| Francesc Aragall i Clavé |
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Presentation Currently, as General Director of the company, ProA solutions and President of the Design for All Foundation, , he is working in what should be the ideal parameters so that everyone and every individual, regardless of their personal characteristics or cultural traditions, can enjoy the environment, products and services of society. Although, at first, it does not seem to do much with design, his professional trajectory in this field began in 1978, the year in which he was combining his work as a welder, machine technician and draughtsman in a family company (TREMESA) with dance. When one trains as a bailerin and choreographer, you begin to understand the concept of movement, the form as well as the extent of it. This interest in corporal movement brought him to study in depth anatomy and biomechanics. The knowledge brought about from these subjects was applied, after a period in the USA, as a teacher of anatomy and biomechanics applied to the dance discipline in the Instituto del Teatro de Barcelona and, later on, advisor in various medical centres (Integral Centro Médico y la Salud, Instituto Médico de Desarrollo Infantil y Clínica Trauma). He was also founder member of the Spanish Association of Dance Medicine (Associación Española de Medicina de la Danza - ASEMEDA). The daily contact with very diverse problems derived from incorrect habits or deficient design in some products led him to consider what was the real effect in the health of people in the use of specific daily objects (chairs, tables, cars, machinery, etc.). The investigation he carried out regarding the relationship between man/object led to the introduction to the field of Ergonomics. The principles and the philosophy of ergonomics provided him with the opportunity to widen the field of study, that is, to introduce a new variable: unconscious movements and, in repetitive occasions, what we do throughout the day (sitting, writing, walking, cooking, studying, etc.). However, apart from this, it would offer him a new work tool: Functional design (first functionality and later aesthetics). The interest in these subjects led him to become one of the founders of the company, Ergotecnia, the first company of its kind in our country, and of the Catalan Institute of Ergonomics and Company Health (Instituto Catalán de Ergonomia y Salud en la Empresa - ICESE). He was also one of the promoters of the Asociación Española de Ergonomía. The development of design functionality gives us more details of the reality of the people with problems of mobility, which brought about his introduction to the field of accessibility in 1988, and between 1990 and 1997 he was the Head of urban accessibility, transport and technical assistance in Barcelona City Council. The urban transformation that was carried out in Barcelona prior to the Olympic and Paralympic games, in which he contributed as head of urban accessibility of the Barcelona City Council, helped him to realise that accessibility benefits the entire population, since it gives independence to people with permanent problems of reduced mobility and people with temporary problems with their environment (children, pregnant women, illnesses that lead to disabilities of the senses, etc.). However, accessibility makes daily life more pleasant and easier for the population in general. Therefore, in 1994, he created the Consortium of Resources and Documentation for Personal Autonomy (Consorcio de Recursos y Documentación para la Autonomía Personal - CRID) as an instrument for the extension for what had been carried out in Barcelona for other municipalities. For this reason, in 1995, coinciding with the EIDD General Meeting in Barcelona, he introduced the concept of Design for All, since the concept of accessibility was very much linked to people with disabilities. In this way, Francesc Aragall, carries out his professional activity in Barcelona as well as internationally, since the final objective of Design for All is that any person can choose where they wish to live. Once taken that decision, they can integrate; live their life in a pleasant and enriching way, regardless of their personal or cultural characteristics. |
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Francesc Aragall i Clavé, 2004
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