- Moca museum restaurant plus#
- Moca museum restaurant series#
There are also conventional service lifts and the usual fire escape staircases, in line with standard building safety requirements.īy way of a design element that is a first in Africa, Zeitz MOCAA is serviced by by Category A climate control in the galleries. A third adjacent partly cut-away silo provides the third panoramic option – a steel spiral staircase. These lifts operate inside two of the cut-away silo cylinders – with a view into the atrium. Visitors arrive on this level by using one of two scenic lifts. It is from this level that visitors may embark on their ‘walk of faith’ across a high-performance glass floor that looks down into the atrium. In addition, a rooftop floor is dedicated to a restaurant, an education centre and a rooftop sculpture garden. The bottom of the atrium is formed by graded steps that naturally contour the rounded space forming a flexible amphitheatre space that can be used for both events and displays. The top of the bins is capped with a glass roof which lets light enter the atrium from above. Suspended overhead, the impression of zero gravity is provided by gigantic ‘hanging’ silo cylinders (as cut) which form the concentric ring arch above. Walking into this chamber, one is given the impression of being in space – weightless and shaped with massive curved dimensions. This atrium occupies the space of 12 of the former silo cylinders and is arguably the most imposing feature of the new building.
Moca museum restaurant plus#
The intention was to convert most of the total existing volume to 80 separate gallery spaces, education spaces, reading rooms, meeting and conference space, plus a huge atrium area beyond the main entrance, rising 30 m and 20 m across.
Moca museum restaurant series#
The storage annex – the major storage areas consisting of 42 large individual silo ‘cylinders’ measuring 5 m diameter by 30 m high.īy clearing out a portion of the highly compartmentalized internal structure it was possible to create a series of exhibition spaces. An elevator building which received, hoisted and then gravity-fed incoming grain from a rail loading point to various storage bins inside the complex. I Principally, the former silo consisted of two functional areas: The final phase of the grain silo project has been the completion and handover of the building to the used partly as a boutique hotel which opened early in 2017 but principally as as the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) which took place in September 2017.īut how does an organic building such as a grain silo morph into a breathtaking gallery, housing a premier art museum and a boutique hotel? According to lead design architect, Thomas Heatherwick of the famed Heatherwick Studios in London “We expected a rather cold surface inside the museum, but as we began to work with portions of the old concrete, we realized that it imparts a rather unique character to the building inside – a rather warm one at that.” Of particular fascination has been the role played by the original concrete, cast in the 1920’s and reaching maximum strength by the time the building was re-purposed. With the completion of a massive re-purposing and refurbishing programme at the former grain Silo, the Silo District is almost complete.Īrchitectural photojournalist, Gareth Griffiths, a materials scientist by academic training, has been tracking and documenting the redevelopment of the Silo District at the V&A Waterfront. The Silo now lends it name to and forms the centre piece of a new district within Cape Town’s famous V&A Waterfront, a redevelopment project which started in 2010 as a mixed commercial, residential and leisure hub to the east side of the V&A and connecting it with the CBD. By 2001, the old Silo had become redundant.Ītrium vault, Zeitz MOCA Museum. Consequently, it is heritage-listed by Docomomo South Africa (See and ). An iconic building, it is considered an important contributor to Cape Town’s urban character. It was sited to take advantage of its connectivity to the docks and the supporting rail infrastructure. The facility processed hundreds of thousands of tons of wheat, maize, soya and sorghum. Completed in 1924, the Silo dominated the skyline of the city at 57 m tall.Ĭonstructed by SA Railways and Harbours, the facility consisted of a suite of buildings including the storage annex, elevator building, dust house, dust cyclone and track sheds. The historic grain silo situated in the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront dates back many years to a time when most of the country’s trade was conveyed on the high seas or via steam train.
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