
Constructions are auxiliary means, not ends in themselves.
For example, a bridge is a part of a human road system and
its purpose is to transcend the obstacle that is imposing upon
the communication between men. Constructions always have
a form, and some of them even have an unmistakable shape.
From the physical point of view, the best construction uses the
minimum amount of energy and material. Sometimes this type
of construction is especially beautiful. To build means to make
architecture real on the borders of knowledge.
As strange as it may seem to the non-expert, architects
and architecture students are much better at building than
engineers and engineering students. The reason is evident.
Architectural forms are constructions that have been optimized
according to tradition. The ability to build assumes the
knowledge of all architecture and construction forms, as well as
their development. To build means to advance this process, to
investigate, and to make. The development of buildings began
over ten thousand years ago and has reached an extremely
high level, but it is in no way a closed process. There are still an
infinite number of open possibilities, infinite discoveries to make.
Designing
Good architects are rare, and those who can teach how to design
buildings are even rarer. Teaching design as an artistic discipline
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Research
The big new ecological and biological tasks require a global
and integrated way of thinking and designing, especially
when dealing with works of great dimensions and significant
technological components. In the majority of cases even the best
architects or artistically gifted engineers are not yet capable to
cope with these challenges.
Today neither architects nor engineers carry out notable
research. They dont get involved with either the humanities
or natural sciences. They dont even try to approach problems
dealing with medicine, biology, or ethology, and they dont arrive
at developments worthy of mention even in the common area
of construction. Up until now, the construction industry only
supports research projects that can produce short-term benefits.
To elevate the quality of construction, basic interdisciplinary
research must begin at once, with long-term objectives that
are passed on through many generations. Productive research
must be brave! Where are the experiments, developments,
and inventions that we need most? And specifically, where
are the incursions to new territories? What do we architects
and engineers know about man, about nature, and about the
phenomenon of art?
Philosophy
A young architect, who had already designed many good
buildings, once answered me in response to a question regarding his ethics and his understanding of nature: The philosophy
of architecture has to be passed down to us by established
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A Conversation with
Frei Otto
2004
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How did you meet these engineers and how did your
relationship with them start?
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was concerned with the study of shells; only later did it also focus
on membranes. It was said back then that membranes were also
shells; I didnt agree, as they are two very different things: shells
are shells, and membranes are membranes.
Eugne Freyssinet: I didnt know him personally, either. There
was an epistolary exchange, especially between Leonhardt and
Freyssinet, and of course I have studied his work.
Bernard Laffaille: I had a very intense epistolary exchange with
him, and I alluded to his first works in my doctoral thesis. Laffaille
had already built his first metal sheets and his hanging roofs
before he had that terrible reverse with the great shell structure
of the Radio Europe No. 1 broadcasting station in Luxembourg,
which ruined him. I think that he never mentally or emotionally
recovered from this mishap. One of his children now writes
me, because there are still people from his life that keep our
relationship alive, but it wasnt as intense as one would think.
Robert le Ricolais: I met him in Philadelphia, with Louis I. Kahn,
when I was teaching in the United States. 9 I knew his work and
I think that we have mutually benefited from each other to a
certain extent, but thats it.
Flix Candela: I met him in 1958, when I traveled to Mexico and
he showed me his work. Fourteen days before his death he
called and wanted to meet me in Paris for the exhibition LArt de
lIngnieur.10 Neither one of us saw the exhibit. He had fractured
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the neck of his femur and was in a bad state of health when he
called me. But I used to see him frequently, as he came to visit
me at the institute and at the studio many times.11 He had some
difficulties, because he didnt get any jobs and couldnt go back
to his profession. I tried to help him, but it wasnt possible for
me, as I didnt have any work either. Once I met him in Madrid
Candela was born in Spain and had to go into exile due to the
Spanish civil warand on a long trip he showed me the places
linked to his childhood, to the city where he had been raised.
Pier Luigi Nervi: I didnt know him personally, although I knew
his work. Many times I was, lets say, his competitor, especially in
the bid for the Kuwait Sports City, in which Pier Luigi Nervi, Flix
Otto (on the far left) with Flix Candela (on the far right)
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for the last time, because he was at the ceremony. These are
small insignificant anecdotes, but interesting for the history of
architecture.
Did you meet Gropius during the long study trip to the
United States that you took between 1950 and 1951?
Well, not directly. We had written each other, as he had helped
me out with some letters of introduction to Richard Neutra
and Erich Mendelsohn when I was studying at the University of
Virginia; thanks to him I was able to meet all of these people. I met
him personally later, in Germany, although he had already seen
my work long beforehand. I was also in his studio in the United
States when I took that trip, but he wasnt there at the time.
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blame the engineers in these cases, because they used correctly designed programs according to the theory of elasticity.
