Punta della Dogana

Punta della Dogana occupies the meeting point of the Grand Canal and Giudecca Canal. The former sea customs house became a Pinault Collection contemporary-art venue in 2009 following a restoration by Tadao Ando.

Why it matters

The triangular complex connects Venice's commercial history with its more recent cultural life. Giuseppe Benoni's seventeenth-century redesign gave the warehouses their present historic form, completed in 1682 on a pre-existing fifteenth-century complex.

What to notice

Two Atlantes support a gilded bronze globe on the tower, crowned by a figure of Fortuna that turns with the wind. Inside, exposed brick walls and timber trusses contrast with Ando's reinforced-concrete cube. Traditional masegni paving gives the central space a Venetian material reference. Steel grids over the openings recall Carlo Scarpa's design for the Olivetti shop in Piazza San Marco.

Context and history

The warehouses fell into decline towards the end of the 1980s. François Pinault won the municipality's redevelopment tender in 2007 and entrusted the project to Ando. Completed in 2009, the intervention retained the commercial building's character while creating spaces for contemporary art.