Visionary architect Yona Friedman has passed away

Yona Friedman, the Hungarian-born French Jewish architect who helped develop the concept of "mobile architecture" in the 1960s and 70s, has passed away at age 96.

Friedman was born in 1923 and grew up during the Nazi era. Due to the fact that universities in Budapest had imposted strict admissions quotas against Jewish students at the time, Friedman was forced to acquire his architectural education though somewhat clandestine means. He sat in on classes and was never allowed to take exams, all the while receiving tutoring from other luminaries of the time, including the famous German physicists Werner Heisenberg. After fleeing Europe during World War II, he lived in Israel for a decade and then moved France, where he settled permanently and attained citizenship in 1966. During these years, Friedman developed some of his most potent ideas and proposals. 

He is widely known for his imaginative paper architecture v...