Zeitz MOCAA
V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
Design architect: Heatherwick Studio
Executive architects: Jacobs Parker Architects
VDMMA
Rick Brown Associates
Jacobs Parker was appointed in a joint venture as executive architects, to repurpose of the historic Grain Silos into the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art, Africa.
Conceptualised by Thomas Heatherwick in London, the project has been recognised as an international cultural icon in the same league as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Jacobs Parker were specifically responsible for the delivery of the fit out component of the Museum.
The project consists of a hotel, 9,500 square meters of gallery space which hosts exhibitions of contemporary art from Africa and the diaspora, spaces dedicated to art education, a rooftop sculpture garden, storage and conservation areas, reading rooms, a bookshop, café and a restaurant.
The main central space reveals the latent spatial dynamism inherent in the utilitarian geometric forms of the silo tubes. An organic incision across the tubular forms gives rise to a dynamic and vibrant hollow as the main public space. This hollow allows the visitor to experience the spatial volumes of the concrete tubes as an ensemble.
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Whale Trail Hikers' Accommodation
Noetsie, Western Cape
The brief called for two new enclosed and serviced cabins to be designed, which was to provide over night accommodation, ablutions and cooking facilities for up to twelve individuals.
Given the ecological sensitivity of the site, the new structures were located on the footprints of two existing derelict cabins, in order to avoid ecological disturbance to the landscape.
Given the remote nature of the site, the cabins were designed as light weight, kit-of-parts, modular building components which facilitated ease of handling, packaging, transport and erection on site.
The structures operate entirely off-grid, using bio-digesters and solar PV for electricity generation.
The articulation of solid enclosure, glazed and openable areas are dictated by both functional requirements and establishing views and relationships with the surrounding natural environment.
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Bird Island Gallery
Lambert's Bay, Western Cape
Cape Nature, required a new landscape interpretation centre, to be established on the footprint of the existing bird deck at their Lamberts Bay facility.
This required a seemingly contradictory programme, of exhibition space which is insular by nature, as well as a public interface which interacts with its physical surroundings, in order to observe the various bird colonies.
A new lightweight steel structure, comprising primary elements which encompass the existing bird deck footprint, was designed, which in turn allows secondary elements such as sheeting, timber slats and aluminium façades to be attached to it.
The articulation of these secondary elements is informed by establishing views and providing enclosure and solar control to the main building.
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IRT Shelters
Cape Town
The Integrated Rapid Transit (IRT) public transport system is set to revolutionise the perception, use and functioning of public transport in the Western Cape. These bus shelter typologies reinterpret the established criteria for bus shelter design and seek to enhance the streetscape in which they will operate. Three prototypes were developed: a ‘full shelter’, a ‘cantilever shelter’ (for use on narrow sidewalks), and an ‘extended shelter’, for locations with high passenger volumes. The advertising panel is integrated into the design concept as part of a kit of parts. The totem design reflects that of the bigger trunk stations, to ensure that commuters can identify the feeder shelters as a part of the overall IRT system. The design is modular, and can be expanded to suit user volumes. Lighting, variable messaging, a panic button and CCTV surveillance will ensure comfort and safety for users, and assist in making public transport a more desirable means of transport in the Western Cape.
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