by Valeria Yulee
University of Florida students toured the Tiny Home on the North Lawn as the UF Bateman Team launched the Imagine…a place called Home! campaign in support of Home Matters on Feb. 6. Photo by Sydney Dixon
Ever thought about living in a shipping container? What about powering your Home with sustainable solar energy?
Some of Gainesville’s most innovative minds are redefining traditional housing while maintaining affordability.
Come learn about re-Imagined approaches to Home and your next story idea. Multiple sources will be on-site for interviews and available for one-on-one questions after the discussion. This will be a great opportunity to find the story for your environmental, health, science or technology due for Lab 9. The many possible angles for stories presented by the panel provide many opportunities to get published for extra credit.
What? The Future of Home: A Conversation
When? Thursday, Feb. 19 at 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Where? Weimer 1064 (Gannett Auditorium)
Hashtag for event and overall housing initiative: #HomeImagined
The discussion panel will begin at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 19 in Weimer 1064 (Gannett Auditorium). Following the panel presentation, you can ask questions of the speakers — and pursue a story angle and collect quotes.
As Millennials, we have a vital role to play in improving the quality of our communities and our nation. A number of local experts in Gainesville are working to provide innovative and sustainable housing options for those in need of stable, affordable Homes. Come hear our Gainesville’s leaders talk about innovations in housing and why Home is so important to our community!
The Tiny Home made from a cargo container on display on the lawn beside the Reitz Union. Photo by Joshua Williamson
The panel will feature the following community leaders:
Stephen D, Bender
Stephen D. Bender, AIA
Adjunct Assistant Professor, UF College of Design, Construction & Planning
Bender’s architectural work is broad but is focused by sustainability and invention, with projects involving shipping container upcycling. Bender’s Fox Container Residence and the Container Guest House projects examples of ongoing projects involving the upcycling of shipping containers into architecture.
Sherry Ahrentzen
Sherry Ahrentzen, PhD
Professor, Shimberg Center for Housing Studies
Ahrentzen is a professor at the UF College of Design, Construction and Planning and teaches sustainable housing. Ahrentzen also is a researcher at the UF Shimberg Center for Housing Studies, and her research focuses on housing and community design that fosters the physical, social and economic health of households.
Corey Harris
Corey Harris
Director, Neighborhood Housing & Development Corporation (NHDC)
Harris is the director of the Neighborhood Housing and Development Corporation in Gainesville. NHDC makes significant and valuable differences for about 500 families each year through homebuyers education courses, housing counseling and other services. Harris is currently the director of NHDC. The NHDC’s mission is to improve the quality of life and economic opportunities for underserved populations within the Gainesville community. Harris supervises the NHDC Team in the development and implementation of programs and activities related to housing, community and economic development as approved by the NHDC Board of Directors.
The Imagine…a place called Home! campaign is designed to support Home Matters, a national movement that’s redefining the American Dream. Home Matters’ mission is to build awareness and raise funds for more affordable Homes and stronger communities across the nation.The NHDC is Gainesville’s local Home Matters supporter.
The recent economic crisis, which led to a foreclosure epidemic that hit Florida harder than almost anywhere else in the nation, has made finding and securing affordable Homes more difficult for hundreds of thousands of Floridians, many of whom are still struggling to keep up with rent or mortgage payments in order to avoid foreclosure or eviction.
Many housing experts agree that a major step toward more widespread Home affordability is ensuring that households spend less than 30 percent of their income on housing expenses.
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More information on the panelists:
Sherry Ahrentzen – Her research has been published extensively in journals, such as “Journal of Architectural and Planning Research,” “Harvard Design Magazine,” “Journal of Social Issues, Planning,” “Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law,” and “Progressive Architecture.” She has presented her work at conferences of national and international professional and academic organizations, including annual conferences of American Institute of Architects, Environmental Design Research Association, National Healthy Homes Conference, and European Network of Housing Research.
Ahrentzen joined the Shimberg Center for Housing Studies at the University of Florida in 2011. She is a Professor in the M.E. Rinker, Sr., School of Construction Management. Prior to 2011, Dr. Ahrentzen was Associate Director of the Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family at Arizona State University (ASU) for six years; and before then, Professor of Architecture at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM).
Ahrentzen has more than 60 published articles, chapters, and reports, and has received more than 30 research and instructional grants from various agencies. In 2003 she received the Distinguished Professor Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture; in 2009 she received the Career Award from the Environmental Design Research Association; and in 2014, she was the recipient of the ARCC James Haecker Award for Distinguished Leadership in Architectural Research.
Stephen D. Bender
Bender is an architect and an educator. He received a Bachelor of Design from UF in 1993 and after living a year in the Netherlands he went on to obtain a Master of Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, finishing in 1996.
He is a Florida Registered Architect and principal of MW Bender Architecture, LLC, a small practice offering design and construction management services. He has taught upper and lower division design and mentors independent student research as an adjunct assistant professor at the UF School of Architecture since 2008. He has returned from teaching Spring 2014 semester at the Vicenza Institute of Architecture program.
Bender’s Fox Container Residence received significant local and regional media attention and were also the subject of a numerous lectures including a lifecycle analysis study presented at the 2012 ACSA Fall Conference, co-authored with Bradley Guy of CUA. Bender received an AIA Chapter Merit Award for this project.
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