Inside the super lab

The challenges are huge: a healthcare system with overstretched financial and human resources; constantly changing operating procedures; patient and staff safety; long-term planning horizons; and complex construction schemes. Healthcare-related buildings, systems and processes are complicated undertakings in many different ways. Since 2022, Switzerland has had a unique centre of excellence that specialises in designing them. The Swiss Center for Design and Health (SCDH) in Nidau, adjacent to Biel/Bienne, provides a comprehensive offering for anyone who designs, plans, builds or works in healthcare and wants to test, review or optimise projects.

This special issue takes a look behind the scenes at the SCDH and shows how the services it provides support and improve planning work on buildings, systems and processes in the healthcare sector. The focus is on simulations that make it possible to test projects and processes in realistic test environments. Planning errors are recognised at an early stage and can be resolved quickly and with little expense. The specialists involved in such planning activities meet at the SCDH. Architects can experience first-hand what it is like for nurses and surgeons to work in their floor plans. Hospital management can gain an understanding of the thought process that has gone into the architectural plans. All these professionals and stakeholders have a chance to develop a shared perspective in the SCDH’s spacious facilities. This benefits us all in turn when we come to receive treatment, surgery or care in the completed projects. Urs Honegger