Community input helped determine the final shape of DC’s Aya building.
Photos courtesy Studio Twenty Seven Architecture. Illustration: Stephanie Davidson.
Design
A DC Homeless Shelter With Many Faces
The four sides of the Aya, a 50-unit facility for families in the US capital, each express a different function for the residents inside.
(This story is part of “Look at That Building,” a weekly Bloomberg CityLab series about everyday — and not-so-everyday — architecture. Read more from the series, and sign up to get the next story sent directly to your inbox.)
Aya is a name for beautiful entities across history: a benevolent soul in Turkish mythology, the ancient Akkadian goddess of dawn and an Adinkra symbol for a fern that represents resourcefulness.