“We advance resilience, empowering people to thrive in a complex and changing world.”
The Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience was established in 2018 as a strategic initiative of the College of Design, Construction and Planning (DCP). With support from the Provost and Vice-President for Research, a cluster hire of new faculty was undertaken to recruit new faculty that are both technically proficient in aspects of resilience and have a collaborative mindset. FIBER is committed to the design, planning, construction and management of resilient built environments, with a strong interest in the well-being of individuals and communities who inhabit them. FIBER is positioned to respond to the complex threats – ecological, economic and social – that Florida and many regions around the world experience. The Institute is home to scholarship spanning built environment disciplines and beyond, generating new knowledge and responding to these complex challenges through evidence-based research and practice. FIBER brings together faculty, research centers and students at the University of Florida around the theme of resilience.
FIBER collaborates externally with researchers, institutions, communities, policy makers, and practitioners around the world. Core FIBER faculty are individually affiliated with various disciplines within the College of Design, Construction and Planning (DCP), a college uniquely equipped to develop resilience-based processes in a world facing complex threats. DCP houses all critical disciplines that have an impact on the planning, design, construction, and sustainability of built and natural environments. More broadly, resilience expertise at the University of Florida spans ecological, economic, organizational, psychological, educational, sociological and engineering approaches. FIBER is a meeting point to synergize this knowledge, at the intersection of research, practice and lived experience. FIBER brings the UF community together around shared values and visions of resilience towards the common good.
The Vision of FIBER is to work across scale from individual experience to buildings, neighborhoods and landscapes, we contribute to resilience research and practice by integrating knowledge and assisting communities to build adaptive capacity, strength and well-being.
Impact
Jacksonville
Sustainable & Supportive Housing for Salutogenic Health –
UF Research: Florida Digital Twin – Jessie Ball duPont Fund:Resilient Jax
Northwest Florida
HUD: Center of Excellence for Housing and Community Development Policy Research – Jessie Ball du Pont Fund: The Way Resilience Looks – FL Dept of Environmental Protection: Resilient Port St. Joe
Cedar Key
NASEM: Cedar Key ShOREs 2 – NASEM: GulfSouth “Super Studio” Spring 2025 – FL Dept of Environmental Protection: Resilient Cedar Key
Southwest Florida
The Collaboratory: Pine Island & Matlacha Long-term Recovery & Resilience – NSF: Resilience of Community-Based Small Businesses
Statewide
AMERICORPS: GatorCorps – Duke Energy: Urban Futures – Florida Office of Insurance Regulation: Enhancing Florida’s Built Environment Resilience – Habitat for Humanity: Florida Habitats & AMDC
National & International
Angelo Donghia Foundation: Sustainable Adaptive Material Practicum Lab – Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center: Investigating Neighborhood Mobility Resilience and Aging – UFIC: Living with Risk – Architecture, Landscape, and Persistence in Flood-Prone Areas of Romagna
Who We Are
FIBER faculty span the College of Design, Construction, and Planning, bringing experience, skills, track records, and most of all a desire to help create and synergize knowledge. We work at the intersection of research, application, and lived experience on ideas and innovations that foster built environment resilience. FIBER faculty form the core of a resilience research network at the University of Florida.
What We Do
Through research, synthesis, and design at the interface of human, built environment and ecological systems, FIBER is positioned to respond to the complex threats faced by Florida and many regions around the world.