Frei OTTO

(1925 – 2015)

1925 born in Chemnitz / Germany | 1943 studies architecture at “Technische Hochschule” in Berlin; military service: training as a fighter pilot | 1945 prisoner of war in France; designs prisoner of war camps with inexpensive lightweight constructions | 1948 continues to study at Technsche Hochschule | 1950 travels to the USA on a scholarship; gets to know Ludwig MIES VAN DER ROHE and Frank Lloyd WRIGHT | 1952 opens office in Berlin | 1954 publishes dissertation “Das hängende Dach” | 1971 plans to build a pneumatic dome under the Arctic Circle in collaboration with TANGE Kenzô | 2006 receives “Federal Cross of Merit” | 2006 honoured by Praemium Imperiale awarded by the imperial family of Japan | 2015 receives Pritzker Architecture Prize | 2015 died in Leonberg / Germany