The Punta della Dogana

Located at of the most prominent places in Venice, “the merging point of the Grand Canal and Giudecca Canal,” Punta della Dogana houses the permanent collection of billionaire François Pinault, writes arcspace. “In the days when Venice was a major commercial centre, the Dogana da Mar, the Customs House of Venice, built by Benoni in 1677, controlled access to the Grand Canal and the San Marco docks.”  

Japanese architect, Tadao Ando, oversaw the renovations, stripping back centuries of alterations and additions. Within this pared back space, "When this former customs warehouse reopened in June 2009 as the permanent home of the François-Henri Pinault collection, after a top-to-toe rehaul by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, it consolidated Venice's growing reputation as a destination not only for Renaissance art, but for the cutting-edge stuff too,” writes Anne Hanley in The Telegraph.