Designing a mourning space carry both the profound significance of ritual and the fragility of transitional moments. Through the client’s collaboration and openness, the team was able to completely rethink the spaces associated with grief in order to offer a gentle and unprecedented experience, on the very site where La Seigneurie Funeral Home has been operating for nearly twenty years, reaffirming this important building’s deep-rooted connection to the community and its place in the collective memory of the neighborhood. An expansion was conceived around the existing building to double its floor area and redefine the Cooperative’s image while maintaining essential operations. This approach also enabled a complete reconfiguration of the funeral procession, creating spatial clarity and establishing relationships that support and welcome the wide range of atmospheres and emotions inherent to funeral rituals. To accompany those in mourning, light and nature compose a calming and living environment; open yet protective, guided yet adaptable.

The commission, program, and challenges
La Seigneurie Funeral Home approached the team of ultralocal architectes and Perron to support the transformation and expansion of their building located in Vieux-Beauport in Quebec city. The initial mandate was to add an additional floor to accommodate family meeting rooms, lounges, a chapel, a reception hall, and a larger columbarium. Early in the project, however, our team developed a different and compelling vision, supported by the expertise of each collaborator, to meet the client’s expansion goals: expanding laterally rather than vertically.

The lateral expansion became not only an opportunity to completely redefine the user experience and restructure the project as a whole, but also to preserve the existing building—imbued with memories for the community—and to revalorize it. Even before addressing ecological imperatives, this strategy greatly facilitated construction phasing and allowed operations to continue on site throughout the works. From the outset of the design process, the client emphasized the importance of maintaining continuous access to the columbarium, a frequently visited place of remembrance for many residents of the neighborhood. To preserve this solemn bond with its members and surroundings, relocating or interrupting activities was unthinkable. The form of the expansion therefore integrates phasing, temporary access, and progressive internal reorganization directly into the design.

Naturally, the reuse of an existing structure also plays an active role in addressing the socio-ecological crisis. In our view, this strategy is essential to the success of our commitment to climate action and deserves recognition. By reusing the existing building, we avoided wasting resources already in place and limited the consumption of new materials, while maintaining the building’s social anchoring within the community. The expansion and renovation work also improved the performance of the building envelope and mechanical systems, reducing life-cycle costs, enhancing occupant comfort, and ensuring long-term durability. Durable, bio-based, and locally sourced materials were prioritized whenever possible, including a light wood-frame structure and wood cladding. Throughout the building, occupants can control window openings to allow fresh air and ambient sounds inside. The major expansion and renovation also made all spaces universally accessible.

Volumetry and composition: redefining the image
The building expansion provided an opportunity to redefine the image of the institution. The existing structure has modest origins: a former mechanical garage built with corrugated metal (Honco-type). In the 1990s, when the Cooperative moved in, the hangar was clad with a more conventional envelope, though its proportions and openings retained traces of its industrial past. To express the delicacy of the program, we proposed a volumetric composition that envelops the original building, redefining its proportions and its relationship to the surrounding context.

The renewed building establishes a stronger relationship with the street, with the chapel presenting its façade to the public realm. This pivot toward the street opens up a void at the heart of the project that brings in natural light and welcomes visitors. At the same time, the restrained volume housing the chapel and the reception hall above turns toward the south, allowing light to be used as a material. In the chapel, high-level openings fill the space with daylight while framing only the sky, creating an atmosphere that is both solemn and warm. The reception hall, located at the end of the funeral procession, features large glazed walls that open onto the landscape, allowing visitors to reconnect with the outside world.
The central pivot structures the new ensemble into two dialoguing volumes. Internally, this core organizes circulation and gently links the various atmospheres. Externally, the massing responds to the context through a variation in scale: greater height toward the highway and a more delicate presence toward the residential neighborhood. The transformation is completed through the introduction of a linear passage and the withdrawal of the decorative gable. Set just beneath the existing roofline, the transparent and light-filled passage underscores a sense of calm, continuous linearity. It transforms the former façade into a sunlit interior reception space punctuated by gardens. The building’s overall silhouette is thus reshaped through measured interventions.

