ryue nishizawa places vivid orange peak against turquoise landfill in japan
ryue nishizawa designs landfill observation platform in japan
Japanese architect Ryue Nishizawa, co-founder of SANAA with Kazuyo Sejima, creates an observation platform at Oono Development’s managed landfill. Part of Final Disposal Site – A Landscape Created by Nature, Industry, and People, the installation invites visitors into a working industrial landscape and makes a normally restricted site accessible as a place of observation. The project is presented as part of Setouchi Art and Industry 2026, a decentralized festival that brings art and architecture into active industrial sites across Okayama and Ehime prefectures.
Curated by Kazuyo Sejima, the exhibition takes place within Oono Development’s integrated recycling complex, where a valley has been engineered into a vast basin for waste disposal. Separated from the surrounding ground and vegetation to prevent waste from mixing with the soil, the landfill is expected to fill over approximately 15 years. Its changing terrain forms the setting for an exhibition that directs attention toward the infrastructure and material processes often kept out of public view.
setouchi art and industry 2026 opens industrial sites to visitors
Visitors travel by bus toward the upper reaches of the site, wearing distinctive workwear in the same red-orange color as the installation, derived from a natural mineral produced in Ehime Prefecture. From the valley rim and its artificially formed hills, they look across the expansive landfill. Nishizawa’s observation platform provides a place to pause and take in the scale of the site, while the vivid orange surface contrasts with the pale ground, turquoise landfill lining, and surrounding green mountains.
Shingo Masuda and Katsuhisa Otsubo create gathering spaces and a bus stop, while Suzuko Yamada develops the bus and visitor workwear. Curated and supervised by Kazuyo Sejima, with Yuko Hasegawa, Yusuke Okura, and Atsuhiro Miyake as advisors, the exhibition integrates these elements into the visitor journey through the landfill.
The project is part of the inaugural Setouchi Art and Industry 2026. Organized by the Japan Industrial Art Foundation, the festival spans seven active industrial sites, including facilities connected to salt production, textiles, denim, shipbuilding, battery storage, and resource recycling.
project info:
name: Final Disposal Site – A Landscape Created by Nature, Industry, and People
artists: Ryue Nishizawa; Shingo Masuda + Katsuhisa Otsubo; Suzuko Yamada
curator / supervisor: Kazuyo Sejima
advisors: Yuko Hasegawa; Yusuke Okura; Atsuhiro Miyake
location: Oono Development, Toon, Ehime Prefecture, Japan
event: Setouchi Art and Industry 2026
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