Design Against Crime Research Centre

Marcus' research specialisms are in public space, environmental interaction & new urbanism. He is a practising designer and consultant on projects in the Spain and the UK and has been involved in practice-lead research with Design Against Crime since 2000. He has recently initiated a DAC research stream into cultures of bicycle theft and use in Japan (http://mwdesign.typepad.com/bikeofftokyo) and is managing strands of the DAC Grippa products evaluation project (AHRC) and of Bikeoff 2 research (AHRC/ EPSRC), in Barcelona.
He is setting up a further research cluster linked to mapping methodologies
of community consultation among selected practitioners from design, architecture and
social science backgrounds.

Since 2003 Marcus' research with Thorpe, Gamman and the DAC team, has created visual evidence about the relationships between cycle theft, habits of use and design of provisions. This work has fed through to Transport for London, the Metropolitan Police, the Ayuntamientos (city councils) of Barcelona and Terrassa and others and published by Perpetuity Press. He completed work on Grippa project (anti-theft furniture and accessories, AHRC), with a funded position researching and designing in collaboration with Prof. Lorraine Gamman, Jackie Piper and Chris Thomas. This work was awarded a top nomination for INDEX 2005 (Denmark) and was selected as part of the SAFE exhibition at MoMA New York (October 2005).

He has Bright Sparks funding for 2007-8 with Rosanna Vitiello, from the Gunpowder Park 'arts, science and nature programme', to conduct practice-led investigation into the visual codes which impact perceptions of unknown places. Some of Marcus' previous research into visual codes and perceptions of space has also been funded on separate occasions, by projects with INEFC Sports Institute (2005-8 Barcelona) and URV University, Tarragona (2006-7) and also published by Palgrave Journals (London) and exhibited by La Capella (Barcelona).

Marcus trained in Product Design (Central Saint Martins, London) and later completed a Master's degree in Design and Public Space (Elisava, Barcelona). His focus is how design can respond to ways people naturally interact with objects and environments, often beyond anticipated activity. His freelance and consultancy commitments include visual consulting and field research into the relationship between sport, public spaces and social networks, with the Catalan sports institute, INEFC; field-led design research into urban growth and social cohesion for URV University, Tarragona; teaching Design and Anthropology students at Elisava and IED, Barcelona; commissioned and group-generated work with the Sparks Partnership (www.sparks-art.com) including a recent installation for the Economist Group (Contemporary Arts Society); exhibition design for Volvo; domestic furniture for Michael Sodeau Partnership and street furniture for Fitch Design consultancy. He has given papers and run workshops on design-and-interaction; design-and-community; public space-and-priority, and design-against-crime.

Marcus can be contacted at: m.willcocks@csm.arts.ac.uk