The Aya is an affordable short term family housing project commissioned by the District of Columbia Department of General Services as part of Mayor Bowser’s initiative to close aging, overcrowded facilities. Located in Ward 6, this neighborhood-based program provides a safe environment for women and children and provides access to service-enriched programming that assists them stabilize and exit homelessness.
The facility houses 50 families in 7-10 housing units per floor with community rooms, private rooms, family bathrooms, and a federally qualified health service clinic in the lowest level. Wrap-around services provide to all tenants including connections to permanent housing programs, housing search assistance, social work staff, early childhood screening, school liaisons, education training, employment services, health care, financial aid, and budget management counseling.
The Aya
The Aya is an affordable short term family housing project commissioned by the District of Columbia Department of General Services as part of Mayor Bowser’s initiative to close aging, overcrowded facilities. Located in Ward 6, this neighborhood-based program provides a safe environment for women and children and provides access to service-enriched programming that assists them stabilize and exit homelessness.
The facility houses 50 families in 7-10 housing units per floor with community rooms, private rooms, family bathrooms, and a federally qualified health service clinic in the lowest level. Wrap-around services provide to all tenants including connections to permanent housing programs, housing search assistance, social work staff, early childhood screening, school liaisons, education training, employment services, health care, financial aid, and budget management counseling.
The Aya
The Aya
The Aya
The building’s massing responds to the viewshed along Delaware Avenue SW. Delaware Avenue is an original arterial street in L’ Enfant’s city grid. The building has a ziggurat form that preserves the existing tree canopies and allows for maximum daylighting and views. The building is intended to complement the developing southwest Washington DC skyline while creating an optimal living experience for the tenants.
The program required seven to ten housing units per floor with community rooms, laundry, facilities, monitoring station, private and family bathrooms. The designers added outdoor play areas on each level to avoid taking children down the elevators to reach outdoor play. The ground floor includes a dining area, computer room, exam room, and administrative areas.
Each elevation of the building is uniquely different; the glassy north facade contains community rooms on each floor that look out towards the Capitol, the dynamic south facade frames the entrance to the health clinic, the calm east facade contains screened outdoor play spaces on each floor, and the stepped West facade creates a front lawn for each unit.
