Bylivkonferansen 2025 – Health-Promoting and Age-Friendly Places

Guest speakers at Bylivkonferansen 2025, the conference focuses on how we can develop health-promoting and age-friendly places across Norway. The places where we live our everyday lives have a direct impact on people’s health, well-being, and quality of life throughout the life course. The conference brings together actors from the public sector, private industry, politics, and professional fields to share experiences, best practices, and new perspectives on place-based development that supports public health and intergenerational inclusion.

The presentation introduces Greymatter and Compassionate Commons as two interconnected initiatives that explore how health, care, and well-being can be integrated into everyday places through architecture, culture, and participatory design.

Greymatter is a research- and practice-based initiative that examines how neighbourhoods, public spaces, and social infrastructure can support active ageing, intergenerational life, and integrated care beyond traditional institutional models. Through concrete case studies from Norway and Europe, Greymatter demonstrates how design and spatial strategies can strengthen social connection, dignity, and everyday health.

Compassionate Commons is a research and innovation initiative led by the University of Bergen (UiB) and developed within the framework of the New European Bauhaus. Building on the insights of Greymatter, it investigates how compassionate, health-promoting environments can be co-created through cross-sector collaboration between municipalities, cultural institutions, designers, and local communities.

Together, the two initiatives illustrate a shift from siloed healthcare systems toward neighbourhood-based and community-embedded care ecosystems, aligned with the New European Bauhaus values of sustainability, inclusion, and beauty. The presentation shares transferable strategies and methods relevant for professionals working with health-promoting and age-friendly place development at local and regional levels.