Competing against 1,600 participants from 79 schools, Waterloo Architecture students Kailing Mai and Lora Tarassov were one of ten winning teams at the 2026 American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (AIA COTE®) Top Ten for Students Competition. This marks the third consecutive year Waterloo Architecture students have won awards at this prestigious competition.

Their project, ‘Cultivating Cycles’ presents an expansion of the existing Farmers’ Market in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Mai and Tarassov’s vision preserves the original structure while highlighting the farming processes and practises that bring produce to consumers. The redesigned programmatic layout moves visitors through interactive spaces such as a garden classroom, a community kitchen, a shared dining area, a greenhouse for composting all of which revolve around a central community garden. As the core of the project, the garden acts as a physical and symbolic mainstay connecting interior and exterior spaces.