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The phaeno builing in the centre of Wolfsburg looks like a spacecraft that has just landed. Resting on its ten cone-shaped “feet”, the concrete structure spanning 154 metres seems to almost hover in the air. 

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 phaeno 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, the futuristic apparition has been raising eyebrows in amazement and making eyes gleam with awe among passers-by.

The inside of phaeno seems to be from another world as well: a free-flowing space framed by cast concrete. Without any right angles. Entwined over several levels. An ideal location for adventurers and discoverers. And a fantastic achievement of the London-based architect Zaha Hadid.