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View from the southwest, showing the entry
to the medical facility facing Eye Street.
Photo © Anice Hoachlander/Hoachlander Davis Photography

East façade of the Aya. Note the brick screen walls View from the northwest, with the main entry
that partially shield some of the windows and balconies. to the housing facility at the corner.
Photo © Anice Hoachlander/Hoachlander Davis Photography Photo © Anice Hoachlander/Hoachlander Davis Photography

An “aya,” according to John K. Burke, AIA, principal at Studio homeless people, one in each ward of the city. These are light-
Twenty Seven Architecture, “is both a fern that grows in years beyond the “homeless shelters” which the general public
difficult places and an African Adinkra symbol of endurance and and homeless population alike view as undesirable. For this
resourcefulness. An individual who wears this symbol suggests new generation of facilities, architecture—generally regarded as
that he has endured many adversities and outlasted much an optional luxury for the old shelters—is seen as a significant
difficulty.” Accordingly, the Aya is a fitting name for the most piece of the puzzle, working to provide a foundation of strength,
marquee project to result, as yet, from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s hope, and home for people who need a helping hand to see them
initiative to try a new approach to combating homelessness. The through rough patches.
Aya serves up to 50 homeless families, providing emergency Located in the Southwest portion of Ward 6, the Aya is the
housing and associated social and medical services. most impressive piece of architecture to come from the initiative
Spurred by the heart-wrenching tragedies that beset thus far. Not only did it receive design awards from two
homeless families housed at the rat-infested, dilapidated different juries (those of the AIA|DC Chapter Design Awards
former D.C. General Hospital shelter, Mayor Bowser launched program and the Washingtonian Residential Design Awards
an initiative to build new emergency short-term housing for program), but the Chapter Design Awards jurors made it their

DIGNIFIED LIVING 13