Mark is a structural engineer who works on alternative structures and is currently the caretaker of the Darfield Earthship in BC. He’s been living there for nearly 2 years,and is also in the process of designing several Earthships so he is an incredible resource. We’re grateful that we had a chance to spend an afternoon picking his brain about his experience living in an Earthship, and learning how they can perform in Canada’s extreme climate (spoiler alert: it varies!). – Exploring Alternatives

• Permaculture structures: Creating structures that align with and support common permaculture values
• The basics of structural systems
• Building codes & regulations

Hosted by Gord Hiebert (Wood & Water Developments) and Shelaigh Garson.

PDC Course Description: https://www.woodwaterdevelopments.com/2019-permaculture-design-certificate-kamloops-bc/

• shared his takeaways from focusing his engineering work on meaningful structures over the past 4 years
• contributed to a panel discussion
• taught the basics of structural systems to natural building enthusiasts
• participated in some natural plastering

“Rocking OUR world and the full house of builders, designers, and all at the ‘Natural Building and Ecological Design Colloquium’ is a most amazing Engineer who understands and supports natural building through regulatory processes and helps teach us all what we need to understand to create health, safety and permitted natural buildings!” – Brandy Gallagher

Other speakers and contributors included natural building heavyweights Mark Lakeman (City Repair Project), Mudgirls Natural Building Collective, Elke Cole, Benito Stein, Athena Stein, Patrick Hennebery (Cobworks), Eco-Sense, and the several of the next generation.

What role does engineering play in the design of your tiny house? When planning your tiny home, it’s important to take into account things like structural elements, load paths, and stability. These things don’t need to be complicated. Mark shares his years of experience by demonstrating these key principles that will help you better understand and improve your tiny home’s structure.

Click here to access a graphical aid to help you untangle some of the noise around construction types and design choices.

“GETTING THE OK FOR EARTHSHIPS

Why wouldn’t a municipality grant permits to build an earthship?

“In most cases, the design of earthship-like buildings—with tire walls and no concrete foundation—means they fall outside the part of the building code that deals with small residential buildings.

This doesn’t mean you can’t get a permit to build one. “There are lots of buildings that fall outside this part of the code—hospitals, schools—and those things are built all the time,” says Mark Fleischhaker, a structural engineer based in B.C. But it does mean that you’ll need to equip yourself with the right professional services. As soon as you want to build something unconventional, “you better have professionals to back you up,” says Fleischhaker. “You need their stamps on the drawings.” You’ll require, at the very least, input from a structural engineer, but you might also need help from a mechanical or an electrical engineer, depending on the features you plan to include in the structure.”

• Facilitated a natural finishes workshop with Elke Cole and Ben Garratt
• Presented a Structural Systems Lecture
• Facilitated a Design Your Own Natural Home workshop with Elke Cole
• Facilitated groundworks and tire-pounding workshop with Ben Garratt and Evolved Earth
• Presented a lecture on Engineers and Building Code

“Mark Fleischhaker was GREAT! He was professional and also extremely friendly and personable to my students. My students really enjoyed the entire presentation. Whenever Mark would talk about what engineering was about or what projects he had done and was working on, the kids couldn’t contain their remarks and questions. They were fully engaged”

At an elementary school in Port Coquitlam with Associated Engineering and Engineers and Geoscientists BC.

A wonderful demonstration of giving back to our communities, sharing knowledge, and inspiring our youth! Mark Fleischhaker, a structural engineer in our (Associated Engineering‘s) Burnaby office, volunteered his time and represented us at Green Bricks‘ Green Collar Futures Career Conference workshop. This initiative involves BC youth in sustainable land use and development through curriculum-linked outreach programs, by offering free interactive sustainability workshops to secondary and elementary classrooms.

Mark spoke about the importance of an engineer’s role in creating our built world by saying, “We have many options when deciding how to build, and certain choices might have a more positive effect on people, the planet, and economy. We, as engineers, have the opportunity and responsibility to make and influence those decisions.“

Diana Klein of the Green Bricks Society expressed her appreciation, “[The presenters] were all so amazing, had such great tables set up with lots of hands-on ‘show and tell’ and were fabulous with the students. We have had lots of students share how much they learned throughout the day from you all and how inspired they were by what you do… …We hope that the students also inspired you. The future lies with them – spending the day with them, seeing and sharing in their interest and the exploration of their career journeys was for us, at Green Bricks, truly inspirational.“