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Some ideas land in a building because someone walked into the building already carrying them.
The activator program is one of those.
Where the Idea Came From
Before there was a name for it, there was an embodied concept.
In a previous chapter of her life, Desiree had been part of the Lululemon Luminaries program, and she rarely talks about her past chapters without that one coming up. The program brought together a cohort of people, gave them connection, gave them community, gave them something tangible to grow inside of together. Years later, the lived experience of being inside that kind of container was still alive in her. She wanted to recreate the feeling of it, in a different shape that aligned with our big mission.
Mya had her own version of the same desire. She wanted travelers to meet real Montrealers. Not the curated city. Not the tourist version. The actual humans doing actual things in this city, the ones shaping music, art, wellness, sport, design, parenting, community work. The ones a guest would never meet on a standard hotel stay, but whose work is the city.
Two desires. One container. The activator program was born somewhere in the middle.
The name itself came after many iterations and discussions. We knew we wanted Human Design woven through the process. We knew we wanted local Montrealers. We knew we wanted the yes to come from feeling, not logic. A full body yes. A desire to be in the room with the rest of the community.
The word found us. The people we were calling in were already activated. They were ready to activate a space. The cohort became the activators.
What an Activator Actually Does
Each activator was given a modest budget and a room or a wall or a stairwell. There was no forced format in the first cohort, and that was on purpose. We wanted play. We wanted the room to teach the activator and the activator to teach the room.
Then we brought them together. They walked through the building as a group. They met each other. They met Eden Carpenter online and got their own introduction to Human Design through her work. They learned about themselves while they were figuring out what they wanted to bring into their space. They printed photos. They built portals. They wrote poems. They activated.
A first cohort is a beautiful thing because no one knows the rules yet. There are no rules. There is only the feeling of yes, this belongs here.
9 Activators You Should Know
Olivia Siegle is a Montreal hairstylist with a studio right next door to La Maison Ralia on Saint-Laurent. When she activated her rooms, she translated what she does at her chair into a photography series. She had a vision. She got a model. She did the hair, the styling, the set. The result is a series of images of a woman with her hair moving in the wind. Wild. Untamed. Full of energy. The frequency of someone who has been seen, styled, and set free.
Joëlle Martina activated through portals. Our building sits in Little Portugal, the neighbourhood where Portuguese immigrants landed in Montreal and built their shops, their church, and the early years of their lives in this city. Joëlle has her own lived experience in Portugal, and she let the geography speak. Her activation became a series of doors and doorways. A through line of what does it mean to walk through. A portal for herself. A portal for the people who would later sleep in the room she touched.
Darya Akulshyna is a vision coach, and her activation became something we have never seen before. She built The HeartVersation Game inside a hotel room. Part ritual, part art installation, part gamified journey, the room walks a guest through three levels of reconnection. Greeting. Speak. Listen. Soft lighting in emerald, gold, and pink. An audio poem voiced by Darya herself. By the time you finish the room, you have moved from your mind into your heart, from doing into being.
Margaret Lipsey, an abstract artist, Human Design Consultant, and Reiki Grand Master, activated three spaces in our building, the stairways, and a full apartment. Her painting Gathering Power hangs in the bedroom and is meant to evoke serenity becoming movement. Her own book of poetry, written in 2021 as her marriage was ending and she was rediscovering herself, sits on the bedside table. There is Hawthorn tea in the kitchen, good for the heart energetically and physically. And over the entire space, Margaret performed an energetic blessing, so a guest staying there is held whether they know it or not.
Anda has been with us since before the activator program existed. She tuned the La Maison Ralia building itself with sound. For her activation, she gave a room a multi-sensory exploration of body, mind, and soul. Books that invite contemplation. A small but mighty Tibetan bowl. Crystals. Hand-illustrated posters that remind you that in the end there is no matter, only frequency.
Ben Mumme, host of the Living Your Greatness podcast, activated a content creation room with a curated library and the energy of joy as a design principle. He opens his blog post with Rumi: when you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy. The room carries the same.
Amanda Weil activated her room through walking. A long-time community connector at lululemon, Amanda traded fast paced running for slow morning city walks after a recurring injury asked her to slow down. The walks became a daily ritual of stillness and self discovery. She turned that ritual into a gallery wall of framed photographs from her morning walks, a yoga mat for a gentle stretch, and books that explore slow living and introspection. To walk is to notice.
Jeremy Shantz activated a full apartment with sculpture and artistic expression. A Montreal-based artist with deep west-coast roots, classically trained in painting and sculpture and creative electronics, he is the kind of artist you want in a building because he will see what no one else has seen yet. His art opens up something inside of you.
Florence Charron is and always will be the OG activator of the entire project. She is the founder of Indee Design, the firm behind the entire building design. She designed La Maison Ralia and then activated a special area of the main event space on top of that. With over twenty years of experience in interior design, Florence approaches every project as a human exploration. Her work is the reason a guest can walk into Ralia and feel the building hold them before anyone has said a word.
The Human Design Layer
Every activator was offered a Human Design reading and an introduction to the tool through Eden's work. The intention was twofold.
First, to give the activator a deeper understanding of themselves so the activation came from their alignment, not their idea of what was expected.
Second, to plant Human Design in the activator community itself, so the tool would already be living in the building when the next phase — bringing it to travelers — was ready to begin.
That next phase is closer than ever. It is high touch. It is individual. It cannot be mass produced. It has to come from someone who is genuinely lit up by the tool, in conversation with a guest who is genuinely curious. We are building toward that, and the activators are part of how we get there.
How a Guest Meets the Activator
When a guest stays at La Maison Ralia, the room they are sleeping in has a story.
By the rebrand and website launch in spring 2026, every activated space will carry a small plaque with a link to the blog telling the story of who activated the space, what they brought, and how to find their work in the city. A guest can read the story, follow the link, and walk out of the hotel into the same Montreal the activator is shaping. The room becomes the doorway. The activator becomes the invitation. The city becomes the experience.
This is what we mean when we say connection is the mission. We are not just convening people inside the building. We are weaving them out into the city.
What Is Next
The first activator cohort is not complete until the full plaques are installed, the new website is launched, and the rebrand has fully landed. We are honouring this cohort by giving the first activations a full year of being lived in, walked through, and witnessed by guests in their finished form.
In 2027, we will close this cohort and invite a new group of activators to come in. New rooms. New activations. New voices. The story of each space will continue to evolve, layer on top of layer, every year a fresh weaving of who is shaping Montreal right now.
The activator program is not a one time thing. It is how the building stays alive.
Your Invitation
If something in this series has felt like a yes in your body, here is what we want you to do with it.
Connect with our activators. Many of them are building our community with us, and they all have beautiful offerings — art you can purchase, services you can book, events you can attend. Their stories are linked throughout this post.
Come stay at La Maison Ralia. Book a room, book a retreat, bring your group, host your gathering. Sleep in a space someone activated with their full body yes. Wake up to a Montreal you have never met.
And if any part of this felt like a full body yes, that is your alignment talking.
That is the feeling Mya promises she will never leave.
That is what Ralia is built to hold.
The door is open.
xo, The Ralia team
Start from the beginning: Part 1 — La Maison Ralia is on a Mission to Write itself into History
