Zeitz MOCAA, Capetown: A Spectacular Salutation to African Art

The idea of creating a museum to showcase purely contemporary African art coincided with a proposal to develop and adapt the site at the Victoria and Albert Waterfront at Heatherwick Studios. The exciting possibilities that emerged from marrying the two by exploiting the heritage-tagged silo building for this purpose were sufficient to persuade the design firm to go ahead with presenting the idea to the parties concerned and create what is sure to be a marker in design history.

The distinction of the design stems from the unique approach to adapting the utilitarian silo building into a public presentation-centric museum – by carving out a sculptural interior from its tubular form. A grain of corn that remained from the silo’s functional days was found at its floor while recceing the site and its silhouette is said to be the inspiration that was amplified to form the outline of the cavity carved out from the central portion of the cluster of 42 silos. This exercise ends up revealing a captivating pattern in all directions of the geometries formed by the original arrangement of the tubular silos. 

These geometric patterns in the central atrium are highlighted by the polishing them to create a contrast against the rough concrete of the original tube surfaces, and laminated glass also added at some places for effect. With a variety of elements peeping through the variously cut tubes – like glass walled elevators, spiral staircases, glass skylights in the roof, lights – the atrium space gains a fantastic aura as “a vaulted cathedral” with a contemporary twist! The final touches are afforded by some spectacular sculptures and installations suspended and erected in this space. Thus, an interior that is compelling enough to pull crowds in was created to tide over the initial doubts raised in this regard stemming from the fact that visiting museums is not yet a regular activity for an average African! 

Having thus achieved a spectacular central interactive space, the bordering silos have then been cut back up to their perimeter to build in five floors housing 80 galleries usable for temporary and permanent displays and six research centres spread over 6000 square metres. The museum also provides for a state of the art storage and conservation centre, library and reading rooms, bookshop and restaurant; along with these will be centres for a costume Institute, photography, curatorial excellence, the Moving Image, performative practice and art education. A major portion of the displays will come from the private African art collection of Jochen Zeitz, former CEO of the sports brand Puma and an African art enthusiast, after whom the museum is also named. When questioned about the degree of access and democracy this museum will have for the African people given the private and corporate nature of its resources, Zeitz is claimed to have dismissed the doubts saying that “It is not his or the Waterfront’s museum – it’s for Africa.”

The rooftop is crowned by a sculpture garden while the topmost floors are occupied by an equally spectacular hotel, which has an exterior of huge squares of glinting faceted glass panels replacing the original cement grey surfaces, which mirror the sun and surroundings during day and glitter with the inner lights shining through at night. The exterior of the building thus becomes eye-catching-ly singular with the tall grey scalloped form of the silo edges topped by this sparkling crystal crown! 

The 27 feet high grain silo building, which was the tallest building in sub-Saharan Africa at the time of building in 1921, earned a heritage status as a symbol of Africa’s economic progress after its services were discontinued in 2001 owing to containerisation of exports. With Heatherwick transforming the interior into this stunning new avatar, the building becomes a temple to African art, sure to attract pilgrims of art, young and old, from all over Africa and the world. Located as it is at the most significant harbour which is the commercial gateway to the continent, on the most visited pedestrian waterfront promenade in Africa and having panoramic views of Table Mountain and Robben Island where former President Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, the museum building is surrounded by meaningful social context. Zeitz MOCAA is thus perfectly poised, as the world’s largest single collection of African art, to be the socio-cultural window to Africa.