The Science Museum Phaeno in Wolfsburg is an architectural masterpiece. Resting on ten massive concrete columns, the building almost appears weightless. Making use of 27,000 cubic meters of concrete and a complex formwork geometry, architect Zaha Hadid created an open, fluid interior – featuring artificial craters, plateaus and sloping surfaces.

In line with our philosophy of treating fair-faced concrete as a living material, we developed a concept for addressing various imperfections. The concrete surfaces, constructed using rough-sawn timber formwork, exhibited several defects. We reworked these areas and applied secondary material to restore them. This allowed us to precisely recreate the original joint pattern and the distinctive timber board texture.