Designing with Dignity: A Q&A with San Francisco's City Architect, Julia Laue, FAIA, on the Future of Homeless Shelters

RPM Team extends its warmest congratulations to Julia Laue, FAIA, on her induction as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the organization's highest honor. As the City Architect and Bureau Manager for San Francisco Public Works, Julia leads an in-house practice that is transforming public spaces, particularly in her team's compassionate and innovative approach to addressing the homelessness crisis.

In honor of this well-deserved recognition, we sat down with Julia and her colleagues, Peter Engel, AIA, and Aries Martin, to discuss their groundbreaking work on Navigation Centers. This Q&A offers a rare look into the principles and challenges of designing for one of our society's most pressing issues.

See a transcript of the interview below.

General Questions about Homeless Navigation Centers:

1. What is a navigation center, and how does it differ from other types of homeless shelters?

Navigation centers offer a triage of services, including on-site case managers, hygiene facilities, community spaces, three meals a day, personal storage, an on-site nurse to administer routine check-ups and medications and other on-site amenities, such as outdoor gathering areas and pet relief areas. What differentiates navigation centers from other homeless shelters is clients are allowed to come and go as they please and they have incorporated the concept of “3 Ps” – clients are able to bring their “Possessions, Partners & Pets,” which are not typically allowed in traditional homeless shelters.

2. What are the key design elements that architects should consider when designing a navigation center?

Designing a navigation center requires a thoughtful balance between safety and dignity. Key elements include clear sight lines, ample natural light and durable, tamper-resistant fixtures. Spaces should be both secure and welcoming—therapeutic environments that support healing and respect. It’s essential to consider a hierarchy and variety of spaces, from private to communal, accommodating individuals at different stages of transition and with varying levels of social comfort. Every design choice, from site security to the selection of hardware, should reflect a trauma-informed, human-centered approach.

3. How do you balance the need for privacy and security with the desire for a welcoming and supportive environment in a navigation center?

In early design, it’s important to test various layouts with both density and clear sightlines as the primary drivers. In the more developed design phases, consider the selection of materials that are translucent, low partitions, active measures such as cameras, mirrors and elevated decks. Ultimately, thoughtful yet simplified designs that prioritize safety and privacy.

Challenges and Solutions for Navigation Centers & Municipalities:

4. What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced when designing navigation centers?

Maximizing density of space as size of sites vary. Offering more activity spaces as the number of people served tends to be the budget-driver. Proposing appropriate quality of materials and FF&E (furniture, fixtures and equipment) as these facilities take a lot of wear and damage. Typically, limited budget affects the quality and FF&E that can be selected. Overall, it’s a balancing act and prioritization is critical. In a perfect world there would be more money and space to implement holistic designs that are not only functional but empower, encourage and support those on that path of permanent housing.

5. In regard to permitting, do semi-permanent structures offer challenges to building departments? Are they viewed favorably?

Generally, permitting agencies have been very supportive, as most of these projects are emergency-based, allowing for collaboration and flexibility. In addition, our leadership supports and pushes when needed to get things off the ground. Semi-permanent structures are a critical kit of parts to implementing temporary emergency projects.

6. How do you incorporate sustainable and environmentally friendly features into navigation center design?

Many navigation centers that are intended to be temporary end up being used for many years. Looking at the lifecycle of products during the design phase—their durability, suitability for flexible use or relocation—will prove more sustainable than using cheaper materials intended to last for only a few years. Anticipating the degree of damage that products, fixtures, and finishes receive will result in less maintenance and replacement over the life span of use. Efficient site and building lighting, provision of photovoltaic panels, occupancy-sensor switching and timed faucets and showers limit the use of electricity and water and minimize waste.

7. What role does community engagement play in the design process for navigation centers?

Neighbors may be wary of having a navigation center in their vicinity, though experience has shown that, over time, many neighborhoods have come to see their local navigation center as a community asset. Educating neighbors upfront and with transparency about the benefit of serving unhoused people—both for those individuals and the communities that would otherwise encounter them on sidewalks and in tent encampments—is essential. Navigation centers must provide security at entries and exits. Roaming security guards will give community members a greater feeling of safety and increase the chance that they will feel more positive about the navigation center. A forum for communication between neighbors and the municipality constructing the navigation center should be established during the planning phase and continue during construction and occupancy. If problems do arise, the project’s sponsoring agency must be open to addressing the issue and implementing a solution.

Specific Design Elements and Features:

8. What are some essential features that should be included in every navigation center?

· Physical and mental health support, including substance abuse counseling

· Provision of meals or snacks, including kitchenette for client use

· Restrooms and showers, including all-gender facilities (such as single-user changing room)

· Storage for client possessions, generally provided through shipping containers

· Blowout toilets or sewage grinder to resolve plumbing clogs

· Durable fixtures and accessories that are tamper-resistant and easy to maintain

· Anti-ligature design that prevents vulnerable people from accidental or intentional self-harm

· Laundry for use by staff and/or clients

· Hair salon (recommended, optional)

· Clothing donation center

· Indoor and outdoor social and recreation spaces, picnic tables, ample natural light, landscaping, separate smoking area (if allowed under local law), pet relief area and pet wash

· Excellent site visibility by staff, duress buttons

9. How do you design spaces that promote social interaction and community building among residents? And neighbors?

Navigation center clients will have had diverse life experiences and varied levels of trauma. They may be eager to socialize or may, instead, be hypervigilant about strangers—or both. Social spaces within the navigation center should provide for different types of interaction—small groups at tables, individual seating that allows occupants to safely observe the whole social space without interacting, places to gather around interactive activities, such as eating, laundry and pet care.

