Mark Lakeman
Principal / Designer | [email protected]
Principal / Designer | [email protected]
Mark designs, draws, writes, speaks, and builds with equal amounts of pleasure. His creative satisfaction comes from helping heal the world and loving well. Mark does this through collaborative design projects and a broad range of creative facilitation avenues. He enjoys witnessing the creative emergence of other individuals, whether through creating new public spaces in communities which lack them, or listening to someone find their voice.
Mark’s life-long dedication to building community through design began at his roots. Both of his parents are activist architects and planners, and from the start they infused him with a sense of creative civic possibility. From his father’s work to create Portland’s Pioneer Square, to his mother’s investigations of the public spaces in Medieval and Neolithic villages, they both taught him to see constructive possibilities that can emerge when place is a reflection of the people who live there. Design can destroy the world, or it can save it, help us savor it, and make the human world worthy of our people.
Mark’s early mentors included Will Martin, the iconic architect of Pioneer Square, and numerous other creative leaders in the Portland of the 1970s. After receiving his Bachelor of Architecture degree from University of Oregon and completing a brief early career in corporate architecture, Mark traveled the world for 7 years in order to visit and learn from numerous cultures. Upon his return, Mark initiated communitecture, The City Repair Project movement, and the Planet Repair Institute (PRI) in order to contribute to the restoration of vital urban patterns of design participation in Portland and beyond. As a product of Portland itself, Mark stands on broad, strong shoulders in his dedication to evolving the power of design and the design community itself.
Mark brings the village everywhere he goes.
Mark’s life-long dedication to building community through design began at his roots. Both of his parents are activist architects and planners, and from the start they infused him with a sense of creative civic possibility. From his father’s work to create Portland’s Pioneer Square, to his mother’s investigations of the public spaces in Medieval and Neolithic villages, they both taught him to see constructive possibilities that can emerge when place is a reflection of the people who live there. Design can destroy the world, or it can save it, help us savor it, and make the human world worthy of our people.
Mark’s early mentors included Will Martin, the iconic architect of Pioneer Square, and numerous other creative leaders in the Portland of the 1970s. After receiving his Bachelor of Architecture degree from University of Oregon and completing a brief early career in corporate architecture, Mark traveled the world for 7 years in order to visit and learn from numerous cultures. Upon his return, Mark initiated communitecture, The City Repair Project movement, and the Planet Repair Institute (PRI) in order to contribute to the restoration of vital urban patterns of design participation in Portland and beyond. As a product of Portland itself, Mark stands on broad, strong shoulders in his dedication to evolving the power of design and the design community itself.
Mark brings the village everywhere he goes.
Vale has had a lifelong interest in the natural and built environment, and how people relate to place. He is a native Oregonian, and after graduating from the University of Oregon with a Bachelors of Architecture, he lived extensively in New York City and San Francisco. He has had the fortune to travel broadly, always curious to see and experience what makes places meaningful for people.
He brings a wide range of experience and skills to the design team at communitecture. Beyond being a licensed Architect in Oregon and Washington, with almost two decades of architectural design experience, he has a background that ranges from community development planning to building envelope assessments. From a sustainable design perspective, he brings passive and active (PV) solar design skills and is a LEED BD+C Accredited Professional.
Vale is also a seasoned artist with experience in furniture design, welding, woodworking and oil painting. The visual and industrial arts have been strong influences in his design sense and aesthetic. These artistic endeavors have also all contributed to his understanding of the merger between the natural and built environment. Lately he has been most interested in the manipulation and engineering of recycled materials into functional pieces, whether it be a fence, screen or piece of furniture.
In his free time, Vale likes to venture outdoors. Whether by taking long hikes, or touring by bicycle, or exploring rivers in his kayak, or trudging up mountain slopes on snowshoes. All throughout the varied terrain that the northwest has to offer.
Jackson Toole (He/Him)
Designer| Jackson@communitecture.net
Jackson is passionate about craft and design. He wants the built environment to reflect the health and wellbeing needs of all who enter our space. He loves to work on projects with many collaborators and much complextity. Jackson uses his time in creative persuits, drawing, ceramics, playing music. Jackson is also very involved in volunteering for the City Repair project wherever he is useful, often helping with natural building projects or other interseciton repair activities.
Jackson's passion for architecture stems from a lifelong interest in the built environment. As a child, endlessly obsessed with rearranging legos and lincoln-log sets, he would proudly proclaim to any adult who asked him that he would be an Architect one day. Starting as a model maker at 17 years old in a small residential firm in Camas, Washington; Jackson was mentored in the dicipline of architecture. Now after over 10 years of work and schooling he is confident managing many types of building projects from inception through construction. His passion for Natural building and participatory design led him to communitecture where he happily works to this day.
Chanon Billington (pronounced Shuh-non)
Admin Support | chanon@communitecture.net
Chanon Billington (pronounced Shuh-non)
Admin Support | chanon@communitecture.net
Chanon has worked in a myriad of creative studios including Architecture, Landscape Architecture, product design, and post-production film music. She handles the money, the copier jamming, and the snack inventory with diligence and aplomb. Chanon reads, bakes, and tends to her precious cat in her spare time while resisting becoming a cliché. She comes into the office very early so expect to start getting those emails and texts - no surprises!
Sasan Namiranian (He/Him)
IT Administrator | sasan@communitecture.net
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Sasan is a self-taught problem solver at heart. He started his career at age of 15 working at a computer shop and has been around computers ever since. He is happiest when he makes a process run faster and more efficient, be it a piece of code or an enterprise.
When Sasan moved to Portland in 2022, he was inspired by the City’s support of local businesses to start his own, Instic, where he helps small businesses like communitecture meet their growing technology needs.
Whenever not around computers, Sasan enjoys spending time with his family, maintaining his espresso machine and modding his cars.
When Sasan moved to Portland in 2022, he was inspired by the City’s support of local businesses to start his own, Instic, where he helps small businesses like communitecture meet their growing technology needs.
Whenever not around computers, Sasan enjoys spending time with his family, maintaining his espresso machine and modding his cars.
