Dezeen founder Marcus Fairs dies

Tributes are pouring in for Dezeen founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs who has died aged just 54.

In a statement, the Dezeen team announced Fairs’ sudden and unexpected passing saying he was a “brilliant journalist, visionary entrepreneur and much-loved father, husband, colleague and friend.”

The statement said he was taken to hospital last week after becoming unwell. Following a short period in intensive care, he died on Thursday 30 June 2022.

Marcus Fairs. Image credit - Dezeen.

“Marcus forever stamped his mark on the architecture and design industries as a pioneering, creative and ambitious journalist. Not least through Dezeen, which he launched in his spare bedroom in 2006 and grew to become the world's most popular and influential online architecture, interiors and design magazine,” said the statement.

Norman Foster of Foster + Partners paid online tribute to Fairs’, calling him a “pioneering and visionary journalist” who created a “global platform for architecture and design.”

Thomas Heatherwick of Heatherwick Studio said it was “heartbreaking to hear this tragic news” saying Marcus Fairs created “ the most successful design website in history.”