An incredible structure, mind-boggling, and awe-inspiring! That’s the Zeitz MOCAA Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. Located in the Grain Silo Complex of Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront, it left me breathless. I can’t gush enough 😉

If you’re ever in Cape Town, just after going to the top of Table Mountain, you just have to visit it. Whatever you do, whether you’re an architecture buff or an art lover, please put aside at least half the day to begin to do it justice.

The entire space has been carved out of 42x 33m high concrete grain tubes. The moment you walk in there’s a cathedral-like quality to it, the carved silos akin to huge organ tubes. The atrium stretches right up to the roof, the round tops of the silos covered by hardened glass which you walk on when you reach level 6.

Level 7 upwards on the right is a hotel. The Museum spans the whole breadth of the structure until level 6.

The atrium is 27m high and is the central point from which all the 80 gallery spaces on 8 floors connect from. It is shaped like a single grain.

The spiral staircase, in one of the old grain tubes, goes all the way from basement 2 to level 6 – it is an engineering feat all on its own.

A repurposed remnant of the old silo.

The elevator shaft, neatly fitted into grain tubes.

Looking up at the roof from the atrium, at the top of the tube which is covered by laminated glass in a fritted pattern designed by the late African artist El Loko.

The roof is the tops of the tubes, covered by laminated glass with a frittered pattern by the late African artist, El Loko. You can see all the way down to the atrium if you look in between the patterns, very exhilarating.

The roof has a sculpture garden and bulging windows providing gorgeous 360-degree views of Cape Town and Table Mountain.

An old door on the outside, the industrial origins of the building still very much evident and preserved.

Entered in WordPress’s weekly photo challenge: Transformation.