Punta della Dogana

The Dogana da Mar, the sea customs house of the Republic of Venice, stands on the triangular point that separates the Grand Canal from the Giudecca Canal, facing the St Mark's Basin, near Baldassarre Longhena's Santa Maria della Salute. Giuseppe Benoni, architect and engineer, designed its warehouses, completed in their present form in 1682. The customs function lasted into the 1980s; the building was then decommissioned and abandoned.

The Comune di Venezia then issued a call for tenders to create a contemporary art centre there, which the Pinault Collection won in 2007. François Pinault, who had already entrusted Tadao Ando with the restoration of Palazzo Grassi (2005-2006), gave him the project again. Work ran from January 2008 to March 2009, a little over a year, and the museum reopened to the public in June 2009.

Two layers need to be told apart. Benoni's 17th-century building has a triangular plan, eight bays on two levels and a tower crowned by the "palla d'oro", a gilded bronze sphere held up by two Atlases; on it turns Bernardo Falconi's statue of Fortune, which shows the direction of the wind.

Ando's intervention is a restoration that leaves the building readable. The exterior was not altered: it was restored without additions, with stainless-steel anchors where it was damaged and bricks left exposed. Inside, the walls are bare, with no surface treatment, bricks were replaced sparingly, and the partitions of the last two centuries gave way to parallel rectangular halls. The roof keeps a timber structure and receives new skylights that let the sunlight in; the new floors are polished concrete, in places linoleum. The city of Venice comes into the galleries through the large windows. The works also strengthened the structure and provided protection against high water, access for people with reduced mobility and the installations needed to conserve the artworks.

At the centre, in a double-height space, Ando designed a reinforced-concrete cube. The exposed-concrete walls, typical of his work, partly hide the technical equipment; masegni, the stone of Venetian pavements, are laid inside the concrete volume. Ando explained that he wanted to return the building to its original state, then link it to the future by inserting a new space at its centre.

Punta della Dogana is one of the Pinault Collection's two contemporary art museums in Venice, with Palazzo Grassi. It presents temporary exhibitions drawn from a collection of about ten thousand works. Its large floor areas can host the most monumental works, and the concrete cube suits large-format works and videos.

Punta della Dogana opens only for its temporary exhibitions. While they run, the museum is open every day except Tuesday: doors open at 10 a.m. and close at 6 p.m., the last visitors being admitted at 5 p.m., and it is closed on 25 December; check the exhibition dates before coming. A single ticket gives access to the exhibitions on view.

Address: Dorsoduro 2, Venice, vaporetto stop Salute. The site is reachable without architectural barriers from the landing stage, with lifts, moving ramps and wheelchairs on request.