Zaha Hadid Architects Phaeno Science Center :: arcspace.

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Zaha Hadid Architects

Phaeno Science Center
Wolfsburg, Germany

To create an urban field on the ground, with an object above, was a

rare opportunity for us.
Zaha Hadid

Photo @Thomas Mayer

Located in the center of Wolfsburg, on the ICE rail line, the Science
Center is set both as the endpoint of a chain of important cultural
buildings, by Aalto, Scharoun and Schweger, and as a connecting link
to the north bank of the Mittelland Kanal - the Volkswagen plant and
the Autostadt.

Photo @Thomas Mayer

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Photo @Thomas Mayer

The main volume of the building, raised high above the ground on a
series of concrete cones, maintains a large degree of transparent and
porosity on the ground.
The area beneath it becomes a new kind of urban space, a covered
artificial landscape with gently undulating hills and valleys, extending
out into the surrounding area.

Photo @Thomas Mayer

Functional spaces like the museum entrance, where an escalator takes

visitors to the main level, the bookstore, and a theater are located in
the concrete cones.

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Zaha Hadid Architects Phaeno Science Center :: arcspace.com

Photo @Thomas Mayer

Photo @Thomas Mayer

Multiple threads of pedestrian and vehicular movement are pulled

through the site, both through the artificial ground landscape and
inside and through the building, composing an interface of movement-
paths. This constructional interweaving creates a uniquely close bond
between the city and the building.

Photo @Thomas Mayer

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Photo @Thomas Mayer

Photo @Thomas Mayer

Photo @Thomas Mayer

A glazed wormhole-like extension of the existing bridge flows through

the building allowing views to and from the exhibition space.

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Zaha Hadid Architects Phaeno Science Center :: arcspace.com

Photo @Thomas Mayer

In the main gallery space Hadid has created an artificial crater-like

landscape allowing diagonal views to the different levels of the
exhibition-scape, while volumes, which protrude, accommodate other
functions. The cones become craters creating a link between the
exterior and the mysterious dynamic landscape within.

Photo @Thomas Mayer

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Zaha Hadid Architects Phaeno Science Center :: arcspace.com

Photo @Thomas Mayer

Photo @Thomas Mayer

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Zaha Hadid Architects Phaeno Science Center :: arcspace.com

Photo @Thomas Mayer

Photo @Thomas Mayer

The object of Phaeno is to open up new approaches to the world of

natural science and technology, to reawaken the desire for making
discoveries of one's own. The architecture involves the visitors,
immediately absorbs them into an almost vibrating interior, which
again and again creates surprising perspectives and unexpected
relationships.

Sketch courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

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Zaha Hadid Architects Phaeno Science Center :: arcspace.com

Drawing courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

Drawing courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

Drawing courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

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Zaha Hadid Architects Phaeno Science Center :: arcspace.com

Drawing courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

Phaeno is the largest building constructed from "self-compacting

concrete" (SCC) to date in Europe. Without this new type of concrete
the diverse forms of Phaeno would have been difficult to achieve.

Total area:12, 631 square meters

Completed: 2005

Zaha Hadid speaks at the opening

Vernissage-TV

Photographed by Thomas Mayer

Client: City of Wolfsburg Ministry of Culture and Sport

Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects
Project Architect: Christos Passas
Project Team:
Sara Klomps
Gernot Finselbach
Helmut Kinzler
David Salazar
Gunter Barczik
Silvia Forlati
Kenneth Bostock
Enrico Kleinke
Liam Young
Lida Charsouli
Barbara Kuit
Patrick Schumacher
Markus Dochantschi

Associate Architects:
Mayer Baehrle Freie Architekten BDA
Project Architect: Christos Passas
Structural Engineers:
Adams Kara Taylor, London, UK
Tokarz Freirichs Leipold, Hanover, Germany
Services Engineers:
NEK, Braunschweig, Germany
Buro Happold, London, UK

Phaeno Science Center

Zaha Hadid Architects arcspace features

March 3, 2005

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