Pritzker prize awarded to Frei Otto, a day after his death

The jury overseeing this year’s Pritzker prize, considered the Nobel prize of architecture, on Tuesday announced the prize would go to German architect Frei Otto, who had passed away the preceding day.

The jury, which praised the sensitivity of Otto’s works, had visited him before his death to inform him of their decision.

“The news of his passing is very sad, unprecedented in the history of the prize. We are grateful that the jury awarded him the prize while he was alive,” said Tom Pritzker, president of prize sponsor The Hyatt Foundation, at its Chicago headquarters.

On hearing of the award at home in Warmbronn Germany, Otto said, “I will use whatever time is left to me to keep doing what I have been doing, which is to help humanity. You have here a happy man.”

The prize recognizes Otto’s visionary ideas and pioneering work using lightweight adaptable structures and materials such as mesh.

The organization emphasized, “Frei Otto’s career is a model for generations of architects and his influence will continue to be felt.”

The German architect’s most famous works include the roofing for the 1972 Olympics stadium in Munich, the pavilion at the Montreal Expo in 1967, St. Luke’s Church in Bremen in 1963, and the Japanese Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hanover in collaboration with Shigeru Ban.

The prize ceremony will be held on May 15 at the New World Center in Miami.

Previous recipients include American architect Frank Gehry (1989), Brazilian Oscar Niemeyer (1968), Spaniard Rafael Moneo (1196), Briton Norman Foster (1999) and more recently, Japanese Shigeru Ban (2014).