23 APRIL 2023

PHAENO BUILDING ANALYSIS

CYNTHIA M. MATUS
UNIVERSIDAD ANAHUAC MAYAB
CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

01 CLIENT & CLIENT'S NEEDS 04 URBAN CONNECTIONS

02 LOCATION & CONTEXT 05 MAIN ENTRANCE & SPACES

03 CONCEPT 06 MATERIALS AND STRUCTURE

CLIENT & CLIENT NEEDS

An art museum was planned for the site, but Dr. Wolfgang Guthardt, then the City's Director for Culture,
Sports and Education, knew that such an institution would compete with Wolfsburg's successful Kunst
Museum (Art Museum) and needed other options. Guthardt visited Technorama, a science center in
Switzerland and became convinced that a science center in Wolfsburg would complement both Autostadt
and the Kunst Museum.

The museum was designed with the objective to create new approaches to the world of science and
technology and support discoveries and houses 250 informative exhibits. The architecture and interiors are
designed to immediately absorb the visitor with many perspectives under which lies a proper organizational
system

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaeno_Science_Center
LOCATION AND CONTEXT

Wolfsburg, Germany

Located in the heart of the city in an area between the commercial area and offices. They go around the
high-speed trains, on the banks of the channel Mitteland. From there you can see the complex Autostadt
and the very high chimney of the historic factory Volkswagen

https://en.wikiarquitectura.com/building/phaeno-science-center/
CONCEPT

The building appears on the landscape as a connection between the two areas of the city, establishing a
direct relationship with the city and moving the crossing. Multiple paths of pedestrian and vehicular
movement are issued instead of the artificial field and inward through the building, forming an
interconnected routes of travel.

It is a heavy volume and sharp edges with strong horizontal very pronounced, which seems to levitate on
the ground. Its shape resembles a boat made of steel and glass. Angular lines become more sinuous and
plastic, so that walls, ceilings and floors are mixed and expand, creating a sense of constant transformation.

https://en.wikiarquitectura.com/building/phaeno-science-center/
URBAN CONNECTIONS

Multiple threads of pedestrian and vehicular movement are pulled through the site, both through the
artificial ground landscape and within the building, composing an interface of movement-paths. This
constructional interweaving creates a uniquely close bond between the city and the building.

A glazed public ‘wormhole’ extension of the existing bridge flows through the building, allowing views of
and from the exhibition space. It liberates the area beneath as a new urban space in the form of a covered
artificial landscape with gently undulating hills and valleys. Its interior features an architectural adventure
playground with 250 experimental stations on fascinating themes from the world of science and technology.

https://en.wikiarquitectura.com/building/phaeno-science-center/
MAIN ENTRANCE

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.

https://en.wikiarquitectura.com/building/phaeno-science-center/
SPACES

The ground falls below the volume as an artificial landscape with undulating hills and valleys that stretch around the
square. The building allows people to walk under and up by a part of the pavement to get inside. Elsewhere, the low floor
and takes visitors on a public square. Ground floor open broad prospects, making it the context of the city, between the
concrete cones.

The building does not fully pisa land. Much stands on a plaza with a series of large inverted cone-shaped with rounded
corners that act as feet and bring an effect of weightlessness. Among them are various functions such as library,
conference room and an auditorium for 250 people. Since the largest of the cones is accessed via a staircase to the main
exhibition floor, where ceilings are distorted and walls seem to merge with the emphasis on appearance spacecraft is
perceived inside and outside the work.

In the main gallery space, Hadid has created an artificial crater-like landscape, allowing diagonal views through the
different levels of the exhibition-scape, while protruding volumes accommodate other functions. The cones become
craters, creating a link between the exterior and the mysterious dynamic landscape within.

https://en.wikiarquitectura.com/building/phaeno-science-center/
SPACES

A central crater at the base of the building provides a view into different levels diagonal, giving a high volume porosity
and transparency. This vacuum is developed within the open space for exhibitions in the main volume. The other
volumes like protrusions that are projected on the inside, staying other functions. A kind of tunnel glazing of a public
nature, as an extension of existing bridge, runs through the building allowing views to and from the exhibition space.

The interior is characterized by irregular and articulation of space, where there is a clear division of planes and spaces,
but sudden openings between a wall and the other empty and referrals from unexpected perspectives. Large glass
surfaces offer a panoramic view of the landscape.

The science center of the building has an area of 12,000 m2. The underground parking, beneath the center, has a larger
area of 15,000 m2 that spans the property.

https://en.wikiarquitectura.com/building/phaeno-science-center/
MATERIALS AND STRUCTURE

The volume is made of reinforced concrete. In the front you can see only large portions of this material. In areas using
large glazed glass curtain. You can also see skylights, respecting the drawing rhombuses as was done in the concrete.

The structure of the steel deck.

Were used in construction, 27 thousand cubic meters of cement and steel beams 3500.

https://en.wikiarquitectura.com/building/phaeno-science-center/