La Doyenne Renovation and Extension by NatureHumaine — A Victorian Home Reimagined in Montreal

La Doyenne, designed by NatureHumaine, is a masterful renovation and extension of a historic Victorian house built in 1887, located just steps from Square Saint-Louis in Montreal, Canada. Spanning 3,100 ft² and completed in 2020, the project transforms a high-density urban home into a light-filled, private, and contemporary family residence while preserving its architectural heritage.

Set within the Plateau Mont-Royal, a neighborhood characterized by tightly packed buildings, the renovation addresses one of the key challenges of urban living: balancing privacy with openness. The architects designed a backyard extension that is subtly recessed and shielded from neighboring properties, creating a private garden sanctuary while maintaining a seamless relationship with the interior.

Fluid Interior Volumes with Height Variations

La Doyenne’s interior spatiality is defined by a play of multiple floor levels. The entrance opens into the living room, situated half a level above the street, creating a sense of elevation and separation from the urban bustle. Moving toward the backyard, the floor steps down slightly into the garden, establishing a height offset relative to neighboring terraces and enhancing the verticality of the interior volumes.

The dining room and kitchen are designed as double-height spaces, amplifying the sense of openness and connectivity throughout the home. The renovation thoughtfully integrates skylights and stairwells, bringing zenithal light into the core of the house, while the restored imperial staircase at the entrance anchors the historic character and forms a dialogue with the new extensions.

Privacy, Light, and Materiality

The exterior envelope balances privacy and light with subtle architectural interventions:

• Steel blades in front of the bedroom windows and solid steel panels on side windows shield lateral views.
• Skylights illuminate interior volumes naturally while preserving intimacy.
• The helicoidal staircase to the roof terrace and a connecting staircase to the dining room are unified in a rich imperial green tone, paying homage to the building’s historical palette.

The material palette combines noble elements—such as oak floors and custom wooden furniture—with raw, modern materials like stainless-steel countertops in the kitchen and bathrooms. This careful juxtaposition creates a timeless aesthetic that respects the building’s heritage while offering a contemporary touch.

Seamless Integration with Urban Context

Spread over four levels, La Doyenne fosters a continuous spatial experience, encouraging interaction between the house’s different parts. The extension leverages the dense urban environment to create intimate, layered spaces that feel both private and connected. By preserving historic elements and introducing modern interventions, the project creates a home deeply integrated into its neighborhood while offering a refined, contemporary lifestyle for its occupants.

NatureHumaine’s renovation and extension of La Doyenne stands as a benchmark in urban residential architecture, demonstrating how heritage homes can be thoughtfully modernized. Through careful manipulation of volumes, materials, and light, the project creates a residence that is private, luminous, and timeless—honoring Montreal’s architectural history while redefining comfort and functionality for modern life.

All the photographs are works of Raphaël Thibodeau