You never change things
by fighting
the existing reality.

To change something,
build a new model
that makes
the existing model obsolete

R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER

Superfab is a design lab and fabrication house founded on the premise that design thinking, experienced hands, and new era tools - when working together - can yield meaningful new possibilities in the world.

MISSION STATEMENT FOR THE FUTURE


In the fall of 2024, Superfab concluded its operations.

The roots of this Design Lab and Manufacturing House reach much further back than its founding some eleven years ago. They are anchored in the belief that for the sake of our future we must evolve better ways to approach, organize, and conduct the shaping of our built environment. 

Superfab was conceived as a vehicle of practical inquiry in that search.  From our rabbit’s den of a studio/shop in SE Portland we conducted a broadly-ranged design and manufacturing practice guided by a few simple tenets:  

  • See beyond the reductive mandates of common contemporary practice to recognize the possibility in the resources all around you: the tools you have, the skills and knowledge among you, and the projects you’ve been asked to do.  

  • Seek always to see beyond your own purview to understand the practical needs of the collaborators, vendors, and project partners engaged in the work that lies upstream, downstream, and alongside you.   

  • Recognize the nature of patterns as the basis of reality as we know it, and embrace their power by conceiving of and cultivating systems that can generate better, more constructive ones. 

Most important however was to simply do good work with everything you touch in the process, giving your highest commitment to even the most mundane tasks and interactions that present themselves.  This was the bedrock principle from which our greatest successes truly came.

With these ideas, together we did far more than any group our size could ever reasonably expect to do.  We collaborated with visionaries, engaged with global giants, and produced an extraordinary amount of meaningful work from a remarkably small footprint.   

If you were a part of this - there have been so many - thank you. The story of this company may have reached its end, but the imperative remains. Our collective cause carries on.  To that end, let us lift the torch ever higher.

Our better future awaits.   

LIFETIMES OF EXPERIENCE

Us

Your BEST is EXACTLY ENOUGH.

Leadership

2 + MANY

STAY HUMBLE, TRUST YOURSELF.

Andy Powell

DESIGN PRINCIPAL / FOUNDER / SHAPER / CHIEF

Upon receiving a degree in Architecture in 2003, Andy Powell began his pursuit of the higher arts of the calling with the design and construction of his first built work, the ‘Back40’ house of Tucson, Arizona. Over the proceeding years, through his own formalized design/build practice, he learned by direct experience the crafts and trades of making, the practice and promise of design thinking, and the logics and imperatives of contemporary business.  

A decade later, in continuation of the effort to develop more effective ways of bringing into our world things that actually belong here, he founded Superfab.  

Lissa Rasmussen

ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR

Lissa Rasmussen serves as Superfab’s Administrative Director. With her background in Operations at various construction companies (including 5 years as an owner), she brings extensive experience to the administrative side of the business. Her areas of expertise include contract negotiation, project management, human resources, payroll, and oversight of all things financial.  

Prior to joining Superfab in 2014, Lissa worked for over 15 years in the construction, CAD/CAM, fabrication, and design development arenas lending additional insights to the organizational structure and growth of the enterprise.

DOING IT RIGHT IN PORTLAND OREGON, SINCE 2013.