Two Parks at Potsdamer Platz

The Potsdamer Platz competition (1996) was the very first. project by GROSS. MAX. when the office only comprised of Bridget Baines, Eelco Hooftman and Nigel Sampey. Our proposals for the former no-man’s land between East and West Berlin were purposeful provocative. The two parks have a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ opposite character. The triangular Kemperplatz site envisaged as an extrovert tilted platform – a stage set for Berlin’s post wall generation; its surface clad with a modular rooftops of former east Germany Trabi cars. Below the tilt a ‘bunker’ as hedonistic night club pleasure zone. The long linear Prachtgleis site is envisaged as introvert pine woodland set with a sliding wall enclosure. An elevated café with a large wooden observation deck overlooks the garden. On the opposite side, Towards the Landwehr Canal a raised landform act as open-air solarium for the citizens of Berlin; its effect not unlike a Monkey Rock packed with self- exposing baboons. All competition ‘boards’ were hand drawn on 2.5 long layered transparent scrolls creating the effect of lines engraved in ice. For the competition explanation text, we experienced with our first auto-interview format.  We used a similar format for our later Berlin competition forming a trilogy of Potsdamer Platz / Gleiddreieck and Tempelhof. Out of 154 entries we won our first competition prize; an honorary mention (‘Ankauf Award’). When collecting our ‘priceless’ award members of the jury (which included Martha Schwartz and Gabriele Kiefer) whispered in our ear: “Next time more serious”.  The first prize was won by our friends, the Dutch firm DS Landscape Architects.