Takeda Global Headquarters ལས་ཁང་།

Press Kit

Unique Properties

Kashiwa Sato offered creative direction for Takeda Pharmaceutical's new global headquarters’ interior design. He created a flow from the entrance and reception to the work area, telling a tale of human life with refined modern icons of eight kanji for life, water, light, soil, tree, people, connections, and future, which represent Takeda's essence, reflecting it in the spatial design. He conveyed the company's brand image, creating a place where stakeholders can share the vision of the future.

Tags

office, Japan, wood, icon, lounge, iconic, Japanese

Production Technology

The walls are adorned with solid Hinoki wood, which also has medicinal properties. The designer personally tracked the process from logging to noncombustible processing that complied with the Fire Service Act and realized the design after creating multiple mock-ups both at the factory and at the construction site.

Research

Kashiwa Sato researches and advocates iconic branding and has succeeded in translating brand images into spatial expressions through graphic design that takes kanji to the extreme of abstraction as an expression of Japanese identity.

Inspiration

The spatial concept Sato chose for the entire building is "life force," a reference to Takeda's nature-based origins in medicinal botanical garden research, which contributes to people's health and the future of medicine by creating superior pharmaceutical products. Light, water, and soil nurture trees and support life, while the connections between people create the future. Sato designed the motifs using each of the eight kanji characters.

Project Duration

Grand opening in Tokyo in 2018 and completion of the building's 16th floor communication space in 2023.

Image Credits

All Photos：Photographer / Takumi Ota
VIDEO CREDITS：Film Production / SIGHT PROJECT MANAGEMENT