In an announcement abruptly moved up after his death, the German architect Frei Otto on Tuesday was named the winner of the Pritzker Prize in recognition of his airy tentlike structures and other inventive feats of engineering.
周二，德国建筑师弗雷·奥托(Frei Otto)因其轻盈通透的帐篷式建筑结构，以及其他独树一帜的工程作品被授予普利兹克奖，这项决定是在他去世后迅速公布的。
Mr. Otto, 89, died in Germany on Monday, two weeks before he was to be named this year’s laureate, the prize jury said. He is perhaps best known for roof canopies designed for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, admired for their blend of lightness and strength.
奥托于周一在德国去世，享年89岁，普利兹克奖项评审团称，他本应于两周后获得该奖。他最著名的作品是为1972年慕尼黑奥运会设计的顶棚，它们既轻盈又有力，因此备受赞誉。

“He has embraced a definition of architect to include researcher, inventor, form-finder, engineer, builder, teacher, collaborator, environmentalist, humanist, and creator of memorable buildings and spaces,” the jury said in its citation.
“他相信，建筑师应当是研究者、发明者、形式的发现者、工程师、建造者、教师、合作者、环保主义者、人文主义者，乃至令人难忘的建筑与空间的创造者，”评审团在评审词中说道。
The Pritzker is regarded as architecture’s highest honor and usually goes to a living architect. The committee said it was the first time that a winner had died before the announcement was made.
普利兹克奖是建筑师的最高荣誉，通常授予尚在人世的建筑师。评奖委员会说，获奖名单尚未公布，获奖者已经死去，这还是第一次。
Mr. Otto learned of his selection early this year when Martha Thorne, the prize’s executive director, flew to Stuttgart to inform him of the jury’s choice. He was blind but otherwise in good health, the panel said. Mr. Otto was honored and surprised, according to Edward Lifson, a spokesman for the prize.
今年年初，奥托已知道自己获奖的消息，该奖项的执行官玛莎·索恩(Martha Thorne)坐飞机来到斯图加特，把评委们的意见告诉他。委员会说，他双目失明，但健康状态良好。该奖项的发言人爱德华·里弗森(Edward Lifson)说，奥托得知获奖消息，感到荣幸和惊喜。
“I’ve never done anything to gain this prize,” Mr. Otto was quoted as saying. “Prizewinning is not the goal of my life. I try to help poor people, but what shall I say here — I’m very happy.”
他引述奥托的话说“我从来没为这个奖而做过什么，普利兹克奖并不是我的人生目标。我一直努力帮助穷人，但现在我该怎么说呢——我很高兴”。
Mr. Otto may not have been a household name, but he was widely esteemed in the profession. Prominent architects had quietly pushed for him to receive the award for years.
奥托的名字或许并非家喻户晓，但他在行业内广受尊敬。多年来，许多著名建筑师都默默支持他获得该奖。
“Time waits for no man,” said Peter Palumbo, the Pritzker chairman, in a statement, calling Mr. Otto’s death “a sad and striking example of this truism.”
“时间不等人，”普利兹克奖主席彼得·帕兰波(Peter Palumbo)在一项声明中说，他说奥托的去世“是这一真理悲伤而显著的例证”。
The announcement was originally to be made on March 23. The architect Frank Gehry was to award Mr. Otto the prize at a ceremony on May 15 at the New World Center in Miami. That will proceed as scheduled, with past Pritzker laureates speaking there about Mr. Otto’s life and work.
该奖项本应于3月23日公布。5月15日，将由建筑师弗兰克·盖里(Frank Gehry)在迈阿密的新世界中心举行的典礼上为奥托颁奖。颁奖礼仍将按计划进行，届时将有往任普利兹克奖获得者进行关于奥托的生平与作品的讲演。
Mr. Otto first became known for tent structures used as temporary pavilions at the Federal Garden Show in Germany and other events in the 1950s.
奥托是在20世纪50年代最初为人们所知，当时他为德国的联邦园林展等活动设计了帐篷结构的临时建筑。
His large-scale roofs for the 1972 Olympics stadium in Munich, designed with Günter Behnisch, defied expectations, though the games were vastly overshadowed by the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes there by Palestinian terrorists.
