ArchDaily | Broadcasting Architecture Worldwide https://www.archdaily.com/ Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://assets.adsttc.com/doodles/archdaily-logo-feedly.svg 026CB6 https://www.archdaily.com/623689/ad-classics-german-pavilion-expo-67-frei-otto-and-rolf-gutbrod Mon, 27 Apr 2015 06:00:11 +0000 David Langdon https://www.archdaily.com/623689/ad-classics-german-pavilion-expo-67-frei-otto-and-rolf-gutbrod The pivotal turning point in the late Frei Otto’s career – capped by last month’s Pritzker announcement – came nearly fifty years ago at the Expo ’67 World’s Fair in Montreal, Quebec. In collaboration with architect Rolf Gutbrod, Otto was responsible for the exhibition pavilion of the Federal Republic of Germany, a tensile canopy structure that brought his experiments in lightweight architecture to the international stage for the first time. Together with Fuller’s Biosphere and Safdie’s Habitat 67, the German Pavilion was part of the Expo’s late-modern demonstration of the potential of technology, pre-fabrication, and mass production to generate a new humanitarian direction for architecture. This remarkable collection at the Expo was both the zenith of modern meliorism and its tragic swan song; never since has the world seen such a singularly hopeful display of innovative architecture.

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