Hospitality in hospitals — designing a bistro for patients

A hospital is one of the last places where we think of interior design for hospitality. And yet — a canteen, a café, a bistro — these spaces exist in every large hospital and are visited by hundreds of people every day: patients, families, staff. How they look and how they function has a real impact on the experience of being in an institution whose primary association is stress.

CHD designed two hospitality projects in hospitals in Kraków: Uzdrowisko Bistro at the Oncology Hospital on Garncarska Street, and Dzień Dobry Cafe at the University Hospital. Each posed a different design question.

Uzdrowisko Bistro — warmth in a difficult context

An oncology hospital is a place where patients spend weeks or months — often at a difficult point in their lives. A hospitality venue here must serve not only a nutritional function but also a psychological one: a place to leave the ward, to momentarily detach, to feel normal. This is an exceptionally demanding brief.

The Uzdrowisko Bistro project chose warm materials: wood, ceramics, soft lighting. The contrast with hospital corridors was deliberate — the venue was not meant to pretend to be part of the hospital. It was meant to be a clearly different space, a passage into a different experience. The palette: natural, muted, without clinical white and without excessively "café-trend" references. The character: a bistro that could stand on a street in the city centre — and precisely this is what gave it value in the hospital context.

Functionally: the service counter designed so that service is quick and legible even for people with limited mobility. Seating both at tables and at a window counter — for those who want to be alone with their thoughts and a cup of coffee.

Dzień Dobry Cafe — a daily ritual for staff and visitors

The University Hospital is a different type of institution: large, multi-functional, with an enormous turnover of people throughout the day. The Dzień Dobry Cafe was designed to serve entirely different users: doctors between appointments, families waiting for results, medical students, administration. Each group has different needs and a different rhythm.

The project prioritised flexibility: a spatial layout with different zones — fast counter service for those with five minutes to spare, and quieter seating areas for those who stay longer. The aesthetic is consciously "non-hospital" — warm wood, plants, wall graphics with the project's title phrase as the leading motif.

Realising the project in an active hospital meant strict construction constraints: works only during specified hours, materials approved for hospital spaces (easy-to-disinfect surfaces in food-contact zones), ventilation meeting sanitary standards for catering.

What designing hospitality in hospitals teaches

Both projects confirmed one principle: a user in a medical institution is exceptionally sensitive to space. In a café on the street, a poor design means a loss of customers. In a hospital, a poor design means a deepening of discomfort. The stakes are higher than in a typical hospitality project.

The second lesson is limited freedom of execution — a hospital imposes materials, working hours for construction teams, inspection procedures. The project must be designed knowing that the build will be harder and longer than in a standard venue. This requires more precise documentation and closer coordination with the building manager.

The third lesson: there is no single template. An oncology bistro and a university hospital café are entirely different projects, despite the similar typology. The brief always begins with the question: who really comes here and why?