BIKINI BERLIN
Our vision, 10 years ahead of the times.
The successful property in Berlin’s City West was built on a foundation of many innovations. And a really bold idea.
Berlin. The investor and the initiators agreed: this project needs a groundbreaking strategy, innovative concepts and bold ideas that are 10 years ahead of their time. After all, a listed property in the middle of an environment of economic upheaval, in a part of the capital that has been disconnected from many trends for years, cannot be developed like any other. Especially since the press had already raised the ungrateful question “Do we need the 111 Shopping Center?” had already been raised and the public and also the city’s politicians had been sensitized accordingly.
The solution: to convey a future, still visionary attitude towards life instead of merely the dedicated listing of possible solvent tenants and partners. And the collaboration, i.e. the cooperation and exchange with all the actors who, in retrospect, are involved in the success of the project: Politicians and media representatives, neighbors, citizens of the city, residents, entrepreneurs, merchants and artists, architects, urban planners and engineers, brokers and financiers.
As part of the solution, various networks were informed, involved and enthused during all phases of the project. An approach that has proven its worth: A usual political appointment turned into a shoot with Klaus Wowereit on the skyscraper roof; the usual info-evenings turned into an institution of regular dinner events with local, national and international opinion leaders; the usual collaboration with artists turned into a platform for conceptual innovation that didn’t stop at an approach but resulted in night-long events. In this way, genuine transparency and active collaboration became success factors that are still noticeable today and have long since become measurable.
The strategy: to consistently place future living environments and the needs of residents and visitors at the centre of development and to take these into account in every detail at the implementation level in order to create real added value for people in this way: How will people live and eat in the future? How will people live and work in the future? How do brands and producers want to present themselves in this place in the future? We have worked on these and many other questions in concrete terms, answered them for all target groups and partners and communicated them in numerous media contact points.
Today, BIKINI BERLIN is not only a driving force for West Berlin, playing a major role in harmony with its surroundings, but also an internationally renowned and relevant brand that is second to none and the result of a gigantic investment. Thanks to the sustainable development of value for place and property through an unorthodox and laborious process, which we are rediscovering today in some international development projects. In a spirit that seems to be becoming more and more standard in the development of sites and neighborhoods.
BIKINI BERLIN has emerged anew in the spirit of and perhaps from the tradition of a general awakening in the post-war period and has consistently taken this – beyond the necessity of developing a listed property – into the future: By putting people’s needs at the centre and truly involving those involved. We would like to thank the investor and all partners for their work, their competence and creativity and for their energy to have successfully gone this way together with us.
Think visionary and act consistently. That is our principle.
CUSTOMER // Bayerische Hausbau GmbH & Co KG
REALISATION // 2012
TASK // Feasibility study, site development, marketing & communication
// Feasibility study, excerpt
// First ideas and today
// Architect: SAQ, Studio Arne Quince
Klaus Wowereit, Governing Mayor of Berlin, presents Bikini Berlin together with Axel Weber, Arne Quinze, and Dr. Jürgen Büllesbach.
// In the change of time: 1950 / 2000 / 2020
// Once a parking lot, now a terrace: BIKINI BERLIN becomes an urban bridge between the city and the greenery
// Basement, former parking lot
// The window to the zoo