We ask ourselves why the great master builders of medieval
vaultsand Antoni Gaud as wellwere able to build stable
structures without having all of the current methods of
calculating at their disposal, and why today these mistakes
are made even though we have this enormous computational
arsenal. The mistakes are made among professionals, students,
or imitators who make things without having really understood
them, and it seems as though the models of stability have not
been sufficiently studied in depth.
The question is how we should proceed given the fact that
we have always had two methods available to us. Therefore Fritz
Leonhardt and Ove Arup created their own laboratories and I
created my institute in Stuttgart. Leonhardt founded a second
institute of model statics in 1964, and I created and directed a
department for the construction of models in London for Ove
Arup. During those same years, specifically in 1965, calculations
by computers began to be applied. Arup had realized that it
wasnt enough to trust the calculations because there could be
phenomena that could not be explained.
The most interesting phenomenon is the buckling of
superficial structures. At what moment does a piece of
paper buckle? [Frei Otto places a piece of paper vertically
on the table.] Pay attention to this phenomenon. The paper
doesnt deteriorate; its kept intact. This type of buckling,
described by Euler, happens in an environment where we cant
talk about stress, as there is no stress, only a bit of dead load
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youth does not concern itself with loads; it takes them from a
purely theoretical formula. I have not been successful either in
motivating my collaborators to really reflect and worry about
the loads of snow or wind on buildings or about the difficulty
involving trials with models in this respect.
Therefore, its not known what happens to buildings from
a physical point of view. So the question would consist of
learning more about this unknown reality, and for this we have
two methods available. On the one hand calculus; on the other
hand, verification in the buildings themselves or experimental
verification through models, as some results can already be
obtained in models, but not from the building itself. A suspension
bridge cant be built and the stress in the cables measured
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Geometric model
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but the meshes have different sizes, and a grid shell made of a
triangular mesh cant be developed on a plane. Consequently,
quadrilateral meshes have the advantage of bars that cross the
knots continuously and permit simple construction. Hexagonal
meshes are more difficult; in a work that Im developing now,
some engineers want to use triangular or hexagonal meshes
(triangular meshes are in reality camouflaged hexagonal
meshes) and are surprised that I dont support them.
In Riyadh I wanted to use this type of mesh in order to study
how they functioned, and I had the best engineering office in the
world at my disposal. When one experiments, one should count
on the best collaborators. I havent even built my magnificent
branched supports yet; there are some in the Stuttgart airport,
but they arent mine. Nevertheless, they are very good imitations
of our project in Saudi Arabia, and it could be said that they
are proof that what I proposed is feasible; at least they are still
standing.
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How do you see the role of the institute that you founded
as a center of education in the field of lightweight
construction? Could it be said that the institute has
created a school of thought, which has educated an entire
generation of engineers and architects?
Influence would be a more adequate word, but only among a
small circle. The institute has generated knowledge, which was
published and which makes up a body of general knowledge,
although its not applied. The institute today doesnt exist as it
did before, as it now works in other areas under the direction
of my successor, Werner Sobek, who is undoubtedly a leader in
his field. The work that I carried out at the institute doesnt have
any continuity, although there are people from other institutes
throughout the world who still do similar work. I founded the
Institut fr Leichte Flchentragwerke (IL: Institute for Lightweight
Structures) and I must say that, unfortunately, I also brought it
to an end. My successor hasnt continued in the same direction,
because the university didnt want to continue working in this
way. They thought that I had strayed too far, and they wanted
to go back to doing real things with their feet on the ground.
The question about my institute is a question pertaining to
history, not the present, given the fact that the areas in which
I used to work arent studied anymore. Today they dont work
anymore on the development of lightweight surface structures
at the institute, although the term lightweight construction
continues to appear in the official name of the center. Now they
focus primarily on fillings and lattice webs or panels and energy
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The institute continues selling the old ones, and two more
have appeared since I left. The most recent one, Diatomeen 2,
is a beautiful book about diatoms, which are also grid
shells.15
My most important publication was included in the series
Form, Kraft, Masse (Form, force, mass) and appeared after
I retired.16 As emeritus professor of the institute I am still
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The BIC.
Yes, the BIC deals with finding out about and evaluating the
mass consumption of different elements such as fibers, which
are the elements with the greatest load capacity, for the
purpose of investigating the lightest possible construction of
a housea question already raised by my old friend Richard
Buckminster Fuller, who claimed that in order to know the
efficiency of a house it only had to be weighed. I said to him that
it was necessary to know at least its spans and volume. I found
the answer to the questions of volume and mass in the simple
formula that I have included in the book.
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Did you make the model only with a metallic strip with
the ends connected?
Yes, it is that simple. Of course, it has to be controlled and
reviewed. You can also make an unequal curve, but only the exact
curve of constant curvature provides infinite possibilities. You
can make a bigger or smaller circle by varying the radius just
as you can make the curves bigger or smaller. If you modify the
connection, then infinite possibilities arise. The discussion on
the concept of the infinite is extremely important. The majority of
architects dont understand that there are infinite possibilities for
architecture in the future. There are no limits.
