By: Kyle Niblett
May 22, 2023
Envisioning Jacksonville, an exhibition exploring the city’s intersection of housing, environment, and wellbeing, will be on display from now until June 7 at the Jessie Ball duPont Center, located at 40 E. Adams St. The exhibition showcased research conducted by the Florida Resilient Cities (FRC) research team of collaborators from the University of Florida College of Design, Construction and Planning’s Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience (FIBER), Shimberg Center for Housing Studies, the UF Center for Landscape Conservation Planning and JaxLab.
“To address the housing crisis, it is necessary to work across disciplines beyond the design realm,” said FIBER Researcher Dr. Carla Brisotto, who helped curate the event along with FIBER Director Jeff Carney and DCP Ph.D. candidate Forough Foroutan. “It is also imperative to involve all the stakeholders that will have a role in the solution, including local organizations.”
FIBER has spent the previous two years investigating the intersection of housing, environment, and well-being in Downtown Jacksonville, using innovative place-based analysis and community engagement techniques. Now, the results of FIBER’s community-engaged work are on display at the Jessie, showcasing the team’s impressive findings and demonstrating the vital importance of considering these interconnected issues when designing and building urban spaces.
“I hope this exhibition will shows how academic research is not only a scholarly achievement,” Brisotto said. “It is also and foremost a learning opportunity for communities that wish to improve their living conditions.”
The research was graciously supported by the Jessie Ball duPont Fund.
