INTERNATIONAL CONCOURS 5th PRICE (835 PARTICIPANTS)
Following the reunification of Germany the Bundestag, on 20th June 1991, designated Berlin as the governmental seat of the Federal Republic of Germany. A competition was organised with a view to planning the urban layout for this new political centre.The central idea of the project is to concentrate all the major government functions around the Reichstag and to create a park in the open ground within the curve of the river Spree. A large public square laid out in red stone, “The red carpet for Berlin” becomes the linking element to all the buildings. The square crosses the Spree and links North and South banks with a series of foot bridges. The square also straddles the old line of the Berlin Wall linking East and West in a symbol of the reunification. The parliamentary chamber is housed in the Reichstag, the parliamentary commissions in a tower (170m high) to the north, the Members of Parliament in a volume equivalent to the Reichstag on the northern side of the square. The parliamentary groups border the square and form also the mass of buildings to the south which recreate the former Pariser Platz.