One of the most fascinating documents that I have got here
is a computer calculation of the formula of the minimum surface
made by my collaborators Bodo Rasch, Jrgen Bradatsch, and
Bernhard Gawenat. The calculations were also made with the
formulas of an old collaborator of mine, Eberhard Haug, the
first assistant in my studio who now works in France designing
bodies for automobiles. In these documents they represented
the minimum surfacethat is, the same surface that we can
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Notes
1. Fred Severud (18991990), civil engineer of Norwegian descent, founded
Severud Associates in New York. He was responsible for the structures of
Madison Square Garden in New York City and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis,
Missouri.
2. Ove Arup (18951988), a British civil engineer, was the founder of the studio
Ove Arup & Partners, responsible for the structures of buildings such as Jrn
Utzons Sydney Opera House, Renzo Piano and Richard Rogerss Centre
Pompidou in Paris, and Norman Fosters Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank in
Hong Kong.
3. Ted Happold (19301996), a British structural engineer who worked with
Fred Severud in New York, and later, in London, with Ove Arup. In 1976 he
founded the Buro Happold in Bath (England), which currently has many
offices throughout the world.
4. Fritz Leonhardt (19091999) was one of the most important German
engineers of the twentieth century. In 1953 he and Wolfhardt Andr founded
the studio Leonhardt, Andr und Partner (LAP). He is the author of the
Stuttgart television tower and, in collaboration with Paul Bonatz, of the
Mlheimer Bridge in Cologne, Germany.
5. Intercontinental Hotel and Conference Centre in Mecca (in collaboration with
Rolf Gutbrod), Saudi Arabia, 196974.
6. Frei Otto presented his doctoral thesis on hanging roofs in 1953. The thesis
was published a year later under the title Das hngende Dach (The hanging
roof) by the Bauwelt Verlag of Berlin.
7. Otto learned about the project of the Raleigh Arena, designed in 1950 by the
architect Matthew Nowicki in the studio of Fred Severud, during a study trip
to the United States. This building had one of the first hanging roofs formed
by a network of wide-span cables and, as the motivating factor behind his
systematic investigation of tensile structures, was an important experience in
Ottos career.
8. Eduardo Torroja, Razn y ser de los tipos estructurales (Madrid: Consejo
Superior de Investigaciones Cientficas, Instituto Eduardo Torroja, 2000).
Translated by J. J. Polivka and Milos Polivka as Philosophy of Structures
(Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1958).
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he was flying fighter planes during the last two years of World
War II, or as a prisoner of war between 1945 and 1947, or when
he lived in postwar Berlin, a devastated and demolished city.
Out of the precariousness of material means, with a very
limited amount of resources, arises the necessity to imagine
new solutions, to optimize performance, to obtain the maximum
with the minimuma principle of economy that is present and
can be perceived in nature and in the universe. Matila C. Ghyka,
in his book Esthtique des proportions dans la nature et dans les
arts, formulated it as the principle of the smallest action for the
inorganic world and of the economy of substance for the organic
world. 3 We can also see the energy of this principle of economy
in the arts if we recover the conceptual richness of Mies van der
Rohes well-known aphorism proposing that we strive for more
with less and if we disconnect this statement from a style, trend,
or fashion and instead recognize it as characteristic of the works
of great formal and conceptual tension, not only of the twentieth
century, but of all timesthe works that offer the greatest effect
in the most concise means, in the words of Mies himself.
This achieving a lot from a little, perceived as a basic principle
that pervades multiple areas of life and which connects us to the
current issue of sustainability, has been one of the permanent
objectives of Ottos career. From his early work on, he considered
the principle of lightweight construction as a way of building with
a minimum consumption of material, energetic, and economic
means. This principle brought him to research and perform
innumerable measurements on all types of objects in nature and
technology to compare their structural efficiency, because he
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Notes
1. DArcy W. Thompson, On Growth and Form (1917; repr. New York: Dover,
1992).
2. Winfried Nerdinger, ed., Frei Otto: Complete Works (Basel: Birkhuser,
2005). Published in conjunction with the homonym exposition held in the
Architekturmuseum (architecture museum) of the Technical University of
Munich from May to August, 2005.
3. Matila C. Ghyka, Esthtique des proportions dans la nature et dans les arts
(Paris: Gallimard, 1927).
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Illustration Credits
Pages 15, 37, 47, 49, 61, 63, 64, 72, 81:
Juan Mara Songel
Pages 22, 23, 33, 34, 35, 44, 45, 46:
Institut fr Leichtbau Entwerfen und
Konstruieren (ILEK)
Pages 48, 56, 5859, 7475:
Atelier Frei Otto Warmbronn