CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA — An international team of art experts and architects is in the process of turning 42 grain silos in Cape Town, South Africa, into one of the world’s largest museums of contemporary art, according to Artdaily.org.
The $50 million project is expected to be complete in late 2016. Architects on the project said rather than fighting a building made of concrete tubes, they will enjoy it’s “tube-ness.”
An elliptical section will be hollowed out from the center of the nine-storey building to create a grand atrium that will be filled with light from a glass roof overhead, according to Artdaily.org.
Some silos will be carved open at ground level for exhibition galleries while others will house elevators. Architects’ drawings of the cite can be viewed at http://www.heatherwick.com/zeitz-mocaa/.
The museum is named for German entrepreneur and former Puma chairman Jochen Zeitz, whose extensive African art collection will provide the museum's permanent exhibition, Artdaily.org said. The Zeitz Collection was founded in 2002 and is currently held and exhibited in Switzerland, Spain, South Africa, the U.S. and Kenya.
The museum’s 80 galleries will house temporary and traveling exhibitions. It will focus on the 20th Century.
