In the 1960’s, Lanzarote looked like it could become like everywhere else. A gorgeous coast, year-round mild climate, and an exotic-like nature and distance from the European peninsula – it was the formula for a potential massive tourist makeover.
If it went through, family homes and villages, small businesses and local artisans, all could have easily started to perish in front of the concrete hotels, mediocre modern resorts, and purpose-built restaurants and souvenir shops just for the eyes of tourists.
Luckily, in the ‘70s, a famous Lanzarotean architect and artist, César Manrique, began advocating for his home island to preserve its soul through eco-conscious, nature-inspired architecture that focused on Lanzarote’s cultural heritage and environmental practices. The artist’s vision for the island was simultaneously an ode to its history and nature and a protest against business-driven conglomerates that tear villages down to build tourist attractions.
Cesar’s vision won over, and his legacy still stands strong to this day, creating an incomparable brand identity as a mirror of the island’s core and the soul of its people.
Today, Lanzarote is the white village homes, with bright blue, green, or wooden doors and window frames, most 1-2 stories tall so they never block the ocean and volcanic landscapes; it’s this impossible symbiosis of deep strong colors that clash off of each other creating a visual spectacle throughout the whole island – a neverending dance between volcanic harshness and human softness, with homes so naturally fitting as if they have been born from earth.
The island’s visual identity tells a clear story; it says that those who live there live in synergy with nature, that they treat the island as if it were its own being, and that they have never hijacked this vast land they were given and would never let tourism do it for them.
The story of Lanzarote’s identity is proof that the visual is not just on the surface. One coliving in Arrecife learned to read it better than most.
The Island as a Blueprint for Pitaya Coliving’s identity
When Laura Sanz opened her coliving space in Arrecife, the identity of the space came to her very naturally – not because Laura is an expert brand professional, nor because she knew this would sell the place; it’s because Laura fell in love with the island for all these things she knew she wanted to be surrounded by.
White accents like the homes around the island, blue logo like the ocean in Famara, pastel yellows like warm sand on the Papagayo Beach, and pinks like the sunsets above Charco del San Ginés; a dash of dark and green here and there like the fields of La Geria, and an airy breeze whispering through hallways.
Scroll through Pitaya’s Instagram or website, and the same instinct is visible. The experience is clean and airy but never sterile – Lanzarote’s landscapes appear as often as the coliving itself, water against black volcanic stone, people enjoying the island and the community, and genuine smiles in real moments. Milestones are celebrated publicly – a birthday, a new staff member, or a new baby – their online presence doesn’t perform community, but rather documents it.
Pitaya didn’t invent this visual language – it learned to speak it. And in doing so, what they built became a business that feels like it was born directly from the ground of Lanzarote rather than just being placed on top of it.
A Local and a Traveler – The double perspective of Pitaya’s founder
Madrid-born and raised, after living in London and working for a big corporation, Laura’s falling in love with Lanzarote was her soul’s decision to not only make this place her home but also to create a space for others to fall in love with it as much as she did.
As the owner of Pitaya Coliving, her unique positioning actually means that she created a bridge. Pitaya is Lanzarote, but it’s also all the people who pass through it. It is because, before she built it, Laura was also all the people that she would eventually host.
Coming to Lanzarote from London and Madrid was not a road without bumps, and Laura had to navigate, keeping a strong trust in herself and her vision, while also gaining trust from the local community. For an islander, especially one from an island like this – where legacy is protected with such a strong force – accepting someone from the outside as an ambassador of your home asks for great dedication. And Laura was ready to give it.
The coliving today exists beyond just her. It’s a place that gives anyone passing through a chance to connect with Lanzarote on a deeper level, and, as Laura once said, her goal was always “that nobody leaves Pitaya without getting to understand that they have been on an island full of art, nature, powerful energy, and unique landscapes.”
Today, Pitaya is a mirror of the people who come here, and it’s also a mirror of the island.
