about us | mark drane
Mark Drane RIBA FRSA | Founder
Mark is an experienced practitioner, a researcher, and director at Urban Habitats. He has over 20 years-experience in the built environment, infrastructure, and real estate sectors. In 2018 he founded the practice to focus on bringing together work across public health, urban design, and creating healthy & sustainable communities.
At the heart of this work is a focus on equity and supporting people to have a sense of control in their lives. This involves creating with communities and organisations and is foundational to any notion of creating health.
He has worked extensively with organisations including in the health, education, housing, and scientific research sectors. Trained as an architect and having led multi-disciplinary project teams Mark has a firm grip on how such investments are driven: his experience extends to direct involvement in the delivery of over £1bn of such investment. Nevertheless and with the benefit of that experience, Mark will be the first person questioning the need for new development.
Mark is experienced in working with a multiplicity of stakeholders to achieve consensus and a shared common goal. In fact his research has identified that seeking common ground through shared values can be a way to bridge between different perspectives and disciplines.
Mark’s doctoral research, Healthy Street Life, is based at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Urban Environments. This research looks at the impact on the streets where people live and their health and wellbeing. With fieldwork happening during 2020-21 this research also relates to the experiences of people and place during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mark is a visiting lecturer at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales where he teaches on health + place. He has contributed to Health Impact Assessments (HIA) for Public Health Wales on the impact of climate change and circular economy approaches.