As one of the Berlin’s most important public transport hubs, the Ostkreuz connects different forms of mobility. In contrast, the station forms a bottleneck in the urban structure on the neighbourhood scale. Hence, the design for the forecourts has to consider the urban and neighbourhood related requirements and to mediate between them.

Two main directions of movement are superimposed on the forecourts. Therefore a division into 'frame' and 'wing' is proposed, assigning a respective surface to each direction of movement.

The frame comprises the north and south court areas and characterizes the entire station environment. It emphasizes the longitudinal direction and bundles the movements between the adjacent city quarters. At the edges, it creates threshold situations to the adjoining urban areas.