British designer Thomas Heatherwick, on the occasion of design indaba 2014, unveils his design proposal for Silo in the V&A Waterfront, Cape Town – a project that started nine years ago. A new cultural institution called Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in honour of the renowned Zeitz Collection, that will form the museum’s founding collection, and the support of Jochen Zeitz of the programming and acquisition funds.

On november of 2013, the british architect was asked to transform the historic grain silo complex. The brief given to Heatherwick Studio was to reimagine the Grain Silo Complex at the V&A Waterfront with an architectural intervention inspired by its own historic character. The project called for a solution that would be unique for Africa and create the highest possible quality of exhibition space for the work displayed inside.

Imagine forty-two 33 metre high concrete tubes each with a diameter of 5.5 metres, with no real open space to experience the volume from within. Imagine redesigning this into a functional space that will not only pay tribute to its original industrial design and soul, but will become a major, not-for-profit cultural institution housing the most significant collection of contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora.

Zeitz MOCAA will focus on collecting, preserving, researching and exhibiting cutting edge contemporary art from Africa and its Diaspora. Zeitz MOCAA will comprise over 9,500 square meters (102,000 square feet) placing it among leading contemporary art museums worldwide. It will be spread over nine floors, of which 6,000 square meters (65,000 square feet) will be dedicated to exhibition space.

The new Executive Director and Chief Curator of Zeitz MOCAA will be Mark Coetzee, who for many years has been the Cultural Specialist of the Zeitz Foundation and the Curator for the Zeitz Collection. Coetzee has relocated to South Africa after a 25 year international career. Coetzee explains:  “Zeitz MOCAA will constitute a re-imagining of a museum within an African context: celebrate Africa preserving its own cultural legacy, writing its own history and defining itself on its own terms. The vision of the V&A Waterfront and Jochen Zeitz will have major impact for the visual art world and for Cape Town.”

Currently the Zeitz Collection is on display at Segera Retreat and at Zeitz MOCAA Pavilion at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.

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Thomas Heatherwick established in 1994, Heatherwick Studio recognised for its work in architecture, urban infrastructure, sculpture, design and strategic thinking. Today a team of 180, including architects, designers and makers, works from a combined studio and workshop in Kings Cross, London.

At the heart of the studio’s work is a profound commitment to finding innovative design solutions, with a dedication to artistic thinking and the latent potential of materials and craftsmanship. This is achieved through a working methodology of collaborative rational inquiry, undertaken in a spirit of curiosity and experimentation.

In the twenty years of its existence, Heatherwick Studio has worked in many countries, with a wide range of commissioners and in a variety of regulatory environments. Through this experience, the studio has acquired a high level of expertise in the design and realisation of unusual projects, with a particular focus on the large scale.

The studio’s work includes a number of nationally significant projects for the UK, including the award-winning UK Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010, the Olympic Cauldron for the London 2012 Olympic Games, and the New Bus for London.

Thomas is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects; a Senior Research Fellow at the Victoria & Albert Museum; and has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from the Royal College of Art, University of Dundee, University of Brighton, Sheffield Hallam University and University of Manchester.

He has won the Prince Philip Designers Prize, and, in 2004, was the youngest practitioner to be appointed a Royal Designer for Industry. In 2010, Thomas was awarded the RIBA’s Lubetkin Prize and the London Design Medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to design.

In 2013 Thomas was awarded a CBE for his services to the design industry.

 

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Published on: February 27, 2014
Cite: "A Grain Silo for Zeitz MOCAA Museum by Thomas Heatherwick" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/a-grain-silo-zeitz-mocaa-museum-thomas-heatherwick> ISSN 1139-6415
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