Zeitz MOCAA Exterior, image © Heatherwick Studio

Zeitz MOCAA Museum of Contemporary Art Africa by Heatherwick studio

Introduction

by Riccardo Bianchini, Inexhibit

The project for the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) by London-based Heatherwick studio is among the most interesting of its kind and quite a challenge: how to convert a 57 meters tall grain silos complex, realized in 1921, into a contemporary museum?

The approach by Heatherwick studio is far from ordinary: rather than demolishing the old building or “empty” it retaining only its outer skin, Heatherwick decided to fully cope with the architectural essence of a construction substantially made of several vertical huge concrete tubes. The silos ensemble will be excavated, cut and sliced to create an impressive cavernous space while retaining, and even amplifying, its powerful geometry.

You can find below a full explanation of the Zeitz MOCAA architectural concept directly from the words of Heatherwick studio itself.

The Grain Silo in Cape Town, photos: left by Blackwych; right by Damien du Toit

An additional reason to look at this new museum with a particular interest is the art collection it is based on. Indeed, the collection built up by Jochen Zeitz is perhaps the most important in the world dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and its Diaspora. The Zeitz collection, currently on display into many different buildings and villas at the Segera Retreat in Kenia, is composed of paintings, sculpture, video and installations and includes works by artists such as Sue Williamson, Chris Ofili, Marlene Dumas, Kudzanai Chiurai, Penny Siopis, Rashid Johnson, Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, Jane Alexander, Kehinde Wiley, Godfried Donker, Hank Willis Thomas, among many others.

Nandipha Mntambo, emabufto, 2009, Photo: FNG/CAA/Petri Virtanen, courtesy of Kiasma, Helsinki

The MOCAA, located at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, is scheduled for opening by the end of 2016. The project is developed by a partnership between V&A Waterfront and Jochen Zeitz, Mark Coetzee has been appointed as Executive Director and Chief Curator of the new museum.

Project description

by Heatherwick studio

How do you turn forty-two vertical concrete tubes into a place to experience contemporary culture?

The brief was to reinvent the historic Grain Silo at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, as a not-for-profit cultural institution housing the most significant collection of contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora.

Our first thoughts wrestled with the extraordinary physical facts of the building. There is no large open space within the densely packed tubes and it is not possible to experience these volumes from inside. Rather than strip out the evidence of the building’s industrial heritage, we wanted to find a way to celebrate it. We could either fight a building made of concrete tubes or enjoy its tube-iness.

Zeitz MOCAA cross section, image © Heatherwick Studio

Unlike many conversions of historic buildings which have grand spaces ready to be repurposed, this building has none. The project became about imagining an interior carved from within an infrastructural object.

The solution we developed was to carve galleries and a central circulation space from the silos’ cellular concrete structure, creating a cathedral-like central atrium filled with light from a glass roof.

The other silo bins will be carved away above ground level to create gallery spaces for the Zeitz MOCAA permanent collection and international travelling exhibitions.

From the outside, the greatest visible change to the Silo’s monumental structure will be the addition of pillowed glazing panels, inserted into the existing geometry of the upper floors, which will bulge outward as if gently inflated. By night, this will transform the building into a glowing lantern or beacon in the harbour.

Zeitz MOCAA Interior, image © Heatherwick Studio