Berlin’s new centre
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Berlin’s new centre
The Sony Center – a modern masterpiece of steel and glass in Berlin’s new centre – is establishing itself as an international hub for commerce, communication and culture on Potsdamer Platz.
In 1991 the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development and Environmental Protection held a competition inviting ideas for the redesign of Berlin’s historical centre, Potsdamer Platz. Further competitions based on the selected proposal – an award-winning design by Hilmer & Sattler – were then held with the aim of finding an architect to realise the project. The brief was to create a unique, standout architectural feature in keeping with the existing city centre, Potsdamer Platz and urban planning requirements. On 15 August 1992 the panel of judges voted unanimously in favour of the dynamic design put forward by the German-American Helmut Jahn, and within four years (1996 to 2000) Berlin had acquired a new landmark.
At the heart of the design is an oval forum bathed in natural light and covered by a huge oval roof, the work of Helmut Jahn and Ove Arup & Partner engineers. This glass, steel and fibreglass structure is the Sony Center’s most striking design feature. Despite weighing some 920 tonnes and measuring approximately 100 by 80 metres, it seems to float gracefully above the central forum. As darkness falls, the roof is lit up in a range of sunset colours from cyan blue to magenta, a design concept by the Paris light artist Yann Kersalé.