The façade composition relies on simple details that conceal significant technical complexity. The connections and integration with the existing volume posed numerous envelope challenges, addressed through precise and delicate gestures supported by robust and durable technical design. The material palette—brick, glass, steel, and wood—balances integration into the residential context with the institutional character of the place. The project also benefits from enhanced urban integration through the greening of the parking lot and surrounding areas, the addition of new paved pedestrian pathways lined with trees, the creation of a forecourt extending the chapel’s functions outdoors, and a complete redesign of exterior lighting to ensure occupant safety and highlight the building.

Embracing atmospheres: circulation and materiality
Creating a place where everyone can experience the wide range of emotions associated with grief was a central objective of the project. A rich variety of atmospheres is therefore woven along the visitors’ journey. On the ground floor, one encounters the energy of the reception area, the restraint of condolences in the lounges, the solemnity of ceremonies in the chapel, the contemplation of the columbarium, and the everyday functions of administrative offices. Upstairs, there is the brightness of reunions in the reception hall, the tranquility of a secluded terrace, children at play, and rooms for planning meetings.
To support these atmospheres, a new architectural language was developed and interlaced with the existing structure. Particular attention was given to circulation paths and transitional spaces, offering users the choice to wait quietly, to contemplate, and to move gently through the building. Along this journey, the generosity of natural light and the presence of vegetation contribute greatly to users’ well-being.

The extended linear entrance allows visitors to arrive gradually, at their own pace. The heart of the project—flooded with natural light from all sides—distributes visitors to the various spaces while gently linking atmospheres through a large circular opening aligned with a skylight open to the sky. These landings integrate a ramp leading down to the chapel below while also creating a recessed space that is both central and withdrawn. The gentle descent toward the space of contemplation acts as a threshold, emphasizing the transition toward introspection. It also allows the chapel to benefit from a higher ceiling, whose form is shaped to highlight natural light.

Set back from the activity of the linear passage, the columbarium enjoys a calm atmosphere. A few openings toward the exterior frame vegetation without overly extending the horizon, keeping the experience inward-focused.
Upstairs, a small terrace offers a retreat for a change of atmosphere, fresh air, or a more private conversation. Near the central space and adjacent to the reception hall, a space specifically designed for children is provided. These are just a few examples of the many small spaces thoughtfully designed to allow visitors to withdraw and experience their grief in comfort. Care stations, equipped with sinks and tissues, punctuate the spaces, offering moments of comfort and connection.
Throughout the project, atmospheres are modulated by light. Light and shadow are distributed according to the nature of each space—more open or more intimate. Sunlight and views are sometimes direct, sometimes filtered or directed, guiding visitors along both a physical and emotional journey. At the entrance and upstairs, views are expansive and strongly articulated by full-height curtain walls. In ceremonial and contemplative spaces, views are more controlled—either toward the sky or toward nature that gently envelops the building.

Raw textures, soft color palettes, and rounded interior forms—developed in collaboration with Perron’s designers—reinforce this use of light. Through the use of wood and tactile materials, warmth is felt throughout the spaces, with a delicacy that supports visitors. Curves, as elements of softness, continuity, and spirituality, transform the interiors into places of comfort and reassurance.

The presence of nature completes the atmosphere. The journey is punctuated by small interior gardens that invite slowness and contemplation. These gardens, like the views to the outside, serve as living counterpoints to the funeral ritual.

An intimate experience, together
Through precise work on circulation, light, and materiality, the building offers an inclusive place where each grieving individual can experience a ritual moment in their own way. Since the completion of the project, several members of our team have received direct and indirect testimonials regarding the impact of this renewed space on those who visit it during moments of great vulnerability. We are deeply proud to contribute to brighter, more intimate, and more collective experiences of mourning through an architecture that brings comfort.