The Paul Löbe building, situated close to the Reichstag, contains roughly 1,000 offices and?rooms for members of the German parliament, as well as conference halls and two restaurants. It forms the first stage of a two-part development that also includes the Marie-Elisabeth Lüders building on the opposite bank of the River Spree. The winning competition scheme by the Munich architect Stephan Braunfels complies with the master plan drawn up by Axel Schultes. The new building has a comb-like layout, with open, landscaped courtyards to north and south. As part of the concept of transparency on which the design is based, the conference spaces housed in the rotundas are visible from the outside.