Manuela represents Norway in WHO Age-friendly Environments Knowledge and Action Hub

Our design director Manuel Aguirre has recently become part of the World Health Organization Age-friendly Environments Knowledge and Action Hub (AFE K&A) on falls, as one of the two representatives from Norway, alongside Eva Jakobson Vaagland of Skadeforebyggende forum.

Photo from World Health Organization Age-friendly Environments Knowledge and Action Hubs

Falls are the second leading cause of unintentional injury deaths worldwide, but we can all help in their prevention. In our study, "Ageing in the Arctic," we found that fear of falling and previous falls significantly impact the elderly, causing many to feel unsafe in their neighborhoods, become inactive for extended periods, and suffer from social isolation.

On June 27, Manuela, along with other international experts on falls, spoke at the first online dialogue session on preventing falls in age-friendly cities and communities. She discussed how our team has been working on falls prevention by integrating systems-oriented and service design, architecture, planning, community medicine, and economics.

Specifically, she shared insights from our new project with partners Bodø Kommune and Senteret for et Aldersvennlig Norge. This project aims to co-design solutions to prevent falls in outdoor environments and eventually prototype and test better methods for gathering data and understanding where falls occur — gap that was highlighted during the session, underscoring the need for improved data management as a crucial step in preventing falls. The project is funded by SpareBank 1 Nord-Norge and supported by Design and Architecture Norway (DOGA).

We're looking forward to sharing more as we go along!

Have questions?

Contact Manuela at:

Manuela Aguirre

Design Director
manuela.aguirre@atarkitektur.no
+47 988 84 528