Comprising 16 freestanding pavilions, set in a loose and apparently haphazard arrangement, Towada Art Centre brings a new micro-urbanism to this the town of Towada, Japan. Situated on a crossroads of the town’s central avenue, the centre forms part of Arts Towada Project, a programme of events and installations aimed at regenerating a neglected part of town.The project also extends Ryue Nishizawa’s ambitions to pursue an architecture that considers visual layering and physical permeability, and as such echoes a number of his other works like Moriyama House (AR August 2007) and projects completed under the studio guise of SANAA (of which he is a partner with Kazuyo Sejima) such as the galleries at Kanazawa in Japan and Almere in the Netherlands (AR October 2007). This glass corridor is the principal means of controlled circulation, connecting chains of pavilions in three circuits and defining four inner courtyards. The irregular-shaped gardens create spaces for sensitive works of art, such as Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree and Shin Morikita’s Flying Man and Hunter. This is in contrast to the residual spaces around the site’s perimeter, more accessible to passers-by, where larger, more robust public works are arranged, such as Noboru Tsubaki’s giant red ant, aTTa. Internally, the glazed circuit allows curators to control and divide visitor access between the permanent works, three exhibition galleries and the community spaces, which include a café, shop, and activity space.