Zaha Hadid Architects Phaeno Science Centre project records
1996 - 2015
Fonds
The Zaha Hadid Architects Phaeno Science Centre project records, 1996-2015, consist of approximately 43,800 digital files that document the design and construction of an interactive science museum in Wolfsburg, Germany. Materials related to presentations, publications, events, and the press are also represented. The majority of the records date from 2000 to 2006.
In January 2000, the City of Wolfsburg issued an open competition to build a science centre on vacant public land. The site was set as the endpoint of a chain of important cultural buildings, as well as being a connecting link to the north bank of the Mittelland Kanal and Volkswagen AutoStadt. Zaha Hadid Architects’ (ZHA) winning proposal represented a design that was capable of affiliating urban processes with structural systems.
Completed in 2005 with consulting engineers Adams Kara Taylor (AKT), the building comprises three levels: a 15,000 square meter underground parking garage, a public landscape on the ground level, and a raised 12,000 square meter exhibition space. The exhibition space is lifted, creating an artificial topography at the ground level that allows the surroundings to filter through and intersect the building. The building is elevated by ten supporting conical shapes that appear as funnels both protruding from and extending into the volume above. These funnels create space for internal circulation, light wells, and other necessary functions, while also framing an outdoor plaza.
Using the parameters of landscape architecture as an organizational methodology in combination with digital tools, ZHA was able to design one of the largest site-cast concrete structures ever made using handmade formwork and self-compacting concrete. The oblique volumes, resolved through 3D Max, Rhinoceros, Microstation, and AutoCAD, resulted in the use of 2D drawings and 3D models to communicate the relationships between different geometries. AKT also worked extensively in BIM formats, though these materials are not represented in the collection.
Materials in this fonds are largely in CAD formats, chiefly Hewlett Packard Vector Graphic plotter files and AutoCAD drawings, though EPS, STL, 3DM, 3D Studio, Adobe InDesign, and IGES formats are also represented. The fonds also includes a large number of textual documents, including Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Adobe PDF, and Outlook email message formats, as well as images, largely in JPEG, EXIF, and TIFF formats.
These files represent four major activities undertaken by ZHA and their various consultants: design, presentation, construction, and publicity (including publications, press, and events).
This fonds contains a number of born-digital files in CAD and 3D modeling formats. Due to the complex and often proprietary nature of CAD formats, proper rendering and use of these files may require highly specific software. CCA’s dedicated Study Room CAD workstation is loaded with a wide but incomplete range of such software. For further information about services and software available, please contact Collection Reference (ref@cca.qc.ca) and ask to speak with the Digital Archivist.
This fonds is arranged into four series:
Series 1. Design files
Series 2. Presentation files
Series 3. Construction working files and related correspondence
Series 4. Press, publications and events
Zaha Hadid Architects is a London-based architectural firm founded by Iraqi-born British architect Zaha Hadid in 1980. Since Hadid’s passing in 2016, the firm has been led by Patrik Schumacher.
Among Zaha Hadid Architects’ most well-known works are the 59 Eaton Place (London, 1982); Vitra Fire Station (Weil am Rhein, 1993); Cardiff Bay Opera House (Cardiff, unbuilt, 1994); the Mind Zone at the Millennium Dome (London, 1999); Bergisel Ski Jump (Innsbruck, 2002); the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art (Cincinnati, 2003); BMW Central Building (Leipzig, 2005); the Phaeno Science Centre (Wolfsburg, 2005); Guangzhou Opera House (Guangzhou, 2010); the London Aquatics Center (London, 2011); and Al Wakrah Stadium (Al-Wakrah, 2018).
Zaha Hadid Architects has received many of architecture’s highest honors during the firm’s decades of practice. Particularly of note, Zaha Hadid won both the Pritzker Prize (2004) and the RIBA Royal Gold Medal (2016), the first female architect to win either prize.
The digital files were copied from the firm’s servers in London and sent to CCA on an external hard drive.
These records were acquired by CCA as part of the Archaeology of the Digital project. Selected items were displayed in the show Archaeology of the Digital: Complexity and Convention, May-October 2016.
When citing the collection as a whole, use the citation:
Zaha Hadid Architects Phaeno Science Centre project records,
Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal.
When citing specific collection material, please refer to the object’s specific credit line.
English, German
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