A Month Well Lived

In 2020, we began restoring a century-old building in Ottawa, Canada.

What we thought would take two or three years eventually became a six-year journey. The pandemic, rising construction costs, design revisions, material shortages, and changing approvals all slowed the process. Yet the greatest change was not the building itself—it was our understanding of what this place could become.

Along the way, we explored many familiar models: short-term rentals, apartments, artist residencies, and other forms of temporary accommodation. But as the project evolved, it became increasingly clear that none of them fully expressed what we were trying to build.

What mattered most was not hospitality, but everyday life.

Rather than creating a destination separated from its surroundings, we chose to preserve the neighbourhood as it already exists. Long-term residents still live here. Mornings begin with coffee on the porch. Evenings carry the smell of home cooking through shared hallways. Familiar faces greet one another on the street. These rhythms cannot be designed—they emerge slowly through time.

Instead of opening every unit to visitors, we decided to keep only one independent Living Studio. By welcoming just one resident at a time, the experience becomes less about sharing accommodation and more about entering an existing way of life.

We call this practice Living Commons.

It is neither a hotel nor an Airbnb. It is an invitation to spend enough time for a place to become familiar, and for daily life to unfold at its own pace.

For this reason, we do not offer stays of a few days or even a couple of weeks. The minimum residency is one month.

Not because one month is a symbolic number, but because the things we value require time. Research unfolds over time. Creative work develops through repetition. Trust between people and place grows gradually. Real life rarely begins on the day of arrival, nor does it end after a weekend.

Alongside the Living Studio, we are also developing Time Commons Lab—a shared workspace for residents, artists, researchers, and collaborators. It will support work, conversations, small gatherings, and evolving projects. Like the Commons itself, it will continue to grow with the people who use it.

After six years of construction, Maison Beausoleil is entering a new chapter. It is also the first long-term Living Commons developed through Time Commons—an ongoing experiment in living, creating, learning, and sharing everyday life.

We are now preparing to welcome our first resident.

At this stage, applications are primarily open to residents of Canada and international applicants who can travel independently. We expect to welcome applicants from more regions over time as the project continues to develop.

As this place grows, we will continue to document the people who come here, the work they pursue, the conversations they begin, and the stories they carry forward.

We believe that the true value of a place is never defined by its architecture alone, but by the people, relationships, and experiences that gradually take shape within it.

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Applications are now open.

If you are interested in spending a month at Maison Beausoleil, we invite you to learn more about the residency and the broader Time Commons initiative.

→ Maison Beausoleil · Residency Centre

→ Time Commons