Astellas Pharma was created through the merger of Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical and Fujisawa Pharmaceutical. The aim of this Research Center was to speed up the development of new drugs, and increase the quality of research. The Center is located in the rich green natural environment of Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture. JGC Corporation, the company responsible for the planning, proposed the key concept of "nodes and spine." Takenaka was responsible for the construction of the Residential and Welfare Buildings. The company proposed a plan calling for the construction of a skeleton structure, consisting of a node connecting the Research Building with the Residential and Welfare buildings, and a circular arc-shaped "spine," which would suppress any changes to the field of vision, while providing a unified space. This plan also proposed the demolition of the existing office building, with those functions being included in the new Welfare Building. The Welfare Building is on the right, the Residential Building is in the center, and the Research Building is on the left.
The feature of the three-dimensional curved surface of the buildings has been configured using "Bézier curves*." The idea behind the design was to increase the fluidity of the space, using the geometrical power (acceleration and attraction) of the curved surfaces themselves, to guide researchers to the different buildings. The company aimed to create a workplace for researchers responsible for life sciences and the improvement of the health of mankind, which would be comfortable as an office space as well as providing a space where changes in the time, the weather and the seasons could be dynamically felt. Three-dimensional CAD was precisely used in the construction, checking the formation of the steel frame, the curtain walls and the exterior walls, realizing an interior and exterior space with complicated changes.

*Bézier curves were devised by Pierre Bézier who worked for Renault, the French automobile company, and are used as a method to draw complicated curved lines with a relatively small amount of data.