Since the end of the last century, construction has been going on in Berlin and new trends have emerged mainly in the former eastern part of the city, mainly in the Mitte district. At the same time, the old heart of West Berlin, the vicinity of the Zoological Garden Station and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, was a little forgotten, and the atmosphere there became gray, shabby and boring. The famous Kurfürstendamm boulevard has lost some of its splendor, although money, ostentatious splendor, pathos and spectacular sports cars have always remained there.
But now the situation is slowly but noticeably changing, although the Zoological Garden has lost its role as the main transport hub after the opening in 2006 of the new Central Station on the site of the Lehrter station.
Here are a few signs of this shift: Apple has set up its new flagship store on Ku-damm, and the luxury Waldorf Astoria, a stylish European skyscraper with beautiful arcades, has also been built there; there are no more drug addicts around the Memorial Church, and a little earlier Helmut Jahn built the Kranzler Eck complex there, a shining building made of steel and glass.
In modern Germany, the trend is as follows: shopping centers are re-built within the city and even in its historical center. However, most of them develop the same scheme, and are filled with the same brands: H&M, Desigual, food courts with streamlined lines, sometimes with ethnic elements, and in the basement there is an indispensable supermarket. Architects who specialize in such commercial development usually make the interior, trying to give it "individuality" - that is, decorating it in the way they themselves and the investor think is optimal.
But next to the Zoological Garden station, an exception to this rule appeared, a shopping center, which its creators called a “concept mall”. it
Bikini Berlin, part of a large modernist ensemble - Zentrum am Zoo. It was built in 1957 by Paul Schwebes and Hans Schoszberger and has become one of the symbols of West Berlin. By the beginning of the 21st century, however, it was dilapidated, but Bavarian investments and the help of skilled architects and entrepreneurs helped make this beautiful building visible again on the map of the German capital.
The ensemble consists of several parts. The Bikinihaus of interest to us, which contained offices and retail space, was nicknamed by Berliners because of the "absent" - open - middle tier - as in the innovation of those days, the bikini swimsuit. Now it is an architectural monument, like the rest of the complex - the office "large skyscraper" (Große Hochhaus), the Kino Zoo Palast cinema and the "small skyscraper" (Kleines Hochhaus), which now houses a 25hours hotel and parking. The Bikini Berlin concept artfully combines shopping, work, leisure - including cinema, an urban oasis and a trendy and fun hotel.
The architects responsible for the modernization had a delicate task: to revive the modernist "beauties" and create more space in them. In addition, the Zoo Palast, the former main stage of the Berlin Film Festival, needed to be refurbished, bringing the cinema back to its former brilliance. After the renovation, the cinema complex again became one of the key venues of the Berlinale.
Bavarian architects
Hild und K, who were entrusted with the project, relocated their Berlin branch to a building next to the Zoological Garden station, so that the progress of the work could be observed from the windows of the workshop. The general reconstruction plan was developed by the Belgian SAQ bureau headed by Arne Kens. The project participants also required knowledge of restoration and conservation, as, we recall, they dealt with a state-protected architectural monument.
The main idea of the project was to create a new large space with overhead lighting, a “pool” between the Bikinihaus and the Berlin Zoo in the huge Tiergarten park. On the roof of this building there is a public "plaza" in the open air, which can be reached from the street by a wide staircase. The rooftop offers beautiful views of the park and the zoo, and in winter there is a skating rink. From there you can reach the Bikini shops, the hotel's lobby and breakfast café, and a couple of special “design bookstores-office-cafes”.
Bikini stores, apart from the rooftop stores, are located on two levels. The main space with overhead light received a huge window overlooking the side of the zoo. The wide and sturdy wooden bench in front of this window has already become a popular meeting place, and through the glass you can see the aviary with monkeys - that's why the window was nicknamed "monkey".
The already mentioned "small skyscraper" accommodated the hotel 25hours, the theme of which is "urban jungle". All its catering facilities were boldly located on the top floor - a kitchen, a fine restaurant and the already famous Monkey Bar with a panoramic view of Berlin. The hotel entrance is located in a side street, from where the visitor must take the elevator to the lobby with a reception desk and a breakfast cafe. The pleasantly brutal 25hours interior (concrete surfaces are even found in the rooms) was conceived and implemented by the designer Werner Aisslinger.
Among the shops and other establishments in Bikini Berlin, there are no well-known brands popular with young people around the world, relying on "hard labor" factories in developing countries. Here you can find mostly European brands of quality fashionable clothing and design. At street level, there is a small Kaisers supermarket, cafes and restaurants. On the third floor, the more expensive German brands are housed in the transparent, glazed waist of the building, which used to be open.
Also in the mall you can find a large bookstore-cafe of the publishing house Gestalten, which also sells design items on a book theme. Artek + Vitra also opened a small boutique there, which, among other things, sells used furniture and serves coffee and cakes.
The most interesting idea from the creators of the new Bikini is small "boxes" or open wooden containers for young designers and aspiring entrepreneurs, which are rented for short periods. The bazaar-like solution enlivens the street level of the building and allows it to constantly change its appearance - just like a café furnished with used Scandinavian furniture. This café, like the monkey window, lends a pleasant, everyday warmth to an elegant structure with concrete surfaces and gorgeous steel beams painted in a soft green tone. The colored glass panels of the original façade and the old pavement stones were ground and added to the plaster, continuing the Berlin tradition of recycling building materials.
