Mark Lakeman is one of North America’s greatest champions of placemaking, public space and the reclamation of the urban commons. He is a founder of the City Repair Project, and he is the principal and lead designer of Communitecture, Inc, a cutting edge architecture firm specializing in community-driven ecological design. Mark presently active as a project coordinator in the annual Village Building Convergence and he teaches permacutlure design in Portland, OR. His projects include such social and ecological innovations as The ReBuilding Center, numerous ecovillage projects and infill co-housing examples, and many projects involving low income and homeless people in the development of sustainable community solutions. In 2003, Mark and the City Repair Project was awarded the National Lewis Mumford Award by the international organization Architects & Planners for Social Responsibility for his work with Dignity Village, one of the United States’ first self-developed, permanent communities by  and for previously homeless people. Mark travels widely as a public speaker and consultant on placemaking, community development, placemaking and permaculture design in many North American cities.