Events

Surely people’s health and well-being (plus arguably protecting the planet’s well-being) should be the ultimate goal for all our politics, economy, construction and industry. But with so many competing and compelling sectoral goals, we often lose sight of health. We spend scarce but increasing resources on treating diseases that we have created, and we label this as ‘health’ spending. This is not efficient. Evidence shows us that through place-making we can support the health of people (and the planet) through a different approach. With its current regeneration and development plans, the work of Cork   Healthy  Cities and established practice of inclusive place-making. Cork city is well placed to further advance collaborative   healthy place-making to explore tools for urban design and planning with a health lens, to further embed  healthy  place-making as the norm.  

Marcus Grant is a public health practitioner, landscape architect and urban designer focussing on city planning, neighbourhood design and place-shaping for health of people, planetary health and health equity. His first work was in an environmental consultancy for a broad range of clients across the UK, across national, regional and local levels. He then specialised in spatial planning and population health through joining the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for   Healthy  Cities and Urban Policy in 1996. As an Associate Professor and Deputy Director of that Collaborating Centre he acted as an expert advisor to the WHO and later UN-Habitat. During this time the was also embedded in an urban health team at Bristol City Council and for Bristol Health Partners. Leaving the Collaborating Centre in 2015, he subsequently developed international health guidance for urban and territorial planning for those two UN agencies. Marcus is co-author of   Shaping Neighbourhoods: a desktop guide for local health and global sustainability (2021). Marcus is Editor-in-Chief of   Cities & Health, an international Routledge journal focussing helping to bridge the knowledge-implementation gap for healthier urban planning, which he founded in 2016. His most recent publication for the WHO is   The emergence of a modern paradigm for urban health (2025).  

Professor Maggie O’Neill, Director of Collective Social Futures and ISS21, will open the event.

Marcus has been invited to present this public talk as part of the SATLE project ‘Creating Healthy Places: Exploring teaching methods and tools for enhancing healthy places.’