Cape Town’s Grain Silo – The Silo Hotel
The Silo Hotel in Cape Town
Design, history, taste, art, and luxury in The Silo Hotel. It captures the past and future of Africa and stands for what Cape Town was, is and will be. Cape Town is famous for commerce, the harbour, and agriculture. The Silo acts as an anchor to agriculture, shipping industry, and trade. Time rendered its function obsolete and useless.
Thomas Heatherwick redesigned the old grain silo building which houses The Silo Hotel and a contemporary art museum. After the grain and shipping industry changed and started using containers, the grain silo remained unused for two decades. In the last few years, the V&A Waterfront mandated Heatherwick Studio to provide new breath into this historic building.
Even though the idea of the museum for Africa’s contemporary art (Zeitz MOCAA museum opens in September) deserves praise, The Silo Hotel stands as a master piece separate from it. The building stands in the middle of the sunset and sunrise, merges vessels and industry with the iconic landscape of Cape Town, fuses existing concrete and steel with classic interior design, and combines proven service with highest existing technological and beauty standards. The history, geography, art and architecture cause excitement in every guest in love with unexpected environments and in search of inspiring places. The Silo is a climax of Cape Town.
Text, pictures & editor rights: Dima Euler
The Silo Hotel’s Interior
The Hotel ticks all the boxes of what you expect for stars: bar, restaurant, spa, fitness, and service. Beyond the boxes, the hotel benefits from the genius of its designer and the character of the building. Concrete and gold embrace you in the foyer. The entrance combines industry chic with classic manufacturing of the interior. The lamps, fauteuil, furniture reflect high manufacturing capacity and understanding of details.
The fitness centre and spa convinces with modern interior and high quality treatment. On the fourth floor the hotel entertains a state of the art fitness centre and spa. It should not hinder you from running outside in the waterfront.
The restaurant and bar offer all drinks you demand and a large selection of wine. On the sixth floor, the hotel contains the reception desk, restaurant, and bar. Guests feel the skeleton of the silo, in form of the old, steel, or space.
Rooms above Cape Town depending on the taste, sunset or sunrise, or even both. The seventh to tenth floors provide different kinds of hotel rooms. All of the rooms are decorated in contemporary African art. Some suites are two floors or/and several rooms. On top, the Silo offers a penthouse. Here, guests experience sunset and sunrise as well as a magnificent view spanning from Table Mountain across to the harbour. The view is above everything you know of Cape Town. You savour the most beautiful place on earth at the best spot possible. The view is massive, unique, and the interior elegant.
The eleventh floor has a boutique bar plus grill, and plenty of space for guests as well as an infinity pool, a recreation area, plus a 360° view from the top where you may sip your Chardonnay of the most decorate South African vineyard Bon Courage whenever you like. The number is limited. Hotel guests have priority.
Zeitz MOCAA and The Silo
You want to be there in September. Then, Cape Town opens the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in this building. It is described as the leading collection of contemporary art from Africa and its Diaspora. However, The Silo provides little information of what a Silo guest may expect from this event or the museum. This museum fills an important gap in contemporary art. If you want to plan this trip, contact The Silo Hotel directly.
The Hotel : http://www.theroyalportfolio.com/the-silo/overview/