“The roots of today's Institute of Lightweight Structures and Design at the University of Stuttgart go back to the beginning of the 20th century. In 1916, Emil Mörsch was appointed to the chair of statics, reinforced concrete construction and arched bridges at the TU Stuttgart, where he was one of the first to comprehensively develop the fundamentals for the theory of reinforced concrete. Emil Mörsch and the chair at the university were soon regarded as world leaders. Emil Mörsch's successor, Karl Deininger, continued his work and also developed fundamental contributions to the calculation and construction of very tall chimneys. Deininger's successor in turn, Fritz Leonhardt, was for many years considered the world's leading engineer in the field of reinforced and prestressed concrete, as well as in the areas of bridge construction and the construction of towers. Fritz Leonhardt's books were translated into many languages and found worldwide circulation, as did his lecture notes, the famous so-called "Red Books". On his initiative, the Institute for Lightweight Structures (IL) was founded in 1964 and Frei Otto was appointed its director. With his interdisciplinary research and teaching in the field of wide-span surface structures and natural constructions, he developed the IL into a globally recognised centre of lightweight construction by 1991. In 2015, Frei Otto was awarded with the Pritzker Prize.” – Text via The University of Stuttgart Institute for Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design. https://www.ilek.uni-stuttgart.de/en/institute/history/