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Mark Fleischhaker – Profile

Mark Fleischhaker, P.Eng. has over 13 years of engineering experience. He has contributed to projects throughout Canada (and a handful internationally) that incorporate sustainability principles – including natural- material constructions, fish-friendly pump station retrofits, timber community buildings and energy efficient water supply projects. Mark always tries to leverage opportunities to design holistically by considering the context of environmental and social systems.

Throughout his schooling, Mark worked as design-construction liaison on large-scale projects with EllisDon on Winnpeg’s LEED Airport Terminal and Bouygues Travaux Publics on Jamaica’s Highway 2000 network.

Throughout his 5 years in Associated Engineering, Mark worked on large-scale multi-discipline critical infrastructure and community projects including the award- winning Nanaimo Reservoir No.1 & Energy Recovery Facility, the Government of Northwest Territories’ development of a climate change risk assessment and vulnerability tool, the 28,000 ft2 Martensville Athletic Pavilion, and the 155,000 ft2 Sylvan Lake Multi-plex.

With Metaphystations, Mark is is dedicated to projects that truly prioritize sustainability principles. He often supports charged, community and sustainability-driven private owners.

Position: Principal Structural Engineer
Professional Engineering Organizations:
  • Engineers and Geoscientists British Columbia (EGBC)
  • Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO)
  • Structural Engineers Association of British Columbia (SEABC)
Extracurricular:
  • British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) Sustainable Energy Management Advanced Certificate (SEMAC) Program Advisory Committee
  • O.U.R. (One Unite Resource) Community Association
  • Wells Gray Search and Rescue (Director)
  • Darfield Earthship Caretaker
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Discovery Channel Building Off the Grid

Mark Fleischhaker, P.Eng. was the structural engineer for Nevin Cabin — a 5 module pre-fabricated off-grid cabin on Gambier Island. Discovery Channel documented the project on their Building Off the Grid Series.

“Building pro Mark Smith builds an off-grid modular home high up on a cliff off the coast of Vancouver, Canada. Everyone’s on their toes, working as carefully as possible; the smallest mistake could result in the home diving 85 feet down into the sea.”
 
Location: Gambier Island, British Columbia, Canada
Date:

2020
Episode:

https://www.discovery.com/shows/building-off-the-grid-dsc-reversion/episodes/episode-27

 

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Insider

Insider reached out to Mark Fleischhaker, P.Eng. to chat about his time inside The Darfield Earthship during COVID.

“Life during lockdown in an Earthship”

“During the lockdown, he said he hasn’t needed to visit a major town yet. Nearby gas stations provide him with any necessities he needs, but even those he doesn’t visit often. He still has deer and fish in his freezer from last season, and tomato sauce, canned peaches, canned pears, and chutney the owners left behind … He’s also started cultivating his outdoor garden for the season.“

Location: Darfield Earthship, British Columbia, Canada
Date: May 2020
Full Article:

https://www.insider.com/what-its-like-living-in-earthship-off-grid-sustainable-home-2020-5?fbclid=IwAR3aWXii3lq-9IOpYxSvmh4u_avrSEb9oA2mZLwQhca2bWuB6X8Nn-USAao

 

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Exploring Alternatives

Mat and Danielle from Exploring Alternatives recently visited Mark Fleischhaker, P.Eng., to help share his experiences care-taking the Darfield Earthship.

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

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Kumbhaka

Mark Fleischhaker has been converting a 1973 Argosy 24′ into an off-grid mobile working and living space. It incorporates repurposed, natural, and healthier material choices as best he can.

Location: Everywhere, British Columbia, Canada
Date: April 2016 – Present
Album: Kumbha
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Coast Life Magazine

“The Mudgirls is a collective of natural builders from the West Coast of B.C., specializing in building with local, natural and recycled materials…”

“Within the Mudgirls philosophy we believe in empowering people to learn basic skills to take care of ourselves while taking care of the earth and building.”

“When we build with recycled and earthen materials, we bypass a lot of the waste stream of the conventional building sector, making a bit smaller of an ecological footprint…we are using a ton of site soil and all the clay that came from the build site, back into the building so that’s a really closed loop.”

“This 580-square-foot studio with loft was designed by Amanda-Rae and her husband Chris Hergesheimer with help from their friend Steve Christian at Second Nature Designs and engineered by Mark Fleischhaker”

Location: Sunshine Coast, British Columbia, Canada
Date: Spring 2019
Full Article: http://tinyurl.com/y4zqpfk5

 

 

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EyesOnBC Magazine

“It is not enough for the ‘building’ to be constructed using locally sourced, recycled and sustainable natural materials; but also the process of ‘building’ needs to be sustainable with the end result a place to live and thrive in. I am confident our decision to build a radically sustainable, off-grid home (Earthship) using Permaculture principles; care of earth, care of people and sharing of abundance is the right choice for us.”

“Our structural engineer, Mark Fleischhaker, P.Eng shared he has also seen stacked camel/sheep poop structures and old fashioned yurts with felt and animal skin/bark”  – odd but it’s true.

Location: The Doighouse, Qualicum Bay, British Columbia, Canada
Date: January 2019
Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/y3a4nz2p
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Cottage Life Magazine Q&A

Mark Fleischhaker, P.Eng., contributed to a Q&A with Cottage Life Magazine’s Early Summer 2018 Issue.

“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.”

Date: Summer 2018
Full Article: https://pocketmags.com/share/article/370200