Who doesn’t dislike malls, especially in Berlin, where too many are popping up and weirdly close to one another? In that sense, Bikini Berlin is a real exception.

Almost delicately, this concept mall sits right between the Berlin Zoo and the half bombed memorial church, offering incredible views over both (especially from the rooftop terrace and the neighboring 25hours Hotel). The architecture, since the estate has been listed as protected monument, is almost unobtrusive — typical Berliner industrial chic — with space for a few carefully selected shops (such as the Japanese store Chaya with an exceptional selection of tea and the Berlin boutique LNFA supporting young, local and sustainable designers) among galleries, cafés and restaurants.

The food court Kantini is a assembly of pop-up food stands from Currywurst to clean food. Sounds pretentious to you? Maybe a little bit. But if you come by for the art installations and workshops of Bikini, which frequently take place in their ample entrance area, you can just forget that you are in a mall and enjoy one of Berlin’s most recent efforts to not start looking like any other big city.