European Landscape Architecture Practice 2000

Daniel Roehr
3. Potsdamer Platz
3.1. Overall concept for landscape architecture
We had two areas to plan. One was the extensive roof greening over the whole site.
The other was the gardens in the court-yards of the buildings. Our main difficulty to
overcome was that we had to coordinate with seven architect offices, all very
different in their architectural styles and attitudes towards landscape design and
some questioned the necessity for green roofs.
The master planer and head architect for this project were Renzo Piano and Christoph
Kohlbecker, respectively, who had won the realisation competition. The other
architects involved where Arata Isozaki, Hans Kollhoff, Lauber und Wöhr, Richard
Rogers, and Rafael Moneo. An international team which had very different opinions
on how landscape architecture should be introduced in or on top of the buildings.
Some preferred no green roof, others wished to have for example a French style
parterre introduced on top of the green roof terraces, some were open to discussion.
3.2. Constrains for planning
There were certain constraints apart from our own ideas for the roofs and gardens
which had to be taken into account. Especially the planning laws reduced the areas
to develop our concepts freely. They dictated and designated certain areas for each
building to be filled with play areas and high safety measures for children. Due to
the fact that there were only very small areas for children to play, a lot of effort was
spent in convincing the planning commission to accept our reduced interpretation
of play spaces. But not only the planning permission had to be convinced, the
architects also. It was for example especially hard for them to accept a play space
on the six floor.
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