UPCOMING/CURRENT SCREENINGS

  • AIA Honolulu
    Center for Architecture, Oahu, Hawaii
    Donkey Mill Art Center, Kona, Hawaii
    OCT 24, 2024

 

ANNOUNCEMENT - Free Online STREAMING

After four years since the film’s premiere at the School of Architecture at University of Southern California, thousands and thousands of Frei Otto’s fans watched the film at over 50 film festivals and screening events organized by universities and professional organizations around the world. The film was awarded “Best Documentary” Architecture Section at the Art Doc Festival 2017 in Rome, Italy.

Today, I am pleased to announce this film is now available stream online here on our website: freiottofilm.com.

Please help us by sharing this news with your friends and colleagues.

Simon K. Chiu, Executive Producer.


This documentary profiles internationally-renowned architect and engineer, Frei Otto. Half a century ago, Otto became world famous as a pioneer in the design of tensile structures made from metal armatures and lightweight membranes. Otto’s work includes the Mannheim Multihalle, the Munich Zoo Aviary, the 1967 Montreal World Expo German Pavilion and co-design of the 1972 Munich Olympics Stadium.

For Otto, the mission of architecture is to be harmonious with nature. He believes every detail needs to be in agreement with the laws of the universe. This attempt to reconcile development with the natural world makes Frei Otto a prophet to the modern field of sustainability. Frei Otto saw as a given, that the earth has limited resources and humanity has almost unlimited needs. To efficiently solve the problem of shelter in a climate of constant shortages, Otto combined scientific experimentation with his fertile artistic imagination. Frei Otto’s true contribution to architecture and structural engineering has only been appreciated with the perspective of time. Contemporary architects including Zaha Hadid cite Frei Otto as having been a major influence on their work. They talk about Otto’s pioneering research on lightweight architecture; his early interest in the natural environment; his sense of social responsibility; and his foresight of the needs of the future. These elements—combined with Frei Otto’s compelling presence—have made him one of the most important architects of the 20th Century—and one of those whose ideas are still resonating in our own time. This trailer was produced by Simon K. Chiu, in collaboration with writer Michael Paglia, and director Joshua V. Hassel.


 

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the evolution of tensile membrane architecture

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SYNOPSIS

Frei Otto: Spanning the Future is a documentary about the incredible life and work of Frei Otto. As an architect and engineer he laid the foundation for contemporary lightweight architecture, and his ideas are still awe inspiring decades after he revealed them. This fact was cemented when he was named the 2015 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. 

 

In one of the final interviews given before his passing, Frei Otto tells how coming of age in the years surrounding WWII influenced his work in tensile architecture. Along with Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller, Walter Gropius, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Richard Neutra, Frei Otto was a visionary. His approach to form finding to solve structural as well as social problems is the foundation for modern architecture. Frei Otto: Spanning the Future takes architecture fans on a journey through a history of architecture that inspires the world of tomorrow.

 

Filmmakers

Executive Producer: Simon K. Chiu

Written & Narrated by Michael Paglia

Directed by Joshua V. Hassel

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Featuring

Perspectives from leading architects, engineers and legendary disciples of Frei Otto

 

Gallery

Extras and behind the scenes

videos

Bonus footage and shorts

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PAST Screenings

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

  • Politecnico di Milano, Lecco, Milan, Italy

  • Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

  • Seoul International Architecture Film Festival, Seoul, Korea

  • Colorado Public Television 12, Denver, Colorado, USA

  • University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom

  • University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary

  • Arquiteturas Film Festival, Lisbon, Portugal

  • Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, USA

  • X. Istanbul International Architecture and Urban Films Festival, Istanbul, Turkey

  • ArchFilmLund 2016, Lund, Sweden

  • Milano Design Film Festival, Milan, Italy

  • Den Architektury, Prague, Czech Republic

  • Den Architektury, Jihlava, Czech Republic

  • Cinetekton! Film Festival, Puebla, Mexico

  • Washington University in St. Louis, St Louis, Missouri, USA

  • BuroHappold Engineering Hong Kong, AIA-HK, RIBA-HK, Hong Kong, China

  • LSAA 2016 @ Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

  • University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

  • Urban Eye Film Festival, Bucharest, Romania

  • Stuttgart Technology University of Applied Sciences, Stuttgart, Germany

  • National School of Architecture of Versailles, Versailles, France

  • Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia, USA

  • University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

2015

  • Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands

 

TributeS

 

Zaha Hadid

1950 - 2016

On March 31, 2016 Zaha Hadid passed away. She was an inspiration and truly integral voice in the film. Of Zaha Frei Otto said: "We do love each other in the professional sense. I love her, she is one of the best pupils of my work." She is greatly missed. 

 
 
 

Frei Otto

1925 - 2015

Frei Otto never tried to call attention to himself or his story in the making of the film. Though he considered himself an architect, sculptor, philosopher, and painter, he understood that he was only a man; something singular in a greater part of a whole. His work stands on its own as part of his greater vision for humanity. Receiving the Pritzker Prize well after the bulk of his work was created is validation that his philosophy – more than the aesthetics he achieved – will continue to inform intelligent building far into the future. 

 
 
 
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