Second Solar spaceship, Germany

The small German city of Böblingen is now home to what might be the world’s biggest and most elaborate children’s toy. The Second Solar spaceship, designed by Different Futures and constructed for the Sensapolis fun park earlier this year, is a three-level, 850 sq m interactive replica of a real shuttle, albeit one better suited to exploration of the cognitive rather than the galactic variety.
Click here to see more of the Second Solar spaceship.
The interior of the installation, which includes a 3-D cinema, a laboratory, a warp-core, a medical centre and an alien breeding ground, was designed by Clostermann Design in conjunction with Kohlbecker Architekten. The set even includes jet turbines and circular docking pods ready to connect to orbiting stations. So much for the old days when kids in capes had to rely on cardboard boxes and plastic steering wheels to zip around space.
ADDRESS
Flugfeld-Allee
Böblingen-Sindelfingen
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
A refreshed Victorian home in London is soft, elegant and primed for hosting
Sobremesa house by architects Studio McW shows off its renovation and extension, designed for entertaining
-
Nordic Knots and Eagle + Hodges’ new rug collection is inspired by the English garden
The Scandinavian rug company and the British property development duo have collaborated to create a collection that reinterprets the English garden in a way that doesn’t rely on delicate florals
-
Studio Urquiola’s immersive Kvadrat textile forest is inspired by the Nordic landscape
During Chart 2025, Studio Urquiola and Danish designers Tableau team up to present a textile installation showcasing Kvadrat’s nature-inspired new collection
-
A new book delves into Frei Otto’s obsession with creating ultra-light architecture
‘Frei Otto: Building with Nature’ traces the life and work of the German architect and engineer, a pioneer of high-tech design and organic structures
-
What is Bauhaus? The 20th-century movement that defined what modern should look like
We explore Bauhaus and the 20th century architecture movement's strands, influence and different design expressions; welcome to our ultimate guide in honour of the genre's 100th anniversary this year
-
Step inside Clockwise Bremen, a new co-working space in Germany that ripples with geological nods
Clockwise Bremen, a new co-working space by London studio SODA in north-west Germany, is inspired by the region’s sand dunes
-
Join our world tour of contemporary homes across five continents
We take a world tour of contemporary homes, exploring case studies of how we live; we make five stops across five continents
-
A weird and wonderful timber dwelling in Germany challenges the norm
Haus Anton II by Manfred Lux and Antxon Cánovas is a radical timber dwelling in Germany, putting wood architecture and DIY construction at its heart
-
A Munich villa blurs the lines between architecture, art and nature
Manuel Herz’s boundary-dissolving Munich villa blurs the lines between architecture, art and nature while challenging its very typology
-
A Berlin park atop an office building offers a new model of urban landscaping
A Berlin park and office space by Grüntuch Ernst Architeken and landscape architects capattistaubach offer a symbiotic relationship between urban design and green living materials
-
Private gallery Stiftung Froehlich in Stuttgart stands out with an organic, cloud-shaped top
Blue-sky thinking elevates Stiftung Froehlich, a purpose-built gallery for the Froehlich Foundation’s art collection near Stuttgart by Gabriele Glöckler