As one of four directors of The Workshop, a creative agency based in Kenwood Park Road, Nether Edge, Mark spearheads the company's e-learning arm, which designs websites and other learning tools for clients, including the Houses of Parliament education service, the Royal Institution of Great Britain and learndirect.

His career in e-learning and web design seems a million miles away from his early career as a buyer for British Coal, where he worked at the height of the miners' strikes in the 1980s.

Seeking a more creative outlet for his interests, Mark went back to college in Psalter Lane to study a four-year BEd course with the intention of teaching design and technology. But he was soon lured into the commercial sector, where he saw opportunities for using fast-improving video and digital technologies to help other teachers teach.

The Workshop was founded 16 years ago, employs 55 people and this year featured at number 50 in Design Week magazine's top 100 UK design companies.

PARK HILL FLATS

I grew up on the Park Hill estate in the Sixties and Seventies and I absolutely loved it there.

We lived in what would possibly be described today as a penthouse duplex apartment. It had a balcony and a fitted kitchen with waste disposal, which was pure luxury in those days.

Our flat was very spacious and represented the pinnacle of modern living. Park Hill has probably the best view of the entire city but one of the best things about it was the sense of community – it was much more than just a space to live in.

The Park Hill estate is now an iconic piece of architecture – something all of Sheffield should be proud of. I was pleased when English Heritage granted it a Grade-II* listing. I just hope its current developers can restore it back to its former glory so that future generations can see Park Hill in the way I do.

THE ART OF JONNY WILKINSON

My love for great architecture is one of the reasons I rank Sheffield-based artist Jonny Wilkinson among my favourite living artists. While most people will know more about his famous rugby-playing namesake, many will have seen Jonny's art, as it has appeared all over Sheffield.

Jonny specialises in capturing the modernist architecture of the recent past, much of which has regrettably now been lost – but his images of buildings like the Wedding Cake, the Egg Box, the Cooling Towers and the Baltic Flour Mills will remain iconic pieces for years to come.

My favourite work by Jonny, unsurprisingly, is a painting I have of the Park Hill flats. It has pride of place in my living room.

THE SHEFFIELD DANCE SCENE

The reason I started dancing about seven years ago was because one of my co-directors, Tiina Carr, tried to get some of us to go dancing at Cubana, in Trippet Lane.

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