Mark Lakeman
Our featured speaker this year is Mark Lakeman of Portland’s City Repair Project. Mark will share his wisdom and stories about his experiences and involvement in strengthening a community via projects which create more personal connections to “place”.
Mark is a national leader in the development of sustainable public places. In the last decade he has directed or facilitated designs for more than three hundred new community-generated public places in Portland, Oregon alone. Through his leadership in Communitecture, Inc., and it’s 501©3 affiliate The City Repair Project, he has also been instrumental in the development of dozens of participatory design projects and organizations across the United States and Canada. Mark works with governmental leaders, community organizations, and educational institutions in many diverse communities.
To read more about Mark’s life, work, awards, education, affiliations and influences, check out his website: http://marklakeman.net/
In addition to being our Friday night featured speaker, Mark will be facilitating the following during Art of Community:
The Block Repair Game
Using a 3-dimensional design game board, in less than two hours we will cooperatively redesign a typical block of isolated community residents into a robust reflection of the timeless urge to live simply, in beauty and connection with others, and as part of an enduring and expansive state of peace. This residential fabric represents the most typical living context in North America, so it’s lessons stand to be replicated across the development grid that has historically isolated communities on this continent.
From wanting to think and get out of the box, to taking action to transform the box-like urban grid, we will install a cultural fabric of places, nodes of activity, pathways, and a community heart, as well as a dazzling spectrum of new active environments where local culture and economy will thrive. Layers of urban agriculture including annual and forest gardens as well as chickens and other animals will also emerge. There will be a full-spectrum water and waste system design, as well as energy systems and alternative transportation. Many fences will come down as edible hedges will go up.
In Our Nature
co-facilitated with Cassandra Ferrera
How do we participate with life to create the village biology?
Activating the very real yet beautifully metaphoric lens of mycelium, bacteria, and other unseen forces of the natural world, Mark and Cassandra will explore how it is our natural inclination to find our tribe, create our gathering places, and grow cultures that are teeming with life. This discussion circle will infuse your connection to the natural world and you will be inoculated with zesty bacteria and fungal cultures that will spur you on to new levels of connection and community.
