We are talking about the quarters where the largest department store in Europe, Wertheim, was destroyed during the Second World War. During the division of Germany through Leipzigerplatz, as well as located nearby Potsdamerplatz, passed the border exclusion zone. After the reunification, already in the 1990s, they began to create a new urban planning solution for the area, which retained traces of the 18th century layout (in particular, the square has an octagonal shape). The development of the project was then entrusted to Aldo Rossi, who proposed a unified concept for the development of all the neighborhoods surrounding Leipzigerplatz. This idea was not realized, as was the master plan of the nps tchoban voss workshop, which won the architectural competition in 2001.
An undeveloped plot of land adjacent to the square was the subject of a new tender announced in September 2007. On the instructions of the organizers, the participants were instructed to propose a new layout for it, taking into account the following proportion of functions: 55% - a shopping and entertainment complex, 30% - housing, 15% - offices. Particular attention was paid to maintaining a significant share in the development of apartment buildings, which should support an active life on the streets of new quarters.
The project develops elements of the district's historical layout based on a rigid geometric grid of streets. It is planned to create a new public space - a shopping mall - which will play the role of the main "highway" of the new district. In general, the architects have developed a promising version of the development of the zone adjacent to the Bundesrat building: it takes into account the need to create a dense building fabric, consisting of buildings of various functions.
