Mike Macrae was a talented architect and masterplanner who trained at the Bartlett and the Architectural Association. He gained experience working in several countries overseas before returning to the Bartlett to teach.

Mike acted as tutor for a seminal project on Tolmers Square in 1973  and the following year supported the development of the Tolmers Village Association as a volunteer (see The Bartlett factor).

He then set up a commune in Cornwall.

Mike died in 2008 at the age of 71.

In an obituary in the Guardian (21 July 2008) Sid Bernstein and Mike Fleetwood write:

‘Working the land connected him to the embryonic environmental movement, and this fusion of ecological concerns with his planning experience shaped the rest of his life.’

‘His partnership with Sandie, dating from 1978, stimulated him to re-engage with urban issues.’

‘First came Bath, where, in 1981, he set up three voluntary sector projects for the housing, training and counselling needs of the young and homeless. From 1987, in Bristol, Mike pioneered public sector housing initiatives and then set up his own practice. He gave talks, floated ideas and sat on the regional design panel.’

‘In 2000 his design for a house in Cornwall won the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Wessex design award. His next project was his own home, Bristol’s first eco-house, which incorporated a space from which Sandie, an artist and curator, launched ROOM gallery. Then, in 2006, Mike and Sandie moved, setting up ROOM in east London.’

‘Mike made the world a better place through his humanity, reason – and protests, which had begun against the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary. But for his illness, his latest move would have been as an Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine (APJP) committee member. Mike dazzled and inspired with his optimism, and zest for living.’