This research centre in Berlin by the architects Fehling + Gogel from 1965 to 1974 was realised in close cooperation with the institute's research staff. The briefing document was more than 100 pages long and the architects took care to create an environment that allowed the research staff to meet and exchange ideas, leading to a complex architecture with multiple links to connect different parts of the building on the one hand, and a clear structure withe colour coded units which always provided a sense of orientation and place.
The Max Planck Institute for Human Development was a first in a series of research institutions, Fehling + Gogle built in the 1960s to the 1980s. For the Max Planck Foundation, Germany's largest publicly funded research body, Fehling + Gogel realised a second building, the Institute for Astrophysics near Munich.