With a background in ecological systems and urbanism, Marcus is an urban designer and Chartered Landscape Architect specialising in people and planetary health through place-shaping.

Starting practice in 1986, he has worked in consultancy on rural and urban projects for a broad range of clients, specialising in sustainable development and population health and through joining a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre in 1996. Working with built environment professionals in cities across Europe, he specialises in the role of city-region spatial frameworks, neighbourhood interventions, and biodiversity to support healthier lives, a healthier planet and reduce health inequalities. In the UK he has worked extensively with Bristol City Council, Belfast Healthy Cities and Public Health England.

He has developed spatial policy and assessed proposed schemes in light of impact on children, older people, active travel, and food and natural environments. Marcus is Editor-in-Chief of ‘Cities & Health’, an international journal, and former deputy director of the World Health Organisation’s Collaborating Centre for Healthy Cities. Currently acting as an expert advisor to the WHO and UN-Habitat, for whom he developed international health guidance for urban and territorial planning. Marcus is co-author of Shaping Neighbourhoods, a desktop guide for local health and global sustainability.