| History |  |
The first business to open its doors in the area was the Debis Centre in 1997. The 90 metre high Debis building, with its famous green cube, is the accentuating highlight of the area at the south alongside the "Landwehrkanal" (Landwehr Canal); at Potsdamer Platz, it is the two high-rises designed by the architects Hans Kollhoff and Renzo Piano.
In reference to the area's historical road network a multifaceted structure consisting of 19 building blocks designed by a variety of architects was built which integrates the vicinity's historic heart, the Weinhaus Huth (Wine House Huth). |
| Description | |
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A series of competitions brought forth the designs for the parts of the area. Helmut Jahn won the competition for the Sony block by arranging his glass-buildings around a circular mall in the center of the block. The one for the ABB-area was won by Giorgio Grassi, who developed huge office buildings from the typology of Baroque palaces in Berlin. And the first prize for the Debis-area was taken by Renzo Piano and Christoph Kohlbecker. In their first proposal of 1992 they followed quite closely the ideas of Hilmer and Sattler, but invented a new musical theatre which covered the backside of Hans Scharoun's Staatsbibliothek and formed a new viewpoint to the old Potsdamer Strasse.
In the following year this plan took shape and the several buildings given to diverse architects guaranteed a certain diversity of architectural appearance. In 1998 the central part of the Debis area with its public place was inaugurated and has enjoyed significant public success
Although the first masterplan proposed to continue the traditional system of Berlin with its blocks, streets, public outdoor spaces and buildings with urban façades, Piano and his colleagues introduced alien elements like closed shopping malls, little megastructures, split blocks and high tech façades.
Piano and Richard Rogers covered a whole street, but instead of designing a real gallery they built an ordinary shopping mall which may be situated in any airport all over the world. Arata Isozaki recovered the unfortunate megastructure-system of the sixties, and even succeeded in
making his stone façades looking like plastic. Piano developed a kind of ceramic system which gives his building an industrial look which would better fit in Oberschöneweide than the Potsdamerplatz. Rogers' high tech design celebrated technical progress, as if no crisis had
shocked western civilization. And even Raffael Moneo designed an entrance for his hotel which resembles more the delivering zone of a supermarket than a noble hotel. |
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