2015 Pritzker prize for architecture: Frei Otto

FOR ONLINE ONLY: Natural shapes: Among Ottos well-known works is the Olympic stadium in Munich, Germany, celebrated for its innovative lightweight roof. Photo: AFP

The late Frei Otto was awarded the Nobel Prize equivalent for architecture for his airy, structurally-ingenious works.

CITIES in flames seen from above are one of the toughest semesters for an architectural student.” This was Frei Otto, the influential German architect, engineer, teacher, and writer, who died at the age of 89 last Monday, recollecting his experience as a trainee Luftwaffe fighter pilot during WWII. The view from a Messerschmitt Bf 109 as the Third Reich went up in flames, he said, encouraged him to imagine a postwar architecture that would be transparent, democratic, non-hierarchical and free.