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Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

0

  • Work on this object ended.

2005

  • Work on this object began.

2015

2025

  • You found it!

Zeitz MOCAA

This is a Zeitz MOCAA. It was designed by Heatherwick Studio and Thomas Heatherwick and made for (as the client) Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. It is dated 2005.

How do you turn 42 vertical concrete tubes into a place to experience contemporary culture?
Commissioned to transform Cape Town’s historic Grain Silo into a museum for a celebrated collection of contemporary African art, the studio decided to celebrate, rather than erase, the silo’s industrial past. Galleries and a central circulation space carved from its cellular concrete structure create a luminous glass-roofed central atrium. The greatest change to the silo’s exterior is the addition of pillowed glazing panels, inserted into the upper floors’ existing geometry, which appear gently inflated. By night, the building becomes a glowing beacon in the harbor.

It is credited Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio.

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This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio.

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/85006477/ |title=Zeitz MOCAA |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=10 March 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>