Innovation Lab design for next-gen dialysis development
The most-booked room on the campus that builds the world's dialysis machines
About
Fresenius Medical Care is the world's leading provider of care for people with chronic kidney failure — serving over 292,000 patients across 3,600 dialysis centres in 140+ countries. Its Schweinfurt site in Bavaria is the epicentre of global dialysis-machine innovation and production: every second dialysis machine sold worldwide originates there, with over 800,000 units made since 1979.
Challenge
Developing the next generation of dialysis machines needed a space that could orchestrate cross-functional innovation at scale — bringing mechanical engineers, industrial designers, software developers and project teams together to ideate, simulate, prototype and decide. The existing environment scattered those disciplines across separate buildings, siloing creative work from technical iteration.
Solution
Conducted user research across engineering, design and project-management teams to map how next-gen development actually flows. Designed four integrated zones — a Creativity Space for ideation, a Digital Lab for simulation and modelling, a Machine Lab for hands-on prototyping, and a Support Office for coordination — so a constraint found in the Machine Lab could be tested in the Digital Lab the same day. The spatial language itself signalled permission to move fluidly between thinking and building.
Outcome
The lab became the most-booked, most-requested collaboration space on the Schweinfurt campus — a physical catalyst for the cross-functional work behind next-generation dialysis machines.
He designed a space that made collaboration inevitable — and when the best teams start defending access to your room, you've built something real.
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