The Capital Region of Denmark’s new diabetes centre is now in use in use. Here, waiting time becomes time of experience, and nature plays the leading role in both architecture and treatment. As Northern Europe’s largest and most advanced diabetes hospital, Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen (SDCC) will treat 11,000–13,000 patients annually and accommodate around 330 employees across 24,000 m².

Architecture with people at its heart

SDCC is organised around a large two-storey garden, four smaller courtyards and a public roof garden that weave landscape and building into a seamless whole. Daylight, warm materials and intuitive flows create a setting that breaks away from the conventional institutional hospital, instead functioning as a hospitable environment where nature is the overarching design principle.

“SDCC is designed to challenge the traditional, institutional hospital and instead be a welcoming cultural house with nature at its core, where waiting time becomes time of experience. We hope that the project can inspire and help shape how we develop healthcare architecture in the future,” says Thomas West Jensen, partner at Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects.

An asset for both patients and the local community

On arrival, visitors are greeted by a lush, undulating landscape that leads them inside and redefines the hospital experience. Indoors, courtyards create spaces of calm and reflection during treatment, while the public roof garden invites the wider community to enjoy a biodiverse landscape distinct from the surrounding hospital buildings.

SDCC demonstrates how architecture can become an active part of treatment – a place where nature, daylight and human scale together foster healing, learning and quality of life.

The project was developed by Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects in collaboration with Mikkelsen Arkitekter and STED.