Designed by Hans Scharoun; completed 1963 Berlin, Germany In 1956 Hans Scharoun (1893–1972) won an invited competition of 12 architects to design a home for Germany’s premier orchestra. Now considered to be one of Scharoun’s crowning achievements, the Berlin Philharmonic Concert Hall (1963) is outstanding both for its auditorium design and for its dynamic spatial experiences. The site in Berlin originally chosen for the competition was on the Bundesallee adjacent to a 19th-century school, the Joachimsthaler. Scharoun’s design used the Philharmonic building to create a public square on axis with Stüler’s Matthäi Church. In 1959, however, the Berlin Senate changed the site to the Tiergarten in anticipation of the development of a new cultural center for the city of Berlin, an attempt to revitalize an area that had been devastated in the war. The basic form and concept of Scharoun’s design remained the same, but he adjusted the configuration of the foyer and ancillary spaces to accommodat...