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. Since 2022, the Swiss Center for Design and Health (SCDH) in Nidau, adjacent to Biel/Bienne, has been a unique centre of excellence for testing, reviewing, and optimising healthcare buildings, systems, and processes.

Putting well-being at the centre
Founded in 2019, the Swiss Center for Design and Health (SCDH) in Nidau is dedicated to networking, researching and supporting.

The Holy Grail of design methodology
Research Head Minou Afzali on evidence-based design and interdisciplinarity at the SCDH.

Understanding between cardboard walls
The simulation space in the Living Lab is where construction drawings first take tangible form.

“What would Florence Nightingale think? ”
Doctors, architects and nurses use precision simulation to test digital care models.

Experience, discuss, refine
A look at current projects at the SCDH.