The enormous grain silo occupied by the Zeitz MOCAA Museum was once the tallest building in Cape Town. Today, renovated by the architects of Heatherwick Studio, it unfurls the sculptural power and the gravitas of a Gothic cathedral, and also, like every mediaeval cathedral, it fulfils the function of gathering citizens around a higher common factor, in this case art and culture. Under the direction of Koyo Kouoh —chief curator of the museum from 2019 until her passing in 2025, and ­appointed artistic director of the Venice Biennale for 2026— Zeitz rose in prominence to become a global reference in contemporary African art.

It is situated on the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront of the South African city, a residential, commercial and leisure area that has become an obligatory port of call for visitors, with the iconic Table Mountain as a backdrop. It was inaugurated in 2017 under the initiative of Jochen Zeitz, a businessman of German origin, in association with the V&A Waterfront. While the exterior façade is impressive, with five of the upper floors of the tower fitted with attractive convex windows, it is the interior which truly offers an extra element of spectacularity.

In order to transform the original grain silo into a museum, the walls of the immense containers were excavated in order to open up interconnecting spaces for the different rooms. In this way, the cut-away forms of the 42 original concrete tubes recall the columns, ribs and buttresses of the Gothic style. One has the impression of being in the entrails of a huge sculpture where what is going to be encountered at the next step becomes unpredictable. The rooms dedicated to the permanent collection stand alongside others for the temporary exhibitions, all fluently interrelated. In all, there are 6,000 square metres of floor space dedicated to the art of Africa and the diaspora, which also include, in addition to the usual visitor services, centres for the Institute of Costume, Photography, Curatorial Excellence, the Moving Image, Performative Practice and Artistic Education.