Mark Davy

Mark Davy has spent his career working across fine art, architecture and urbanism. He studied fine art at Canterbury College of Art but spent considerable time within its architecture school. He was subsequently invited by Alvin Boyarsky to spend two years at the Architectural Association as an artist in residence. As part of the Millennium celebrations, Tom Dyckhoff invited him to exhibit [Future]city at the main RIBA gallery in 1999. Combining painting, sound works, graphics and texts, the exhibition was developed in collaboration with Mel Gooding, Strangely Familiar, architects and curators.

These formative experiences shaped Futurecity as a practice concerned with how art and culture can work in partnership with architecture to create the narratives of our towns and cities. As Founder and CEO of Futurecity, Mark has deliberately built his practice around close collaboration with architects. Over the past 27 years, he has worked with more than 50 architectural practices across the UK, Europe, North America, Australia and the Middle East. A selection of these collaborators includes Arup, SOM, Cox Architecture, BDP, PDP London, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, MVRDV, UNStudio, Aedas, tp bennett, KPF, 3DReid, Howells, Assael Architecture, Grimshaw, WilkinsonEyre, Moeller, Make Architects, BIG, Snøhetta, Foster + Partners, Haworth Tompkins and Tate + Co and many more.

Through these relationships, Mark and Futurecity have brought artists, curators, cultural organisations and creative thinking into the architectural process. Their work has supported and, in some cases, directly informed the identity, public realm and cultural life of buildings, infrastructure and major urban districts.

Futurecity has now worked on more than 450 built-environment projects globally. In London under his leadership Futurecity has developed public art, cultural and placemaking strategies for major developments including Battersea Power Station, Nine Elms, New Covent Garden Market, Greenwich Peninsula, Wood Wharf, Wembley Park, 130 Fenchurch Street and the Elizabeth Line.

Mark’s work demonstrates how artists and cultural practitioners can contribute meaningfully to the design process when they are involved early enough. The City of London has become a particularly important focus of his work. He has helped develop cultural and placemaking strategies for major commercial developments including 130 Fenchurch Street, 120 Fleet Street, Puddle Dock, The Mark, the new BT tower and the London Tunnels, alongside a wider portfolio of office and tall-building projects across the Square Mile.

These commissions examine the cultural role of the contemporary workplace and how major commercial buildings can make a more generous contribution at street level through public art, cultural spaces, landscape, programming and public access. At the London Tunnels, Futurecity is developing a major cultural programme and placemaking strategy in partnership with WilkinsonEyre and the wider project team.

Mark developed the original strategy behind Sculpture in the City, which has transformed the Square Mile into a changing open-air exhibition and created new relationships between contemporary sculpture, historic streets, public spaces and commercial architecture. The programme demonstrates how a coordinated cultural idea can connect individual buildings while making the City more accessible, legible and surprising.

Mark led the team that won the Illuminated River project, the permanent artwork by American artist Leo Villareal that connects nine Thames bridges through programmed light. Delivered across a complex network of historic structures, engineering requirements, planning authorities and public interests, the 3.2-mile installation operates as both an artwork and a significant piece of urban infrastructure. It has changed the experience of London after dark without competing with the architecture of the bridges themselves.

For Crossrail (now the Elizabeth Line) Futurecity developed the Culture Line public art strategy, working closely with ten artists, architects and engineers to embed contemporary artworks within eight new stations. The commissions were conceived as part of the passenger experience and the identity of each location, rather than as decoration added after construction.

At Battersea Power Station and across Nine Elms, Mark developed the early creative-district thinking for one of Europe’s largest regeneration areas. For Greenwich Peninsula, Futurecity helped establish the cultural vision for a new London district, bringing together architecture, creative industries, public art and landscape including ‘The Tide’, an elevated linear park and cultural route. At Wembley Park, a placemaking strategy set out a creative-district vision, including plans for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to establish its future home at Wembley.

Mark’s experience extends beyond London to projects across Australia, the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Futurecity has contributed to major urban projects including South Eveleigh, Central to Eveleigh and Darling Harbour in Australia; creative-district initiatives in Boston and Massachusetts; and new-city and destination projects in KSA at Diriyah, King Abdullah Financial District, AMAALA, NEOM-Trojena, Murabba and Riyadh.

Mark asks how architecture can reflect local culture, support creative economies and produce places with a distinct identity. His central argument is that culture should influence the conception of buildings and cities from the beginning, which he describes as ‘software over hardware’.

Mark has shared this work through keynotes, lectures and public conversations including TEDx London; Grimshaw and Futurecity’s Urban Research Unit in London and New York; REMIX in London and Sydney; the City of Sydney Lord Mayor’s Forum; Boston Society for Architecture; Pentagram London; AREF FutureGen at Cambridge University; HIX London; New London Architecture’s City of London Summit; and an Estates Gazette fireside conversation at MIPIM 2026. He has sponsored Opportunity London, and has been a member of the NLA and RSA for many years.

His talks provide an unusual view from inside the architectural, development and city-making process. Using plans, models, films, artworks and completed projects, he explores how architects work with artists, how cultural briefs can influence design, why public art succeeds or fails, and what happens when commercial development is understood as part of the cultural city.

Mark speaks from practice, drawing on first-hand experience of projects conceived, negotiated, funded and delivered at an urban scale.