Rebuilding Das Center (formerly Sony Center) with Berliners in mind

When Oxford Properties invited us to help reimagine the 25-year-old Sony Center in Potsdamer Platz, it represented both a homecoming and a transformation. Once a bold symbol of Berlin’s post-reunification ambition, the district had become more spectacle than city. Together, we set out to change that—to transform a top-down master plan into a place that feels lived in again.

For Jahn, returning to a site first conceived in the 1990s meant revisiting not only an architectural landmark but a question central to Berlin’s identity: how can design nurture genuine urban life? Working closely with Oxford, we sought to design for people first—to create spaces Berliners could inhabit, shape, and claim as their own.

The process began with listening. Through Oxford’s extensive community engagement and our shared collaboration, we learned what had been missing: spaces that invited people to linger, connect, and use the city on their own terms. Our architectural response followed that insight—introducing natural materials, daylight, and seamless transitions between inside and out. The formal clarity of the original plan was softened and made more tactile, reoriented around social rhythm. Transparency, a hallmark of Jahn’s earlier work, was reinterpreted not just as an aesthetic value but as an attitude of openness—between public and private, legacy and change.

Now known as Das Center, the site continues to evolve through a master plan that foregrounds adaptive reuse and sustainability. The Forum Apartments reinterpret Berlin’s winter-garden typology, inspired by the residential buildings along the Landwehrkanal, and can open fully to the outdoors. The Esplanade Residences draw strength from the restored Esplanade Hotel, repurposing its historic Silbersaal, Palmenhof, and Frühstückraum while introducing new projecting glass bays and French balconies overlooking the Tiergarten. The former IMAX theater has become a two-story KERB food hall open to the public, with new office levels above. Across the site, lighter façades, outdoor terraces, and flexible workplaces signal a renewed balance between continuity and reinvention.

Reimagining Potsdamer Platz with Oxford was ultimately about evolution—building on what endures while giving it new life. It offered a rare chance for our practice to extend a dialogue across generations, connecting the site’s past and future through design. What’s emerged is not simply a revitalized district, but a reminder that architecture, at its best, adapts with the city and the people who give it meaning. Potsdamer Platz is once again part of Berlin’s everyday life—layered, lived in, and unmistakably human.

Watch the collaboration story here (video courtesy of Oxford Properties):