phæno Wolfsburg: Discovering the World

phaeno (copyright photo: Klemens Ortmeyer)

Germany's unique Experimental Landscape embedded in spectacular architecture by Zaha Hadid

The opening of phæno – Germany's unique Experimental Landscape – on November 25th opens up an entire world: the fascinating and exciting world of science and technology. The tantalising nature and special beauty of the amazing, fundamental and also mysterious phenomena of natural science – that is the theme and concern of phæno. 
 
On an activity area covering over 9,000 square metres, phæno's guests have a host of multifarious opportunities to discover and explore the thrilling world of these phenomena. 250 interactive Experimental Stations form the centre of  attraction, which invite visitors to try things out for themselves and follow their own research inclinations. The stations in the complex come from nine different countries. They have been specially constructed for phæno, and several are unique to the science centre in Wolfsburg. The exhibits have been assembled, and in part specifically composed, by Joe Ansel, one of the leading lights of the American Science Centre movement, who serves as curator at phæno. The fascinating themes of natural science and technology can also be approached in phæno through three Visitor Laboratories, the Science Theatre, the Show Crater, or the Ideas Forum. These installations are the sites of a varied programme of events aimed at a diverse range of different groups. phæno also boasts an unusual gastronomy concept: the exceptional building structure houses two restaurants, a coffee bar and a room for special events on three levels. The "Supermarket of Knowledge" – the phæno shop – provides a shopping experience of the special kind with around 5,000 different items from the world of the sciences.

"In phæno the essential idea is to have fun, to feel one's curiosity being awakened, and to deepen one's knowledge. In phæno we deliberately set no agenda and lay down no paths to be taken. Each visitor paves his or her own individual way through our Experimental Landscape and chooses his or her own focus of interest," as Dr. Wolfgang Guthardt, the project's initiator and phæno's director, describes the underlying inspiration.  
 
Experimentation in phæno means, for example: marvelling at the world's largest fire tornado, a ive-metre-high air vortex revealed by fire, setting a sphere in motion alone through relaxation, floating on a flying carpet, making sounds visible, listening to an enthralling acoustic collage of micro-sounds, simulating the movement of waves, performing a crash test with one's own body, watching the creation of a geyser, producing ice at a temperature of 4°C without the addition of cooling, generating sounds with heat, constructing cantilever bridges and letting them cave in again, simulating a traffic jam, testing one's own reaction speed, analysing DNA, experiencing the weightlessness of objects, generating electricity for everyday appliances through muscle power, or fixing one's own shadow to a wall.
 
The architecture of phæno is one-of-a-kind. The building composed by the Pritzker Prize-wining, London-based architect Zaha Hadid had already caused a sensation before its completion. Specially for this dominant location in Wolfsburg – directly sited on the ICE rail line, opposite the Volkswagen plant and the Autostadt –, she has created what must be the largest accessible sculpture in Germany. The imposing structure, borne by conic supports, is enthroned high above street-level. Its interior, at a height of seven metres, opens up a constructional wonderland of forms reminiscent of craters, caverns, terraces and plateaux. The avant-garde structure called for new types of building material, for instance the so-called self-compacting concrete or SCC, which had never been used before in Germany in the dimensions required for phæno.
 
phæno is an initiative of the City of Wolfsburg. Altogether, the city government has invested a total of 79 million euros in the project from its concept resolution in 1999 to its completion in 2005. Companies from the private sector are supporting phæno in the form of a public-private partnership. phæno partners are Volkswagen AG, EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, the Gifhorn-Wolfsburg Savings Bank, Sennheiser electronic GmbH, ThyssenKrupp AG, and Wolfsburg AG. phæno anticipates 180,000 guests a year.
 
phæno – the Experimental Landscape, Willy-Brandt-Platz 1, directly adjacent to the ICE rail station
Info-telephone +49 (0)180/ 10 60 600 (local rates from within Germany)
www.phaeno.de.

Opening times:
Tuesday to Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
closed on Mondays, on 24.12. and on 31.12.

Ticket prices: adults € 11
reduced (with the relevant passes) € 8.50
children up to 6 years of age have free access
children aged from 6 to under 18 € 7.50
groups (20 people or more) € 9.50 per person
family ticket (2 parents/grandparents with up to 2 own children) € 25;
small family ticket (1 parent/grandparent with up to 2 own children) € 16.50; each additional child € 4.

phæno gGmbH
Willy-Brandt-Platz1
38440 Wolfsburg