“Atelier Pagnamenta Torriani’s design illustrates the typology of the object Building/Complex within Inner Spreebogen…Not only is this scheme functional, it also successfully ties the [suggested] new building complex to the existing urban fabric to the east.”

- Karen Van Lengen, Competition Magazine 1993

 

Berlin’s Spreebogen is the inner arc segment between the Spree River and the chancellor's office with a waterfront on two levels and broad meadows adjacent. In 1992, an International Competition for Urban Design Ideas was held for concepts to revitalize the Government Center in this area that would be both integrated into the urban context and open to the city’s citizens. 835 entries were received from firms worldwide.

 

APT's design for the new German Parliament and Government Center brings together various aspects of a disparate urban fabric: the historic town, the Tiergarten Park, and the river Spree, once divided by the Berlin wall.

 

The new administration buildings of the parliament relate directly to the street grid of the Mitte historic center of Berlin. The Chancellery and the Bundesrat buildings continue the park’s pedestrian cross-axes over the river Spree, with the Tiergarten Park extended to the river and beyond, reaching to the city past the railway viaduct. The Federal Council, Chancellery, and the Parliament form a series of discreet building nuclei strategically located around the site. The bulk of the program is concentrated near the Reichstag forming a new center for the whole site.

 

The historic Platz der Republik is redefined as a mall that, linking the main elements of the government center, interconnects and opens the dense old city to the park and river.

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Publications & Exhibitions

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• 1993 Competition Magazine, "Spreebogen Typologies"

• 1993 Spreeebogen Exhibit