phaeno represents a new type of knowledge centre: The imposing building impresses with its avant-garde design language and offers flexible utilisation options.
Designed by star architect Zaha Hadid from Iraq, the phaeno building, which breaks with many conventions, was opened in November 2005. The limits of what had previously been technically possible were exceeded with the help of state-of-the-art special building materials such as self-compacting concrete and specially developed glass façades. An international team was able to realise the spatial ideas of the Pritzker Prize winner after four years of construction.
The structure, supported by conical feet, towers high above the street. It reveals the space below as a new type of urban space and shapes it as a covered artificial landscape with gentle hills and valleys. The diversely shaped building is full of power, dynamism and drama and inside, at a height of seven metres, a structural adventure land unfolds, formed from craters, caves, terraces and plateaus.
Gentle and flowing gradients are broken up by rugged and angular sections, reflecting Hadid's preference for creating flowing, continuous spaces. This creates a moving landscape that allows visitors to find their own paths.
The realisation of Zaha Hadi's unique design was an adventure of its own kind. Hardly any right angles and requirements that were at the limits of what was technically feasible posed particular challenges for everyone involved in the construction. New building materials and technologies were used to realise the complex geometry of the design. The construction site itself attracted thousands of visitors to Wolfsburg and became a media event as a "showplace". After more than four years of construction, the phaeno was finally handed over for use as a science centre.
Zaha Hadid is one of the most talented and innovative architects of our time. She radically broke with conventional ideas and building forms. In 2004, she became the first woman ever to receive the world's most important award for architects, the Pritzker Prize.
For a long time, Hadid's designs were too daring for potential clients. Even her sketches seem to do without right angles and are a breathtaking interplay of sloping planes, pointed walls and protruding roofs. She first attracted international attention in 1983 with the remodelled leisure and recreation park "The Peak Leisure Club" in Hong Kong. However, it was not until 1993 that she achieved her breakthrough with the Vitra factory in Weil am Rhein. Her design for the phaeno Science Centre followed in 2000. Hadid's largest project in Germany impresses with its independent design language and the extraordinary building helped her to achieve worldwide recognition.
You can find more information about this extraordinary architect at www.zaha-hadid.com.
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