Winners of ENYA’s Harlem Edge Urban Agriculture Design Competition Showcased at New Exhibit

Last week, The AIA's Emerging New York Architects Committee (ENYA) celebrated the winners of its <a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/emerging-new-york-architects-competition-unveils-the-winning-designs-for-the-harlem-edge-waterfront/" target="_blank">Harlem Edge: Cultivating Connections</a> competition with an exhibit opening showcasing the most innovative designs. The contest focused on the site of DSNY's decommissioned 135th Street Marine Transfer Station on the Hudson River, inviting participants to create a <a href="http://inhabitat.com/mvrdv-aboutblank-design-expansive-new-transit-hub-and-archeo-park-for-yenikapi-in-istanbul/" target="_blank">multi-modal transit hub</a> and nutrition-educated facility. A group of esteemed judges chose 3 winning projects and a student prize, which will be on exhibit along with other distinguished entries until the end of October - click through our gallery to see the winners.

Each competition team was evaluated on four main criteria. In the spirit of NYC's Vision 2020 waterfront development plan, and its Waterfront Redevelopment Program, designs must expand access to the Hudson waters for Harlem residents. Following the client's mission of striving to provide “nutrition for all,” each project must also explore the possibilities of urban agriculture at a large scale.

Additionally, entries were evaluated on the broader criteria of sustainability and creative programming striving to stimulate economic activity. The winning projects provide concise, holistic design solutions that concentrate on the potential of large scale urban agriculture while providing a great variety of public spaces and uses on the waterfront.

The first prize of the 2012 ENYA competition was awarded to Sym.bio.pia, from architects Ting Chin and Yan Wang of the firm Linearscape.

This structure consists of a faceted landscape that meanders along the Hudson, rising through a web of sloped paths and emerging into a series of iconic towers housing vertical hydroponic gardens.

Sym.bio.pia's public spaces provide activity from the Hudson River waterfront to the upland Harlem neighborhood, but its towers go a step beyond. These vertical hydroponic farms enhance the project and bring environmental, agricultural and economic vitality of the project and the neighborhood, providing a nexus for the emerging market of urban agriculture.

Each tower works in a symbiotic relationship with its hydroponic crops. Greywater collection from the mixed-use spaces irrigates crops, which filter the water to be re-used. Inedible plant material is composted; heat from this process is converted to energy to help power the building's activities. Additionally, the whole of Sym.bio.pia anchors an intricate community network inclusive of the Hudson, Harlem, and other waterfront neighborhoods with their own iterations of this project.

Thus, Sym.bio.pia is conceived simultaneously as an iconic urban farming structure that brings public access to the Harlem waterfront, and a replicable component of a city-wide sustainable nutrition and economic network along New York City's waterfront.

Last Thursday, July 12, The American Institute of Architects' Emerging New York Architects Committee (ENYA) celebrated the winners of its 5th biennial ideas competition, <a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/emerging-new-york-architects-competition-unveils-the-winning-designs-for-the-harlem-edge-waterfront/" target="_blank">The Harlem Edge: Cultivating Connections</a>, with an exhibit opening and awards event at The Center for Architecture in <a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/greenwich-village-residents-in-uproar-over-nyus-6-million-square-foot-expansion-plans/" target="_blank">Greenwich Village</a>. The competition, as in previous years, seeks to broaden the scope of architectural discourse by challenging young architects to resolve site-specific, New York City based design problems. This year's Harlem Edge competition focused on the site of DSNY's decommissioned 135th Street Marine Transfer Station on the Hudson River, inviting participants to create a <a href="http://inhabitat.com/mvrdv-aboutblank-design-expansive-new-transit-hub-and-archeo-park-for-yenikapi-in-istanbul/" target="_blank">multi-modal transit hub</a> and nutrition educated facility. With the assistance of competition client Nourishing USA, a group of esteemed judges chose 3 winning projects and a student prize, which are on exhibit along with other distinguished entries until the end of October at the Center.

The second place design, the Hudson Exchange by SWARM, consists of a multidisciplinary educational and experimental hub for experts and activists in food policy, nutrition, ecology, and urban systems.

Spaces in this sprawling waterfront complex include a green market, food barges to transport produce, educational and research facilities, and a series of terraced gardens that steps down towards the Hudson, framing a view of the city's skyline in the background.

The third place entry, Harlem Harvest by Tyler Caine, Ryan Doyle, and Guido Elgueta, is an energy and resource-positive complex that houses hydroponic agricultural environments and floating community gardens, providing agricultural education and produce to Harlem residents.

The student prize was awarded to Stairway to Harlem by Daniel Mowery from the University of Virginia. His proposal consists of an educational campus where knowledge is shared about various forms of agriculture, food vending, and health and nutrition. At the water's edge sits a sustainable shipping port. The whole system is connected to existing waterfront infrastructure such as River bank State Park.

Through its biennial competitions such as Harlem Edge: Cultivating Connections, The Emerging New York Architects Committee hopes to stimulate the minds of young architects to creatively tackle today's principal urban issues. By publicly showcasing the best entries to this competition, the group pushes the dialogue about issues such as food production and adaptive reuse of defunct infrastructure to the forefront of the profession, encouraging a more complete dialogue about the opportunities and responsibilities facing New York City's architects today.