Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, Germany
From Archiplanet
| Potsdamer Platz | |
| Designer | Renzo Piano |
| Location | Berlin, Germany |
| Date | 1992 to 2000 |
| Building Type | Urban center |
| Construction System | varies |
| Climate | Cold Temperate |
| Context | Urban |
| Architectural Style | varies |
| Street Address | |
| Notes | with Christoph Kohlbecker. An 18-building masterplan for rebuilding Potsdamer Platz after the fall of the Berlin Wall. |
Contents |
Images
Discussion
| Building Details | |
| Client | Daimler-Benz (now DaimlerChrysler) |
| Site | 75,000 square meters (18.5 acres) |
"Reconstruction of an area of the town included between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate. Cultural and commercial centre of the city in the 1930s, the district was destroyed by WWII bombings and turned into a desert by the construction of the Wall." – Renzo Piano Building Workshop
" Before World War II, two adjacent plazas known as Potsdamer Platz and Leipziger Platz formed the transportation and commercial hub of Berlin. Here, regional and city railroad lines converged, and Europe's first traffic signal directed automobiles and trolleys past some of Germany's most significant works of commercial architecture. Hotels and giant department stores adjoined government and private offices, all complemented by countless restaurants and bars. It was, as Alan Balfour has written, a meeting place 'where the nation's most powerful shopped and socialized in an easy mix of financial and political power.'" – National Building Museum
" As early as 1989, Daimler-Benz (now DaimlerChrysler), Germany's largest industrial group, had worked to acquire a portion of this huge site. To design its 75,000-square-meter site (18.5 acres)-ninety percent of which would contain new buildings-the company invited fourteen firms to submit designs in a competition of its own in 1992. The Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Christoph Kohlbecker won first prize. (Neighboring parcels owned by Sony, Asea Brown Boveri, and others were developed through separate competitions not featured in the exhibition.)" - National Building Museum
"The entire project is made of eighteen new buildings, eight of which were designed by RPBW. The goal was to recreate a lively centre, well integrated to the rest of the city and harmonious in the use of materials, such as terracotta, common to all the buildings. A wide range of facilities, such as shops, homes, offices, restaurants, cinemas and a casino, have brought the site back to life." – Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Maps
References
- An Urban Experiment in Central Berlin: Planning Potsdamer Platz. National Building Museum web site. 1999. Viewed 2008.0124.
