Phaneo Science Centre, Wolfsburg
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'The Phaeno Science Centre in Wolfsburg, northern Germany,
appears, in the words of its designer as 'a mysterious object,
giving rise to curiosity and discovery'. The museum building
occupies a high-profile site at the end point of a chain of
important cultural buildings by Aalto, Scharoun and Schweger. It
also provides new public space both within and outside its
walls.
According to the designer, Zaha
Hadid Architects, 'the visitor is faced with a degree of complexity
and strangeness', which is ruled by 'a very specific system of
structural organisation'. In simple terms, the building consists of
a basement car park out of which rise 10 reinforced concrete
'cones', flaring out to support the main exhibition space, two
storeys above. Each cone is of a different geometric shape, and
they all change shape as they rise. Four of the cones continue
through the exhibition concourse to support the steelframed,
metal-clad roof.' Extract from Concrete Quarterly 208, June
2004.
Project team
Client: City of Wolfsburg, Ministry of Culture and Sport
Architect: Design Zaha Hadid Architects [London, UK]
Architects Zaha Hadid Architects + Mayer Baehrle Freie
Architekten BDA [Loerrach, Germany]
Consultants
Structural engineer: Adams Kara Taylor [London, UK]
Tokarz Freirichs Leipold [Hanover,
Germany]
Services engineer: NEK
[Braunschweig, Germany]
Buro Happold [London, UK]
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Related information
Publication
Concrete
Quarterly - issue 208