Documentary freeze-frame. Community dialogue. Meeting with the residents of Île Verte
Photo credit: Atelier Pierre Thibault

The Atelier Pierre Thibault team and intern students from Université Laval.
Photo credit: Alex Lesage

Assembling of one of the four architectural installations
Photo credit: Alex Lesage

Echoing the spirit of the original vernacular structures, these new installations embraced the simplicity and efficiency of contemporary timber construction.
Photo credit: Alex Lesage

Community dialogue through participatory discussion sessions
Photo credit: Alex Lesage

Photo credit: Alex Lesage

Community dialogue through participatory discussion sessions
Photo credit: Alex Lesage

Though originally intended to be dismantled after the architects’ departure, some of the structures were embraced by the community and left standing, adopted as tangible markers of the boucaneries’ untapped potential—keeping the island’s collective memory and core values vibrantly alive.
Photo credit: Alexis Boivin

Documentary freeze-frame. Assembling one of the four architectural installations next to an existing smokehouse.
Photo credit: Atelier Pierre Thibault

Documentary freeze-frame. Community dialogue. Meeting with the residents of Île Verte. Harnessing the power of abstraction in architectural expression, the reinterpretations served as conceptual canvases—inviting the Verdoyants to reconnect with their cultural and architectural heritage through a hopeful, forward-looking lens.
Photo credit: Atelier Pierre Thibault

The Atelier Pierre Thibault will return to the island this summer to continue this conversation, following the many concrete ideas proposed by residents—particularly those centered on food autonomy, a pressing issue in isolated environments. More broadly, the project has sparked renewed appreciation for a threatened vernacular heritage, while encouraging the intergenerational transmission of knowledge linked to the boucaneries.
Photo credit: Alexis Boivin

Architectural detail of the Île Verte Lighthouse. The Île Verte Lighthouse was the very first to be built along the St. Lawrence River. Constructed between 1806 and 1809, it housed several lighthouse keepers until 1972. It has been designated a National Historic Site of Canada since 1974, and since 2021, both the Lighthouse and the Lighthouse Station have been classified as heritage properties by Quebec’s Ministry of Culture and Communications. Today, it remains a prime destination for visitors from Quebec and beyond.
Photo credit: Alex Lesage

Once integral to the practice of weir fishing, fish smoking was both an economic driver and a cultural hallmark of life on Île Verte.
Photo credit: Jean-Marie Cossette

Once integral to the practice of weir fishing, fish smoking was both an economic driver and a cultural hallmark of life on Île Verte.
Photo credit: Jean-Marie Cossette

Once integral to the practice of weir fishing, fish smoking was both an economic driver and a cultural hallmark of life on Île Verte.
Photo credit: Mireille Caron

Known as boucaneries, these vernacular buildings, inspired by traditional smokehouses, were constructed between the 1920s and 1980s to withstand the island’s particularly harsh climatic conditions. Once integral to the practice of weir fishing, fish smoking was both an economic driver and a cultural hallmark of life on Île Verte.
Characterized by their windowless façades and vertically elongated forms, the boucaneries gradually fell into disuse. Changes in hygiene regulations, along with the decline of the local fishing industry, rendered them obsolete. Since then, wind, snow, and rain have continued to erode these symbolic structures, which, for decades, had remained without a renewed purpose.
Photo credit: Alex Lesage

A 2023 report by architect Pascal Létourneau, a specialist in heritage conservation, revealed that among the twelve remaining smokehouses on Île Verte, four possess exceptional heritage value, while six are considered to have high heritage value. Key architectural features such as their pronounced verticality, roof ridge openings, drying pole systems, and humidity control mechanisms were identified as elements worth preserving. Unfortunately, half of these boucaneries are now in an advanced or critical state of deterioration—one even collapsed a few years ago.
Photo credit: Alex Lesage

In response to the Verdoyants’ strong desire to preserve and revitalize this unique built heritage, the Atelier launched a participatory design project aimed at exploring new uses for these structures. At the heart of the initiative lies a central question: How can these silent witnesses of the past help shape the future?
Photo credit: Alex Lesage

Architectural installations to reveal new relationships between landscape, volume, uses, and people
Photo credit: Alex Lesage

Architectural installations to reveal new relationships between landscape, volume, uses, and people
Photo credit: Alex Lesage

Lightweight and easily transportable, the installations were moved across the island—from the shoreline to fields and meadows—like evocative, nomadic figures.
Photo credit: Alex Lesage

Lightweight and easily transportable, the installations were moved across the island—from the shoreline to fields and meadows—like evocative, nomadic figures.
Photo credit: Alex Lesage

Community dialogue through participatory discussion sessions
Photo credit: Alex Lesage

The result: elegant, open frameworks that stood as inspiring visions of the future, thoughtfully integrated into the island’s varied landscapes. These temporary structures revealed new relationships between landscape, built form, and community.
Photo credit: Alex Lesage

The result: elegant, open frameworks that stood as inspiring visions of the future, thoughtfully integrated into the island’s varied landscapes. These temporary structures revealed new relationships between landscape, built form, and community.
Photo credit: Alex Lesage

Documentary freeze-frame. Community dialogue. Meeting with the residents of Île Verte
Photo credit: Atelier Pierre Thibault

Documentary freeze-frame. Community dialogue. Meeting with the residents of Île Verte. Harnessing the power of abstraction in architectural expression, the reinterpretations served as conceptual canvases—inviting the Verdoyants to reconnect with their cultural and architectural heritage through a hopeful, forward-looking lens.
Photo credit: Atelier Pierre Thibault

Though ephemeral by design, the project on Île Verte has left lasting and meaningful traces. Some of the installations remain standing, having been spontaneously adopted by the community, while others were dismantled—prompting reflection on their potential future. In a creative gesture to sustain public engagement, the municipality of Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs recently raffled off two of the structures to residents, free of charge. For the mayor, this initiative offers an original way to extend the dialogue around built heritage.
Photo credit: Alexis Boivin

For the Atelier Pierre Thibault team, this collective experience reinforced their cohesion, nurtured their initiative, and deepened their commitment to an architecture grounded in lived experience and local realities. Above all, the project affirmed architecture’s role as a tool for social and cultural mediation—capable of opening spaces for encounter, remembrance, and imagination for the future.
Photo credit: Alexis Boivin

The result: elegant, open frameworks that stood as inspiring visions of the future, thoughtfully integrated into the island’s varied landscapes. These temporary structures revealed new relationships between landscape, built form, and community.
Photo credit: Alex Lesage

Documentary freeze-frame. Community dialogue. Meeting with the residents of Île Verte
Photo credit: Atelier Pierre Thibault

The result: elegant, open frameworks that stood as inspiring visions of the future, thoughtfully integrated into the island’s varied landscapes. These temporary structures revealed new relationships between landscape, built form, and community.

Lightweight and easily transportable, the installations were moved across the island—from the shoreline to fields and meadows—like evocative, nomadic figures.
Photo credit: Alex Lesage

During visits to Île Verte and through conversations with the Verdoyants—as the island’s residents are known—twelve captivating structures were (re)discovered. Known as boucaneries, these vernacular buildings, inspired by traditional smokehouses, were constructed between the 1920s and 1980s to withstand the island’s particularly harsh climatic conditions.
Photo credit: Alexis Boivin