In December 2004, Istanbul's first modern art museum, Istanbul Modern, opened in a former warehouse in the port of Karakoy on the Bosphorus. The pleasant but dilapidated port building had been demolished, and a new building on the same site designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano opened to the public in the spring. The result: a simple, airy and elegant museum, hardly marred by the cruise ships twice its height that dock just behind it. They have replaced the cargo ships, just as luxury boutiques and trendy restaurants have done with the neighborhood's old stores.

Every time one of these behemoths makes a stopover, a wall rises from the ground to channel the flow of passengers to a customs post. This spoils the view that was at the heart of the project, and the ideal of transparency to which the Genoese architect is so attached takes a beating. The appalling security arrangements that all visitors to the museum are submitted to don't help.

But architecture is a profession of constraints and Piano is not complaining. He figures his work will survive the era of giant liners, global terrorism and even the ugly new buildings that have invaded the site of the former industrial port since it was privatized. As modest as it is majestic, the building blends into the landscape as it does into the history of the site: a concrete box clad in folded aluminum foil and set on a glass base, cantilevered above the void. A system of posts and bracing that has been designed to withstand earthquakes and the ravages of time.

The architecture's lack of ostentation also reflects a tight economic equation (the building's budget was €35 million, according to the architect) and continues inside, where the reception area unfolds between imposing structural elements. The building's potential is revealed progressively as you climb to its upper floors, and the bay windows that pierce the concrete on either side gloriously frame the landscape: the medieval town on one side, and the waters of the Strait on the other, like tableaux vivants set in luminous boxes.

This unassuming architectural promenade leads to a rooftop terrace offering a breathtaking view of the city. Piano had the wonderful idea of creating a body of water, black and shining like the Bosphorus, which flows at its feet, yet whose shimmer seems to be reflected on its surface. Magic! The symbolic value of this space for cocktails and selfies speaks volumes about the social function museums have acquired, but the exhibition spaces on the lower levels have been just as well treated. Functional, generous and bright, they enhance the works of art with dignity.

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