10. What are your thoughts on the use of modular or prefabricated construction methods for navigation centers?

Prefabrication can accelerate delivery and reduce costs, but local code compliance and product durability must be addressed early in the process. Sponsoring agencies should anticipate that prefab components may require modification or retrofitting after delivery, and responsibilities for that work should be clearly defined during procurement. In San Francisco Public Works’ experience, for example, prefabricated shower trailers often fail due to the challenge of making them both lightweight for transport and durable enough for long-term use. A hybrid approach—combining prefabricated and site-built elements—often provides the best balance of speed, compliance and long-term performance.

Future Trends and Innovations:

11. What do you see as the future of navigation center design?

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for navigation center design. Large, prefabricated enclosures housing 100–200 clients can be built quickly and efficiently but pose challenges for safety and privacy. Alternatively, tiny cabin communities offer individuals privacy and help build skills for transitioning to permanent housing. In land-constrained cities like San Francisco, many centers are built on temporary sites that often become permanent housing. Future designs must adapt to diverse sites and needs, including increasing density by adding multiple stories without sacrificing the welcoming, home-like feel of tiny cabins.

12. How can architects and designers help to address the growing homelessness crisis?

Architects and designers need to work closely and collaboratively with municipal governments, not-for-profit agencies, permitting agencies having jurisdiction, community members and prefabricated product manufacturers to ensure that their collective efforts are serving those who are unhoused. It’s essential to recognize the diverse needs of unhoused people rather than regard them as an undifferentiated mass that simply needs to be removed from the streets. In an uncertain economy and an uncertain time, some people who currently have housing are just one or two steps away from themselves being without a home. Respect for all people as individuals, with their own unique histories, needs, attributes and capabilities, is essential to addressing the homelessness crisis. Architecture can help with humane, thoughtful and sustainable design.

13. What innovative design solutions are you exploring for future navigation centers?

Over the last 11+ years, San Francisco Public Works in partnership with the Department of Homelessness & Supportive Housing has worked on a variety of design solutions and models, including but not limited to the following:

· Modular trailer campuses, arranged around various outdoor courtyards, connected by an elevated, unified deck.

· Conversion of an SRO (Single Room Occupancy) hotel to a navigation center.

· Vacant warehouse conversion into a navigation center with dormitories, modular shower/restroom trailers and outdoor activity areas.

· Rapid-deployment tensile structure, which incorporate congregate housing navigation centers utilizing “Sprung” fabric buildings. The structures are quickly erected, fully insulated and air conditioned and have a long life span; many are warranted for 35 years or more.

· Tiny cabins which were developed as a result of COVID since the congregate housing was problematic during the pandemic.

More recently we have been looking at a variation on tiny cabins that have multiple units in one pre-fabricated building. Another more recent consideration is to build individual units within a large fabric tensile structure, which could provide the density of congregate housing and the privacy of tiny cabins. This has not yet been fully vetted. The crisis of homelessness in our communities is complex and challenging and cannot be solved with just one solution or model, but instead requires innovative, outside-the-box ideas. It is our hope as design professionals and government agencies that we can contribute architecturally by providing dignified, supportive and inviting environments for this vulnerable population.

About the Authors:

Julia Laue, FAIA, LEED AP is the City Architect and Bureau Manager for the Bureau for of Architecture in San Francisco Public Works. Leading an in-house, public architectural practice since 2013 with over 70 professionals, she is responsible for an award-winning portfolio of projects for the City and County of San Francisco. Her extensive depth of experience in public works includes a long career in private practice focused on housing and mixed-use development projects along with private sector health and government capital projects. Julia and her team are passionate about working towards architectural and humane solutions for the homeless crisis.

Peter Engel, AIA LEED AP has spent over three decades designing homeless shelters, affordable housing, and schools in California and working with low-income populations throughout south and southeast Asia. He is a recipient of awards from the Fulbright Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Graham Foundation, Columbia and Harvard Universities, among other institutions. At the Bureau of Architecture, he has been involved in the design, programming, and construction administration of multiple homeless shelters.

Aries Martin has 17 years of experience in San Francisco, dedicated to serving vulnerable and underserved communities through inclusive, community-driven design. For a decade, Aries worked with a nonprofit focused on architectural advocacy, providing access to design services for those who typically cannot afford them. Aries then joined the Public Works Bureau of Architecture, where, as Job Captain. She now continues to work on user-based humanitarian design and learning how to better serve the homeless through various architectural solutions and approaches.