CONCRETE IS AWESOME

“The phæno science centre building in Wolfsburg is a fantastic one. It’s design and function show in a perfect manner how close together fantasy and science actually are. Resting on its ten cone-shaped “feet”, the concrete structure spanning 154 meters seems to almost hover in the air, creating an aura which makes you want to step into this time-machine and take off. Designed by the Iraq-born architect Zaha Hadid, the imposing structure sits enthroned high above street-level. The exhibition space, resting on conic supports and sublimely illuminated, emerged as the victorious project from an international competition staged in 2000. The London-based architect has devised a home for phæno that breaks with many conventions and that liberates the area beneath it as a kind of urban space in the form of a covered artificial landscape with gently undulating hills and valleys. Since November 2005 now, the futuristic apparition has been raising eyebrows in amazement and making eyes gleam with awe among passers-by.”