Staggered flats and semi-enclosed play areas animate the outside of The Aya, a short-term housing block in Washington DC by US companies Studio Twenty Seven Structure and Leo A Daly.
The seven-storey constructing commissioned by the District of Columbia Division of Common Providers incorporates momentary properties for as much as fifty households in want of emergency shelter within the US capital.
Designed by Studio Twenty Seven Structure and Leo A Daly to supply “wrap-around companies” for residents, the block incorporates flats, a eating room and a public well being centre.
The Aya is characterised by its animated exterior the place every facade is exclusive – that means there is no such thing as a entrance or again to the constructing.
The facades’ designs reply to the interior structure but in addition assist maximise pure gentle inside, forestall “useless zones” from forming outdoors and protect sightlines, bushes and inexperienced house.
“Every elevation of the constructing is uniquely completely different,” Studio Twenty Seven Structure defined.
“The idea is a constructing that has no entrance or again and responds to the arterial avenue viewshed by way of a ziggurat kind that preserves the present tree canopies and permits for optimum daylighting views to every of the small dwelling items.”
The Aya is certainly one of eight short-term household housing blocks being constructed in every of Washington DC’s neighbourhoods to assist fight homelessness within the metropolis.
Its footprint is modelled on a dilapidated 1940’s well being centre that beforehand occupied the location, whereas its peak pertains to the encompassing buildings.
Inside there are between seven and ten flats per degree, alongside group areas, laundry services and a mixture of personal and household bogs.
A eating space, laptop room, examination room and administrative services occupy the bottom ground, whereas a basement incorporates a public well being centre to switch the unique one on the location.
The group areas on every ground are positioned on the north aspect of the constructing, marked by an open, glazed facade that frames views in direction of the US Capitol constructing.
Residences are positioned behind the predominantly bricked east and west sides.
To the west, the flats are staggered to offer rise to a stepped facade – described by the studio as a “ziggurat” – which maximises pure gentle inside.
These stepped items additionally incorporate a small inexperienced roof, designed by the studio to “indicate a entrance garden” for the condo that appears onto it.
On the east, the brick facade is punctured by giant home windows and screened outside play areas on every ground. These guarantee kids shouldn’t have to make use of the elevators to go outdoors.
A glass-lined entrance to the well being clinic is the point of interest of the south facade. This entrance is intentionally separate to the housing to create “each day exercise throughout the constructing”.
Elsewhere within the US, Michael Maltzan Structure designed a shiny white housing block within the Los Angeles space, which incorporates over 60 studio flats for its previously homeless tenants.
Within the UK, Holland Harvey Architects additionally lately accomplished a brief housing block named Shelter from the Storm. It supplies 42 beds for homeless individuals inside a disused London grocery store.
Images is courtesy of Studio Twenty Seven Structure.