Two residents stand over a scale model of their neighbourhood, moving miniature buildings around. They debate where new homes belong, question each other's ideas and imagine how their community might grow. Adam Clark (BAS '06, MArch '09) doesn't interrupt. Watching the conversation unfold without an expert leading it is his favourite part of the process.

Years earlier, Clark had experienced something similar when he was a University of Waterloo architecture student. A third-year urban design studio challenged his class to reimagine a large section of Toronto, from Fort York to the Don Valley. His team built an 8-by-60-foot model. That project changed the trajectory of his career, shifting his focus from buildings to cities.

Years later, the experience helped inspire the public engagement process Clark would lead for Growing Together, Kitchener's planning framework for accommodating future growth around its ION light rail stations. Residents used physical models to test ideas and visualize how greater density might reshape their neighbourhoods.

Growing Together went on to earn eight awards and international recognition, including the Ontario Professional Planners Institute's Project of the Year and a Congress for the New Urbanism Charter Award.

But some of the project's contributors weren’t on the City of Kitchener's payroll. They were University of Waterloo planning students.