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Page last updated at 06:43 GMT, Friday, 2 January 2009
Zaha's masterpiece

Phaeno Science Center, Wolfsburg

An hour and a half by train from Berlin, on the edge of Wolfsburg's industrial downtown, sits the imposing Phaeno Science Centre, designed by Zaha Hadid.

Phaeno Science Center, Wolfsburg

Walking inside the centre, says Deyan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum in London, is like finding oneself inside a Zaha Hadid painting - something out of 1920s science fiction film Metropolis.

Exhibits at the Phaeno Science Center

Over 250 interactive exhibits are housed in the centre, allowing visitors to generate electricity through muscle power and see the world's largest fire tornado.

Inside the Phaeno Science Center

Turning Hadid's designs into a reality was no easy matter, says the centre's director Dr. Wolfgang Guthardt, who describes it as having to build the unbuildable. "It was a very very tough process," he says.

Phaeno Science Center, Wolfsburg

But underneath it all, says Deyan Sudjic, the centre is a building that only exists because of the architect's imagination. "It exists through the sheer force of will of one architect," he says.




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