The practice grew from seeing sustainability ambitions diluted by conventional processes, and from a desire to better support clients determined to push further.

Over more than 17 years in practice, Mark has contributed to over 160 construction projects across Canada and internationally. His work spans sustainability concept homes, mass timber community buildings, crafted structures, and green infrastructure. It ranges from small, hands-on projects to critical infrastructure.

Across this work, he consistently instigates more holistic and generative approaches to engineering. He pays attention to how structures participate in ecological, social, and spiritual systems.

Before founding Metaphystations, Mark worked with multinational contractors on projects including the LEED-certified Winnipeg Airport Terminal with EllisDon and Highway 2000 in Jamaica with Bouygues Travaux Publics. He later spent several years with Associated Engineering. There, he contributed to infrastructure and community projects, including the award-winning Nanaimo Reservoir No.1 & Energy Recovery Facility, the Government of Northwest Territories’ climate change risk assessment tool, and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Blackadore Caye restorative eco-resort.

Through Metaphystations, Mark now focuses on generative projects led by courageous and determined owners and communities.

With work–life balance baked into the business plan, Mark also spends time improvising, adventuring, participating in festivals, driving vintage streetcars, swing dancing, and practicing yoga.

Position: Lead Structural Engineer

Professional Memberships:

• Engineers and Geoscientists British Columbia (EGBC)
• Alberta Professional Engineers Association (APEGA)
• Structural Engineers Association of British Columbia (SEABC)

Community Involvement:

• Canadian Alliance for Natural Building Engineering (CANBE)
• Dunn Folkin’ Around Arts Society
• Edmonton Radial Railway Society

“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.“

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

“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.

“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.”

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.

“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.

“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.”

“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”

“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.