Potsdamer square

The demands on the Potsdamer Platz project were enormous. A place that was very much shaped by its profound historical events simply had to become something special. Here should not only be worked, one should also be able to shop, visit theaters and casinos, or enjoy a cappuccino in the street café.

A lively urban construct should enstehen, thereby the shadows of the towering corporate headquarters were difficult. In addition, the intention to set high ecological standards even for such a project had prevailed. The proposal to use rainwater for toilet flushing and for
green irrigation was received with interest. The same applied to the idea of using the rainwater collected in cisterns to feed a water system, which includes a narrow basin between the casino and Hyatt Hotal, the large main watercourse and the south watercourse. There, the water flows through planted purification biotopes and is cleaned biologically. If necessary, technical filters can be switched on, which should help to get algae blooms under control in the summer months.

The greatest ecological achievement of this project is certainly that it could be completely disconnected from the urban storm water system. The overloaded combined sewer system in Berlin overflows an average of twelve times a year, flushing vast quantities of highly polluted wastewater into Berlin's canals and rivers. Using a complex computer simulation, it was possible to predict that within ten years the Landwehrkanal would have to absorb a larger volume of rainwater in only three cases. This corresponds roughly to the runoff values of an unsealed property