The Visitor Center has a dual condition, it is a building integrated in the Tiergarten, as “its” pavilion, merging with the park’s natural environment, without forsaking its architectonic condition as it positions itself along other remarkable buildings that define the edges of the Tiergarten such as the Hansaviertel, the Phillarmoniem, the Neue Wache and the displaced Siegeseule.

The building also has a dual configuration: it is resounding and precise, a deformed polygon that can be easily understood, but with elusive materiality, attenuated with transparencies and reflectance: it sometimes reflects the park, blends with the color of the sky or shows its interior. Its polygonal floor plan allows for diverse connections to the exterior, with the monumental Platz der Republik, with the stern yew edges of the Sowjetisches Denkmal, with the lime tree aligment of the Simsonweg, of the Overallee, or with the tree-lined plaza located between both paths.

If the exterior manifestation of the Visitor Center responds to the delicate and expressionist relation with its context, its spatial configuration is, above all, the expression of its skeletal structure. It rises from its dense core on two big pillars – containing the vertical circulation elements – which support a grid of large-span concrete beams secured on the perimeter. This load-bearing structure confines the main interior space, the foyer, which, lit from above, displays the lights and shadows of a powerful structure. In terms of its efficiency, it is directly linked to the performance of its circulation and the adaptation of the public spaces.  There is a simple spatial configuration: dense and fluid spaces alternate, simply confining solids and voids. This allows for the combination of public and private spaces, ordering the floorplan based on a server-served scheme.