1972年，他与甘特·班尼奇(Günter Behnisch)合作，为慕尼黑奥运会场馆设计了挑战传统的大型顶棚，然而那年的奥运会被笼罩在11名以色列运动员遭到巴勒斯坦恐怖分子杀害的阴影之下。
Mr. Otto often designed in collaboration with others, collaborating with Shigeru Ban on Japan’s pavilion for the 2000 Hannover Expo in Germany and with Rolf Gutbrod on the West German pavilion at the Montreal Expo of 1967.
奥托经常同其他人合作进行设计，他与坂茂(Shigeru Ban)合作，设计了2000年德国汉诺威世界博览会上的日本馆，与罗尔夫·古特布罗德(Rolf Gutbrod)合作设计了1967年蒙特利尔世界博览会上的西德馆。
Born in Siegmar, outside Chemnitz in eastern Germany, Mr. Otto grew up in Berlin. He designed glider planes as a hobby, fascinated by the structural forces at work when thin membranes are stretched over light frames.
奥托出生于德国东部开姆尼茨城外的西格马尔，在柏林长大。他爱好设计滑翔机，迷恋结构的力量，喜欢纤细的薄膜在轻盈的结构支撑下伸展的样子。
During service as a pilot in the Luftwaffe during World War II, he was captured near Nuremberg, Germany, and spent two years as a prisoner of war near Chartres in France, where he worked as a camp architect, learning to build various structures with the minimal materials available.
“二战”期间，他在纳粹空军中担任飞行员，在纽伦堡附近被俘，在法国沙特尔，他度过了两年战犯生涯，在战俘营担任建筑师，学会了使用手头极为简单的材料建造不同的建筑结构。
After the war Mr. Otto returned to study architecture at the Technical University of Berlin, where he earned a doctorate in civil engineering in 1954.
战后，奥托回到柏林技术大学学习建筑，1954年获得土木工程博士学位。
In a clear reaction to the heavy columned buildings commissioned under the Third Reich, Mr. Otto’s work was lightweight, democratic, low-cost and sometimes temporary.
奥托的作品轻巧、平民化、低成本，有时是临时建筑，这显然是对第三帝国时期布满重重圆柱的建筑风格的一种反拨。
After a trip through the United States, where he viewed the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, Eero Saarinen, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and others, Mr. Otto became a freelance architect in 1952, opening an office in Berlin. He went on to found several institutions dedicated to lightweight structures.
去美国旅行时，他参观了弗兰克·罗伊德·怀特(Frank Lloyd Wright)、埃罗·沙里宁(Eero Saarinen)、路德维格·密斯·凡·德·罗(Ludwig Mies van der Rohe)等人的作品，1952年，奥托成了自由建筑师，在柏林开了事务所。其后又开了若干致力于轻型建筑的机构。
He was inspired by “natural phenomena — from birds’ skulls to soap bubbles and spiders’ webs,” the British architect Richard Rogers, a member of the Pritzker jury and a past laureate, said in a statement prepared before Mr. Otto’s death.
普利兹克奖评委、该奖曾经的得主——英国建筑师理查德·罗杰斯在一份写于奥托生前的声明中写道，奥托的设计受到“从鸟儿的头骨到肥皂泡和蜘蛛网等自然现象”的启发。
Mr. Otto’s work has been widely recognized. In 2006, for example, he won the 18th annual Praemium Imperiale prize for architecture, awarded by the Japan Art Association; in 2005 he received the Royal Gold Medal for architecture from the Royal Institute of British Architects.
奥托的设计广受好评。比如，2006年，他曾获得第18届年度日本皇室世界文化奖，该奖项由日本文化协会颁发；2005年，他获得英国建筑皇家协会颁发的皇家建筑金奖。
“Frei Otto is one of the great architects and engineers of the 20th century,” Mr. Rogers said. “His work has inspired and influenced modern architecture, as we all learn to do more with less, and to trade monumental structures for economy, light and air.”
“弗雷·奥托是20世纪的伟大建筑师与工程师，”罗杰斯说。“他的作品启发并影响了现代建筑，我们都多少从中受益，他的作品用经济简约和轻盈通透取代了纪念碑式的沉重。”