• • “Pneus are ugly”, Philip Johnson reportedly exclaimed when Frei Otto presented him with his pneumatic experiments. A “pneu” is an elastic surface encasing a fluid medium that can both enable growth and accommodate changing forces and stresses through its movement. The word pneu can be applied to the technical (rubber tyres) as well as the natural (biological cells).
    
    Pneumatic structures were one of the key areas of Otto’s research into the creation of forms drawn from nature. His experiments are primarily documented in photographs that appeared in IL 12 Convertible Pneus, published in 1975, depicting entire landscapes made up of plaster models that form contours and cast shadows; wire cables, cutting into elastic surfaces and tubes, rising up and collapsing down.
    
    The master investigator was not unaware of the sensuous aspect of pneumatic structures and published his thoughts in 1985 in the short essay Sinnliche Architektur (Sensual Architecture). The text is a call for more expressive forms in architecture which move and, when possible‚ arouse the viewer. Philip Johnson later began experimenting with pneumatics himself, to which Otto commented: “From extreme ugliness a path leads via the erotic to the aesthetic and back again”.  I (Franziska Stein)

  “Urpneu air fish” model (Photo: © DAM and Frei Otto)

  Blow Up

   

  Otto experiments with pneumatics

• COVER

  COVER

  Cover

  Frei Otto
• Table of contents

  Table of contents
• EDITORIAL

  EDITORIAL

  Editorial

  Frei Otto
• FOUND

  FOUND

  The Last Word First
• PHOTO ESSAY

  PHOTO ESSAY

  The Lightness of Being

  Frei's thought bubbles
• ESSAY

  ESSAY

  Frei by Name, Frei by Nature

  A life extraordinary by Irene Meissner

  Text: Irene Meissner
• FOUND

  FOUND

  True to Type

  Otto experiments with typography

  Text: Franziska Stein
• CASE STUDY

  CASE STUDY

  Halle-luja

  The Mannheim Multihalle, 1975

  Text: Cristiane Weber
• ESSAY

  ESSAY

  The Stuttgart Boys

  Frei association: bionics, parametrics, morphogenics and more… by Sophie Lovell

  Text: Sophie Lovell
• CASE STUDY

  CASE STUDY

  Paperweight

  Japanese Pavilion, Hanover Expo 2000

  Text: Rob Wilson
• CASE STUDY

  CASE STUDY

  Heart of Lightness

  Diplomatic Club, Saudi Arabia, 1985

  Text: Sara Faezypour
• FOUND

  FOUND

  The Fast and the Curious

  Otto experiments with mobility

  Text: Franziska Stein
• INTERVIEW

  INTERVIEW

  Otto and the Open System

  Georg Vrachliotis in conversation with Jean-Philippe Vassal

  Text: Georg Vrachliotis
• CASE STUDY

  CASE STUDY

  Featherweight

  Hellabrun Zoo Aviary, Munich, 1980

  Text: Fiona Shipwright
• FOUND

  FOUND

  When Frei met Bucky

  A meeting of like minds

  Text: Sara Faezypour
• PHOTO ESSAY

  PHOTO ESSAY

  Reflections of an Enquiring Mind

  Otto’s archive of ideas

  Text: Georg Vrachliotis
• FOUND

  FOUND

  Wood Works

  Otto experiments with furniture

  Text: Franziska Stein
• CASE STUDY

  CASE STUDY

  Flyweight

  West German Pavilion, Montreal Expo 67

  Text: Fiona Shipwright
• FOCUS

  FOCUS

  Honouring Otto

  Focus on Frei Otto by his peers and colleagues

  Text: Stephan Becker
• CASE STUDY

  CASE STUDY

  Moving Mountains

  Olympic Stadium, Munich, 1972

  Text: Rob Wilson
• FOUND

  FOUND

  Blow Up

  Otto experiments with pneumatics

  Text: Franziska Stein
• ESSAY

  ESSAY

  Twenty Feet from Mies to Frei

  Mies student and Otto disciple Conrad Roland

  Text: Oliver Elser
• FOUND

  FOUND

  Arctic City

  Otto experiments with environments

  Text: Franziska Stein
• KLAUSTOON

  KLAUSTOON

  Klaustoon

  XXIII. Pritzker Prize 2015: Missed It By 'This' Much...

  Text: Klaus
• NEXT

  NEXT

  Next

  Commune Revisited

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