82 CONTENT IN ENGLISH 027 CD of the new walls. They become focal points in the atrium thanks to the lighting. The design process strived to understand the lighting conditions during the day and during the night in order to achieve a smooth transition when the sun went down and to obtain the most spectacular space possible. Today, that old grain silo, a reminder of past port days of Cape Town, has become the Zeitz MOCAA, a symbol of the openness and development of a country that has man- aged to shine a new light on the shadows that darkened its history, reinventing itself from art and architecture. Explorations with natural light revealed ways to use sunlight to animate the space through the seasons, and helped to create a dynamic, attractive, surrounding for the visitors Lighting Designer (Atrium): Arup. Architect: Thomas Heatherwick Photo Credits: Nicolas Cardin ZEITZ MOCAA: ORGANIC PATTERNS TO ILLUMINATE THE MOST IMPORTANT MUSEUM OF AFRICA The lighting for the atrium of the Zeitz MOCAA museum, designed by the ar- chitect Heatherwick Studio, was accom- plished by performing a 24 hour analysis of the lighting conditions. A historic grain silo at the Waterfront of Cape Town turned into the epicenter of African art. The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz-MOC- CA), recently launched in Cape Town (South Africa), is the largest museum in the continent and it is considered by many the African Tate Modern. It is located at the Victo- ria & Alfred Waterfront, a working harbor that was reno- vated 30 years ago to create a commercial and touristic center. The Zeitz MOCAA is a product of the collaboration between the MOCAA and the entrepreneur Jochen Zeitz, within the V&A Waterfront development. Heatherwick Studio was responsible for the design of the Zeitz MOCAA and the overall transformation of the Grain Silo complex as a whole, which involved transforming a historic grain silo into a space that could house African art. It has a boutique hotel on the top floors and over eighty galleries distributed in nine flours that are accessed by el- evator and a spiral staircase. It also features a garden of sculptures on the terrace, a photography and performing arts center, a bookstore, a restaurant and a reading room. The Zeitz MOCAA is a good example of how architecture can redefine the surroundings and the past, turning the eyes of de visitor towards the artworks of the young African artists. “The design process made it possible to understand the lighting conditions in the atrium during the day as well as at night, which helped us streamline the design resulting in a striking and attractive space” – Guillermo Martínez, Arup Lighting In line with its privileged location, with Table Mountain as backdrop, and its historical and symbolic importance, the museum needed a lighting project that would enhance the experience and would blend with its surroundings. Arup Lighting was in charge of this key design element of the atrium, inspired in a grain of corn. Here, natural and artificial light complement each other resulting in a subtle transition between day and night, making an impression in the more than 100.000 visitors that walk through the museum daily. THE FOURTH DIMENSION OF ARCHITECTURE Natural and artificial lighting play an essential role in the experience of the visitor of a museum and as such, it was a fundamental consideration for the designers at Arup Lighting. By way of a 24 hour analysis the team of design- ers developed a holistic lighting solution for the atrium, carefully balanced, combining day light and artificial lighting. The study of natural light explored ways to use sunlight to animate the space through the seasons taking into ac- count the geometry of the atrium and its glazed apertures to create a dynamic, attractive, surrounding for the visitors of the museum “The design process made it possible to understand the lighting conditions in the atrium during the day as well as at night, which helped us streamline the design resulting in a striking and attractive space”, said Martínez. The team at Arup, together with the architects of Heath- erwick Studio, worked to identify the focal points in the atrium, creating a striking nocturnal experience for the visitor. The idea was to highlight the cylinders that form the atrium of the museum to maximize the effect of the architectural approach. To this end, spaces such as the el- evators and the spiral staircase were emphasized as well as the exterior of the white box that house the galleries of the museum, where the roughness of the aged concrete from the nineteen twenties contrasts with the uniformity