British architect Thomas Heatherwick has proposed to repurpose a grain silo into an art gallery in Cape Town, South Africa. The silo is made up of 42-concrete tubes, which Heatherwick plans to make into gallery spaces; some will house elevators.
The gallery, called the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), will be located on Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront. It will be built in a partnership between V&A Waterfront and entrepreneur Jochen Zeitz. Zeitz’s art collection will help to furnish the museum’s 80 proposed galleries.
A press release from V&A Waterfront states that the proposed museum will “become the most significant collection of contemporary art from Africa and its Diaspora.”
V&A Waterfront challenged Heatherwick to honor the original structure and contemporize it at the same time.
In the center of the nine-story building, an oval-shaped, cathedral-like atrium will be carved out and covered by a glass roof. With a cross-section cut through eight of the central concrete tubes, the atrium will be surrounded by concrete tubes, according to Dezeen.
Beneath the building, there is a network of underground tunnels; these will create education and site specific spaces so that artists can dialogue with the original structure, V&A Waterfront has said.
In addition, 18 education areas, a storage and conservation area, bookstores, and a rooftop sculpture garden, among other features, are included in Heatherwick’s design.
On the building’s exterior, layers of paint will be removed in order to show the raw concrete of the silos, and pillowed glazing panels will bulge outward from the upper floors.
Heatherwick’s proposed design was presented this past week at Cape Town's Design Indaba Expo 2014.
Related Stories
| Apr 5, 2013
Snøhetta design creates groundbreaking high-tech library for NCSU
The new Hunt Library at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, incorporates advanced building features, including a five-story robotic bookBot automatic retrieval system that holds 2 million volumes in reduced space.
| Apr 2, 2013
6 lobby design tips
If you do hotels, schools, student unions, office buildings, performing arts centers, transportation facilities, or any structure with a lobby, here are six principles from healthcare lobby design that make for happier users—and more satisfied owners.
| Mar 29, 2013
PBS broadcast to highlight '10 Buildings That Changed America'
WTTW Chicago, in partnership with the Society of Architectural Historians, has produced "10 Builidngs That Changed America," a TV show set to air May 12 on PBS.
| Mar 27, 2013
Small but mighty: Berkeley public library’s net-zero gem
The Building Team for Berkeley, Calif.’s new 9,500-sf West Branch library aims to achieve net-zero—and possibly net-positive—energy performance with the help of clever passive design techniques.
| Mar 22, 2013
8 cool cultural projects in the works
A soaring opera center in Hong Kong and a multi-tower music center in Calgary are among the latest cultural projects.
| Mar 15, 2013
7 most endangered buildings in Chicago
The Chicago Preservation Society released its annual list of the buildings at high risk for demolition.
| Feb 25, 2013
10 U.S. cities with the best urban forests
Charlotte, Denver, and Milwaukee are among 10 U.S. cities ranked recently by the conservation organization American Forests for having quality urban forest programs.
| Feb 22, 2013
Detroit project would bring 'fairytale forest' to riverfront
A proposal by atelierWHY to create a heavily wooded park on the downtown riverfront has taken first place in the juried Detroit By Design competition.
| Feb 19, 2013
'Pop-up' proposal would create movable cultural venue for NYC
The Culture Shed, a proposed 170,000-sf project for New York City's Hudson Yards development, could be the ultimate in "pop-up" facilities.