Clare Cooper Marcus is a prominent educator in

landscape architecture Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor areas, landmarks, and structures to achieve environmental, social-behavioural, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic design and general engineering of various structures for constructio ...

and architecture and a pioneer in the field of social issues in housing, open space design, and healing landscapes. Clare Cooper Marcus was born in 1934 and raised in a north London suburb. She received her undergraduate degree in historical geography from

University College, London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

and a Masters in urban and cultural Geography from

University of Nebraska at Lincoln A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

. She returned to England to teach cartography at the

University of Sheffield , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

, and worked as urban planner at the Ministry of Housing and

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. She returned to the US and earned a second Masters in City and Regional Planning from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

in 1965. She participated in counter-culture movement in the 1960s at Berkeley, joining in the student strikes, and agitating for free speech. She was inspired by the writings of

Catherine Bauer Wurster Catherine Krouse Bauer Wurster (May 11, 1905 – November 21, 1964) was an American public housing advocate and educator of city planners and urban planners. A leading member of the "housers," a group of planners who advocated affordable housi ...

on housing programs and

Jane Jacobs Jane Jacobs (''née'' Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book '' The Death and Life of Great American Cities ...

on urban place-making. Marcus worked for several years as a research associate in the Institute of Urban and Regional Development at the

and began teaching in the Department of Landscape Architecture in 1969. Her course on Social and Psychological Factors in Open Space Design was popular among undergraduate and graduate students alike. She held a joint appointment in the Department of Architecture where she taught seminars on social aspects of housing design, environments for the life cycle, and sense of place. She collaborated with many of her former students in writing articles and editing books. Marcus was married to the landscape architect Stephen Marcus with whom she has two children, Jason and Lucy. After having retired from full-time teaching in 1994, she writes, travels, and consults. She is the Principal of the firm Healing Landscapes specializing in healthcare settings and regularly teaches healthcare garden design at the

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. She has received numerous awards, including for exemplary design research from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

, career award from the

Environmental Design Research Association The Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) is an international, interdisciplinary organization founded in 1968 by design professionals, social scientists, students, educators, and facility managers. The purpose of EDRA is the advancement ...

(EDRA), and a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

. Her co-edited (with Carolyn Francis) volume ''People Places: Design Guidelines for Urban Open Space'' received a Merit Award from the

American Society of Landscape Architects The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is a professional association for landscape architects in the United States. The ASLA's mission is to advance landscape architecture through advocacy, communication, education, and fellowship ...

in 2000 and ''Healing Gardens: Therapeutic Benefits and Design Recommendations'' (co-edited with Marni Barnes) won the EDRA Award for Place Research in 2000. Marcus advocates post-occupancy evaluation as a research method for studying public and semi-public open spaces. In her studies of Easter Hill Village in

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, California and St. Francis Square in San Francisco, she saw that semi-public open spaces in cluster housing foster a sense of community. She found these spaces to be well-used by residents, particularly by children. Her articles and book (with Wendy Sarkissian) ''Housing as if People Mattered: Site Design Guidelines for Medium-Density Family Housing'' published by the

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in 1986 showed how medium density, low-rise cluster housing is supportive of families with children and a catalyst in building social networks. Marcus expanded her studies on open spaces in housing to other types—neighborhood and city parks, plazas, and campus open spaces in her edited volume (with Carolyn Francis) ''People Places: Design Guidelines for Urban Open Space'' first published by

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in 1990. She translated her findings in performance guidelines that would aid the designer and bridge the gap between research and practice. The formative years of Marcus' childhood were spent in

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countryside during World War II where her family was evacuated from London. There she was free to explore the landscape and developed a lifelong affinity for the natural outdoors. She encouraged her design students to remember their own childhood environments and write their environmental autobiography to discover hidden biases while designing for their clients. Marcus' work shows the impact of human potential movement in California in the 1960s. She attended seminars in the Carl Jung Institute in San Francisco and the

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to delve deep into topics such as the

age of Aquarius The Age of Aquarius, in astrology, is either the current or forthcoming astrological age, depending on the method of calculation. Astrologers maintain that an astrological age is a product of the earth's slow precessional rotation and lasts for 2 ...

, sacred geometries in the landscape, self-transformation and becoming whole through integration of feminine and masculine

archetype The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that ot ...

s. She wrote about the garden as a symbol of the higher self and the role of gardening in creating the spiritual community of Findhorn in Scotland. She adapted the

Gestalt Gestalt may refer to: Psychology * Gestalt psychology, a school of psychology * Gestalt therapy, a form of psychotherapy * Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test, an assessment of development disorders * Gestalt Practice, a practice of self-exploration ...

role playing therapeutic technique in her research on house as symbol of the self that was published as the book ''The House as a Mirror of Self: Exploring the Deeper Meaning of Home'' published by

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in 1995. Marcus' own environmental autobiography and analysis of her self and growth are contained in ''Iona Dreaming: The Healing Power of Place'', ''A Memoir'' published by Nicholas-Hays, Inc. in 2010. In this book written after a double bout with cancer, she reveals the remarkable power of place to heal psychological wounds and restore the spirit. Marcus has continued her research on restorative environments in the book (with Marni Barnes) ''Gardens in Healthcare Facilities: Uses, Therapeutic Benefits, and Design Recommendations'' published by The Center for Health Design, Inc. (Martinez, California) in 1995; in the edited volume (with Marni Barnes) ''Healing Gardens: Therapeutic Benefits and Design Recommendations'' published by

John Wiley & Sons John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American multinational publishing company founded in 1807 that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company produces books, journals, and encyclopedias, in p ...

in 1999; and the book (with Naomi Sachs) ''Therapeutic Landscapes: An Evidence-Based Approach to Designing Healing Gardens and Restorative Outdoor Spaces'' published by John Wiley & Sons in 2014. She advocates designing ''salutogenic' urban spaces that promote health.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marcus, Clare Cooper American landscape architects English landscape architects Women landscape architects 1934 births Living people California people in design Design researchers American urban planners Women urban planners American women academics American women architects UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design faculty UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design alumni University of Nebraska alumni Architecture in the San Francisco Bay Area 20th-century American architects 21st-century American architects 20th-century American women 21st-century American women Academics of the University of Sheffield