Abstract
Abstract. Frei Otto is usually linked in the historiography of modern architecture to the German Pavilion for the Montreal Expo and the Olympic Stadium in Munich, a couple of works that have typically been regarded as predecessors of High-Tech architecture. But his contribution to architecture goes far beyond these worldwide famous works and can better be traced in his rich experience at the Institute for Lightweight Structures in Stuttgart, as an insightful observer of natural and man-made objects and as an investigator of the relationship between form, force and mass. He has developed new types of structures which often refer to primitive building types and can therefore be easily found in vernacular architecture: tents, nets, gridshells, branching constructions, folding roofs, umbrellas, as well as pneumatic and suspended constructions. All of them are the outcome of a very thorough process of investigation at his institute, which usually also included a survey of these building types in vernacular architecture. The target of this paper is to explore this relationship, and to test whether the strive for lightness can be regarded as a common ground between vernacular architecture and Frei Otto's work. In any case, his endeavour to get the maximum with the minimum, to achieve a lot from a little, is also a key target of sustainability and an essential feature of vernacular architecture.
Highlights
When considering sustainability in vernacular architecture, one key feature refers to austerity and a wise use of materials, trying to take full advantage of their physical behaviour and reach optimal performance
After finding sustainability lessons of vernacular architecture in Frei Otto’s work, this paper concludes with an example of a contribution of Frei Otto’s work to vernacular architecture, a self-built reed gridshell, to illustrate the different gridshells that have so far been built with bamboo in different places of the world, and the possibilities of this sustainable building material
In this itinerary we have been following to inquire into the sustainability lessons underlying the relationship between vernacular architecture and Frei Otto’s work, attention has been focused on tents, membrane structures, yurts and gridshells
Summary
When considering sustainability in vernacular architecture, one key feature refers to austerity and a wise use of materials, trying to take full advantage of their physical behaviour and reach optimal performance. There is an urge to make the most out of a limited amount of materials available This endeavour to get the most out of the least connects vernacular architecture with a tradition towards lightness developed by pioneering civil and structural engineers, in an effort to increase efficiency and strength with ever weight-reducing structural elements. Some of the best known examples of this movable and deployable architecture, like tents or yurts, have been considered by architectural historians and theoreticians as archetypes of architecture These primitive building types inspired a contemporary champion of lightness and structural efficiency: the German architect, engineer, inventor and researcher Frei Otto (19252015). We intend to explore the extent to which this primitive architecture influenced the work of Frei Otto, and the developments that he brought to this age-old tradition and to modern architecture, through the strive for lightness and efficiency of civil and structural engineers
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