The Kollhoff Tower - Potsdammer Platz, Berlin, Germany

Architect	Kollhoff und Timmermann Architekten
Date Built	1998 - 1999
Location	Potsdamer Platz
Description
A trio of towers dominate Potsdamer Platz. In the middle of the group is the Kollhoff-Tower named after Berlin architect Hans Kollhoff who designed it. The tower is clad in peat-fired bricks and it rises 25 storeys above the bustling platz below. A colonnade circles the base of the tower sheltering retail units and restaurants. The 24th and 25th floors offer open-air viewing terraces complete with an interesting exhibition about the history of Potsdamer Platz. There is also a café for visitors who want to enjoy the view and good food. When asked about the use of bricks on the tower, Hans Kollhoff said, "Regarding the choice of materials we follow serious city planning standards, and the most important thing is that a building should retain its look through time. When we build and design we do so with the idea that the building will last forever because only this way buildings can constitute the historical memory of a city and they can carry out this function only if they last a long time. On the contrary, if we have buildings that are torn down every twenty years, then this function is lost. When we build we prefer brick, granite, bricks made with compressed sand, and lately we are also inclined to use plaster. Obviously all these materials have extremely different characteristics and look; we used brick in the Potsdamer Platz also because there was a precedent, in other words Renzo Piano's terracotta slabs." (www.floornature.com)