Phaeno Science Center, Wolfsburg, Germany, Zaha Hadid, Design, Architect, Images

Phaeno, Germany : Wolfsburg Science Center

Wolfsburg building, Niedersachsen, Germany design by Zaha Hadid Architects, UK

18 Jan 2007

Phaeno Centre Wolfsburg

Design: Zaha Hadid Architects

Phaeno Centre image © Zaha Hadid Architects

Phaeno Science Centre by Zaha Hadid Architects

The Science Center, the first of its kind in Germany, appears as a mysterious object, giving rise to curiosity and discovery. The visitor is faced with a degree of complexity and strangeness, which is ruled however by a very specific system of structural organization.

Located on a very special site in the City of Wolfsburg it is set both as the endpoint of a chain of important cultural buildings (by Aalto, Scharoun and Schweger) as well as being a connecting link to the north bank of the Mittelland Kanal -Volkswagen’s Car Town.

Multiple threads of pedestrian and vehicular movement are pulled through the site both on an artificial ground landscape and inside and through the building, effectively composing an interface of movement-paths. Volumetrically, the building is structured in such a way that it maintains a large degree of transparent and porosity on the ground, since the main volume -the Exhibition- is raised thus covering an outdoor public plaza with a variety of commercial and cultural functions which reside in the structural concrete cones.

An artificial crater-like landscape is developed inside the open exhibition space allowing diagonal views to the different levels of the exhibition-scape, while volumes, which protrude, accommodate other functions of the science center. A glazed public wormhole-like extension of the existing bridge flows through the building allowing views to and from the exhibition space.

Phaeno Science Centre Wolfsburg – Building Information

PROGRAM: Science Center, restaurant, cafe, shop, auditorium, underground car park
CLIENT: Neuland Wohnbaugesellschaft mbH, Erfurter Ring 15, 38444 Wolfsburg
On behalf of the City of Wolfsburg
ARCHITECT: Design Zaha Hadid Architects [London, UK]
Architects Zaha Hadid Architects + Mayer Baehrle Freie
Architekten BDA [Loerrach, Germany]
Project Architect [Zaha Hadid] Christos Passas
Asst. Project Architect [Zaha Hadid] Sara Klomps,
Competition Team Christos Passas, Janne Westermann, Chris Dopheide, Stanley Lau, Eddie Can, Yoash Oster, Jan Hubener, Caroline Voet

Special Contributor [Zaha Hadid] Patrik Schumacher (Director)
Contributors [Zaha Hadid Architects] Silvia Forlati, Guenter Barczik, Lida Charsouli,
Marcus Liermann, Kenneth Bostock, Enrico Kleinke, Constanze Stinnes, Liam Young, Chris Dopheide, Barbara Kuit, Niki Neerpasch, Markus Dochantschi
Project Architects [Mayer Baehrle] Rene Keuter, Tim Oldenburg
Project Team [Mayer Baehrle] Sylvia Chiarappa, Stefan Hoppe, Andreas Gaiser,
Roman Bockemühl, Annette Finke, Stefanie Lippardt, Marcus Liermann, Jens Hecht, Christoph Volkmar

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]
SIZE/AREA : Science Center 12.000 m2; Underground Car Park 15.000 m2

Phaeno Centre : Building PR from Zaha Hadid Architects 180107

Phaeno Centre : Wolfsburg building by ZHA

Seat Pavilion, Wolfsburg
–
Alfredo Arribas

German Buildings by Zaha Hadid Architects

– LFone Landesgartenschau, Weil am Rhein
– Vitra Fire Station, Weil am Rhein
– BMW Central Building, Leipzig
– IBA-Block 2 – Housing project, Berlin

German Building Project
– KMR, Art and Media Centre, Düsseldorf

Phaeno Centre images © Zaha Hadid Architects 180107