Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen (SDCC) is Northern Europe’s largest hospital dedicated to the prevention and treatment of diabetes. This new 24,000 m² world-class facility redefines the way we approach illness and health by leveraging the science behind how architecture, combined with nature, can promote well-being.
The design of SDCC is grounded in democratic values, embracing nature, and reflecting the diversity and equality inherent in life. The hospital’s scale, materiality, and atmosphere all focus on putting the human experience at the center. Upon arrival, visitors are greeted by a lush, undulating landscape, guiding them through the main entrance. Concrete in-situ cast pavements naturally lead to a grand staircase, inviting visitors to ascend to the public rooftop garden. This garden, a biodiversity hub, is open to all and accessible 24/7.
The building and garden landscapes at SDCC are intricately interwoven through biophilic design, creating a seamless connection between indoors and outdoors. Research shows that nature has positive effects on both mental and physical health, making its omnipresence a key architectural feature at SDCC. This integration serves as an essential part of the treatment process and promotes a healthy lifestyle.
A Radical Reframing of Healthcare Spaces
In contrast to traditional hospitals that emphasize sterile detachment, SDCC invites users to explore, move, and engage with their surroundings. From edible gardens and wild meadows to curving rooftop terrains, every inch of the landscape encourages visitors to take ownership of their well-being. As visitors journey through the undulating green spaces at the entrance, a quiet shift occurs: from patient to person, from passive recipient to active participant.
The center serves more than 11,000 patients annually within a compact 22,000 m² building footprint, located on an 11,000 m² plot. Given these spatial constraints, the landscape is not expansive—it’s immersive. Four courtyard gardens cut through the building, bringing daylight, greenery, and the changing seasons into every room. Each courtyard has its own distinct identity: a high forest for climbing and play, edible plantings for foraging, and peaceful spaces for reflection or communal dining.
Landscape as Everyday Infrastructure
The rooftop is not a decorative layer but a living, dynamic infrastructure. Designed as a therapeutic terrain of hills, valleys, and wild grasses, the rooftop garden invites physical activity through curiosity and delight rather than discipline or prescription. Here, nature is foundational, shaping movement patterns, wayfinding, and moments of pause. It defines how users interact physically and emotionally with the building.
This approach is not limited to those who can access a garden. By incorporating nature throughout the entire building—indoors and out—the design challenges the conventional divide between health and environment, architecture and landscape. It positions landscape architecture as a core element of societal infrastructure, contributing to long-term behavioral change.
A Call for Systemic Change
SDCC addresses the global diabetes epidemic, but it is more than just a response—it’s a prototype for how spatial design can influence public health policy. While traditional treatment plans emphasize individual responsibility, SDCC advocates for a collective, spatial responsibility. Architecture and landscape become active agents, nudging, guiding, and inspiring healthier habits across all demographics.
In its bold inversion of the design process—allowing the landscape to guide the way—SDCC is not just a healthcare center. It’s an infrastructure for change, where healing begins the moment you arrive.
• Project typology: Healthcare, hospital and research
• All landscape architecture offices involved in the design of landscape: STED
• All architecture offices involved in the design: Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects and Mikkelsen Architects
• Other credits: COWI (Engineer)
