The awarding of the second prize to Daniel Libeskind in the second phase of the Alexanderplatz competition represents in a way the recognition of the other pole of the controversy in which the Berlin architectural community is currently immersed around the concept of 'new simplicity'.

The absolute opposing character of Libeskind's approach to that of Hans Kollhoff is revealed point by point, both in general and in particular: where the first prize proposal divides the vast area into highly differentiated areas, Libeskind's project conceives it as a unitary organism intimately interconnected with the existing building and then breaks it down into a series of fragmentary and highly individualized pieces; Kollhoff's orderly and hierarchical street grid is transformed in the second prize into a complex network of public and private spaces; as opposed to the two heights into which Kollhoff distributes the buildability, Libeskind proposes a third range of intermediate heights....[+]