Phaneo Science Centre, Wolfsburg

Save this page as a pdf

 

 

 

 

'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 profile

Program: Science Centre, restaurant, cafe, shop, auditorium, underground car park
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]
Project Architect [Zaha Hadid] Christos Passas

Consultants
Structural Engineers Adams Kara Taylor [London, UK]
Tokarz Freirichs Leipold [Hanover, Germany]
Services Engineers NEK [Braunschweig, Germany]
Buro Happold [London, UK]
Lighting Consultants Fahlke & Dettmer [Hanover, Germany]
Office for Visual Interaction [New York, USA]

My Centre

Gain access to all the free services available on this website

Login

Don't have an account?

Register here