Designed by the internationally renowned British architectural team of James Stirling, Michael Wilford & Associates, the new facilities of the WZB were completed in May 1988 after nine years of planning and construction. In 1994-95 two floors were added to the cross-shaped building ("the basilica"); this extension was executed in accordance with the original plans, which had provided for four floors in any case.

Stirling's design was adopted after a competition held as part of the Internationale Bauausstellung (IBA). Beyond the immediate purpose of the project, which was situated very near Mies van der Rohe's New National Gallery and Scharoun's Philharmonic Hall and State Library on the grounds of the redesigned "cultural forum" surrounding Kemperplatz, the plans for the buildings represented the search for a solution both commensurate with the prominent setting and appropriate as an architectural focal point in its own right. An additional objective was to integrate the front building of the former Imperial Insurance Agency, built in the Beaux-Arts style popular around the turn of the twentieth century. Constructed by August Busse (1839-1896) in 1894, this historical structure was restored for the WZB.

Stirling's edifice takes these specifications into account and largely meets the functional and spatial needs of the WZB as well as the specific requirements of interior design dictated by the interdisciplinarity and internationality of its research. It comprises offices with a total area of 4,120 m² for the approximately 280 people employed at the WZB as well as conference and group meeting rooms of various sizes. Based on the needs arising from the variety of ways in which WZB research is organized - scientists working on their own or in small research teams - the design concept provides for both individual work and cooperation in larger units as well as for numerous contacts to external scientists, the decision-making community, and other relevant groups. The scientific and administrative "infrastructure" is thus integrated into this functional context.

Stirling's intention of creating "a friendly, unbureaucratic place – the opposite of an 'institutional' environment - perhaps more akin to a College or University precinct than an office building" was translated architecturally into a complex consisting of four new buildings and the restored historical structure all joined around an interior courtyard. Each building quotes the basic idea of a familiar form in the history of architecture. The "stoa" and "amphitheater" appear in the floor plans of two of the office buildings, the cafeteria, the custodian's apartment, and additional offices are located in a unit shaped like a Christian cross, and the library building is reminiscent of a "campanile."