The district at Potsdamer Platz is the result of extensive competitions, drafts and plans. The 19 buildings in the DaimlerChrysler area were constructed according to designs by international teams of architects under the leadership of Renzo Piano, an Italian star architect. Renzo Piano wanted to create a European city district and gave the area a distinctive look with the terracotta frontages he developed specially for Potsdamer Platz.
His plans were based on the draft for an urban development by Munich architects Hilmer and Sattler, and were selected by the Berliner Senate. This draft laid down the pattern of streets and the block structure of the complex of buildings. It forms the basis for the architectural competitions that were later organized by the investors. The starting point was an almost completely empty area with a large number of historical references, which, however, were no longer tangible; the exceptions being Haus Huth, which had survived the Second World War unscathed, and Potsdamer Strasse.
