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Smith+Nephew Innovation Centre

Munich, Germany

º£½ÇÊÓƵ was appointed to deliver building services engineering (MEP) consultancy for Smith+Nephew’s new Digital Surgery and Robotics Innovation Centre in Munich, Germany – a flagship facility designed to support global training and R&D. Our team helped transform a pre-existing structure into a cutting-edge space for immersive learning and collaboration.

The innovation centre brings healthcare professionals from Europe, the Middle East and Africa together with Smith+Nephew’s research and development and medical education teams to explore digital surgery and robotics techniques and technologies.

At the heart of this is Real Intelligence, Smith+Nephew’s digital ecosystem, including the new state-of-the-art robotics-assisted surgical system CORI.

Smith+Nephew has built a new digital surgery and robotics innovation centre, in Munich, Germany.

The facility allows surgeons from around the world to get to grips with the latest robotic innovations for the surgical environment.

º£½ÇÊÓƵ was engaged to provide specialist building services (MEP) consultancy on the designs.

State-of-the-art digital infrastructure allows surgeons to perform remote surgery on cadavers at the facility from anywhere in the world.

Challenge

The centre features a dedicated medical education facility, where surgeons can refine techniques and experience the latest technology through hands-on learning and immersive simulation.

The new facility, situated at the Rhythm complex at Kustermann Park, in central Munich, joins Smith+Nephew’s recently opened robotics R&D and medical education facility in Pittsburgh, USA, in offering a unique collaborative approach to customer experience and product development.

The design for the Munich facility saw the retrofitting of a pre-existing building to accommodate a range of laboratories, exhibition and educational spaces, including an auditorium, and specialist surgical suites where surgeons can learn to use the latest robotic innovations to perform surgery on both cadavers and models.

All of these suites required the latest in digital infrastructure to ensure remote learning and even remote surgery, to allow the facilities to be used by specialists around the world.

Solution

Our MEP experts worked closely with the architectural team from Unispace to develop a robust building services design to accommodate the requirements of the building. This included the development of a new ventilation system to ensure sufficient movement of air, particularly for the auditorium space.

We also coordinated closely with a range of laboratory experts to build a picture of the specialist requirements for the different technical and surgical spaces within the development. We played a key role in simplifying and rationalising initial designs, which had been based on comparable facilities within a hospital environment. But given that the Innovation Centre is an educational and R&D space, rather than a medical environment, many of the constraints of developing a hospital space could be relaxed, significantly reducing cost from the project.

Our design provided the required power and data infrastructure throughout the retrofitted structure to enable the placement of both robotic elements and robust online video training facilities throughout.

The operational of the new facility was carefully considered throughout the MEP design, from highly efficient occupancy-based variable air drives for the fans in the ventilation systems through the integration of low-power LED lighting throughout.

Value

º£½ÇÊÓƵ added significant value throughout the project by delivering a technically robust, cost-efficient MEP design tailored to the unique needs of an educational and R&D facility. Our team played a key role in rationalising initial concepts, reducing complexity and cost, and ensuring the building could support advanced digital infrastructure for robotics and remote learning.

We collaborated closely with architects and laboratory specialists to meet diverse technical requirements, while embedding sustainability into the design through energy-efficient systems and smart ventilation strategies. The result is a high-performing, future-ready facility that enables global collaboration and innovation.