The Silo

The Silo is a magical space towering above the V&A Waterfront surrounded by the natural wonder of South Africa’s Mother City. The Silo has been built in the grain elevator portion of the historic grain silo complex occupying six floors above what will become the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA). The building has been designed by Thomas Heatherwick, Founder and Principal of the London-based Heatherwick Studio. Heatherwick Studio was tasked with theetransformation of the elevator house and the adjacent storage annex of six rows of seven silos, while carefully retaining its cultural significance and creating a building that will be as synonymous with the Cape Town skyline.From the outside, the greatest visible change to the building’s original structure will be the addition of pillowed glazing panels, inserted into the geometry of the hotel floors, which will bulge outward as if gently inflated. By night, this will transform the building into a glowing lantern or beacon in the harbour.