OLD & NEW
69
PUNTA DELLA DOGANA
ART AT THE TIP OF THE ISLAND
the porcelain-like, polished, exThe old customs office, Punta posed concrete that has bedella Dogana, occupies a promcome his trademark, as well inent site in the lagoon city : it as elements of steel and glass. stands at the tip of an island The floors are—depending on in the Dorsoduro district, borthe floor level and the part of dered by the Canal Grande and CONVERSION OF A VENETIAN the building—either exposed the Canale della Giudecca, diCUSTOMS HALL INTO A MUSEUM concrete or covered with liagonally opposite from Piazza TADAO ANDO ARCHITECT & ASSOCIATES noleum. The smooth surfaces San Marco. In the past, investors CLAUDIA HILDNER contrast with the irregular brick have repeatedly shown interwalls and rough wooden beams est in the seventeenth-century of the historical building. Since building, which has been empthe new and old elements mainty for decades ; the changes tain a balance, the existing fabthat would have been necessary ric and the new construction do for converting it into a hotel or apartment building were, however, not acceptable to the city and not compete with one another. Instead, they form a new entity— its residents. François Pinault, a French billionaire and art collec- the art museum. For Ando, this alliance also symbolizes the union tor, was ultimately able to win the Venetians over to his concept for of past, present, and future : the shell stands for the past, his architecture represents the present, and the art is that which tranconverting the building into a museum of contemporary art. The architecture of the new “temple of art” is the brainchild of Tadao scends the present. Ando Architect & Associates. It takes some courage to commission a Japanese archi- SITE PLAN AND LAYOUT OF PUNTA DELLA DOGANA PROJECT DATA Client Palazzo Grassi S.p.A. tect for converting a European building that Construction costs EUR 20 M is more than three hundred years old: RenUsable floor area approx. 3,500 m2 ovations are not particularly everyday busi( net ) ness in Japan, much less the conversion of GFA 4,331 m2 Completion 5 / 2009 an existing building that is as old as this. B B Project management / team Tadao AnB C Yet Ando has succeeded in revitalizing the do, Kazuya Okano, Yoshinori Hayashi, F former customs building in a surprisingly E Seiichiro Takeuchi B D Partner Equilibri srl, Eugenio Tranquilli sensitive way. It was soon decided to leave ( project manager ) the external appearance of the building unB Location Dorsoduro, Campo della SaB touched—not only because of the city auB B lute, 2, I–30123 Venice thority’s strict requirements. The stuccoed Year of construction 1500 brick masonry of the outer walls was carefully restored and, where needed, secured A Entrance 1000 2010 A with stainless steel anchors. Slight imper- B Exhibition spaces Conversion 2007–2009 plant room fections in the stucco were repaired, where- CD Technical Central courtyard 2000 2010 as the brick was left visible in larger areas E Café and bookstore Construction costs Price per m2 affected by spalling. F Tower 20 M € 5,714 € The building is covered by a wave-like se15,000 ries of gabled roofs that cover the parallel, In the center of Punta della Dogana, the architect has placed a long rectangular halls comprising the tri- concrete cube that opens upwards. It marks the place where a di10,000 angular plan. Atop the restored timber roof viding wall was removed as part of a previous renovation. In this 5,000 structure, the architects have set a new case, rather than reinstating the original structure, Ando has be0 roof that is reminiscent of the original, but stowed a new heart upon the building, in the form of this cube. For which integrates additional skylights. the flooring of this central exhibition space, the Japanese archiInside, to start with, all the partition walls, stairs, and other addi- tect has selected masegni, a large-format sandstone slab that is tions from the last two centuries were removed—only the original traditionally used in Venice as paving. structure remains. Walls were left unsurfaced to a great extent. In the end, incidentally, Ando had to dispense with one element Missing bricks were replaced by the architects only where it was of his design : In front of the entrance that faces the Campo della absolutely necessary, using bricks with characteristics2 coming as4 Salute, Ando wanted to position two concrete stelae, so as to call 2 close as possible to the existing ones. attention to the transformation of the site and its new content. The The newly inserted structural elements, however, establish a Venetians opposed it, however, and thus the external sign of the clear contrast to the existing fabric : here Ando has worked with new use remained unrealized.
10 m
SECTION THROUGH THE CONVERTED CUSTOMS BUILDING
F
AN_Layout_final_250810_TT.indd 69
E
B
D
B
B
A
10 m
25.8.2010 18:30:51