The Island through its People and Culture
Lanzarote has two versions – one is the otherworldly nature and architecture, and another that lives in its pottery studios, its festivals, its artists who never left the island, and its newcomers who never wanted to.
Laura’s love for Lanzarote equally spread to both these sides. Before Pitaya Coliving officially opened its doors, Pitaya Festival came to life – a celebration of the island’s artists, artisans, and the living culture that tourism rarely reaches.
The festival planted seeds, and today, those roots show up in the collaborations Pitaya has built across the island.
For example, The Sun Collective takes people out to paint in the landscapes that surround them like volcanoes or the coastline; a local ceramist deeply connected to island’s history teaches people to shape clay by hand using soil collected directly from the land, firing each piece in a traditional oven the way the island’s aboriginal people once did; and a local animal shelter sends dogs out for daily walks with volunteers allowing colivers to do a good deed while learning about the Podenco dogs in the Canaries. Many other local collaborations happen during the year, like an ongoing partnership with Samadhi Yoga Studio that gives Pitaya’s visitors free access to daily yoga, or an introduction to LanzaSurf that connects the colivers with the local surf culture.
Laura chooses her local network deliberately, and each collaboration deepens what a guest can understand about the island.
A coliving that feels like one
Similar to the island itself, with many different corners making a coherent whole, Pitaya Coliving has a very clear unity between its different spaces. Like in Lanzarote, where one place is the best spot to kite surf but maybe not the best one to sunbathe, or another makes for a perfect hike but not for swimming – Pitaya’s spaces are exactly the same.
To experience the full heart of the coliving, you have to look at it as a whole, just like you need to look at Lanzarote as an island rather than Costa Teguise, Famara, or Arrecife separately.
Each space at Pitaya has its own purpose, and the coliving experience flows through all of them naturally. Rather than each area having everything, one is for gathering, one for eating, one for working. In creating it like that, Pitaya became something rarer than a shared house; it became a complete home.
This wasn’t Laura’s blueprint imposed on the space – it emerged through the people who lived in it. Groups moved furniture, shifted things around, gave feedback, and Laura encouraged them. In fact, she still does. As she said herself: “at the end of the day, colivers are the ones enjoying the facilities, the community, and the activities, so it makes sense that they want to be part of shaping the experience, too.” What the community shaped in terms of function, the visual identity holds together in terms of feeling.
A well-borrowed secret from the island itself – unify it. Lanzarote feels like one place because it follows the same pattern: the nature changes, but the houses stay the same; the ocean is still close enough; the volcanoes come and go; the scenes gradually become darker or greener, but the human touch tells you that you’re still on the same island, that you’re still in the same community. In the same spirit, Pitaya’s spaces interact with each other – from lounge to dining area to coworking, the setting shifts, but the coherency doesn’t break.
There are no harsh cutoffs or surprising decor; the air feels the same, and the change feels familiar. There is no nervousness in opening a new door, not knowing what’s or who’s behind it, because you already know that’s your home and your community.
The outcome of the Genuine Identity
From the day she opened her doors, Laura wanted everyone to see Lanzarote as she saw it. Her unique position, caught between becoming a local and carrying the admiration for the island that only strangers can have, is a big part of Pitaya’s identity that today holds the place together.
The strong connection that Laura had with Lanzarote poured down into what she was building at Pitaya, and again, her clarity about who she was as a traveler poured into what this place needed to offer.
Pitaya’s strong identity is not trying to be something that it isn’t – it’s genuine, quietly confident, and trustworthy.
In the end, it all comes back to the love for this island. Manrique didn’t want Lanzarote to become a stage set for tourism; he wanted the island itself to be the experience. Laura thought the same way about Pitaya. Rather than making the coliving the epicenter of every memorable moment, she built it as a base camp – a place with enough identity to orient you, and enough restraint to send you outward. She gave valuable space in her brand back to its core – back to Lanzarote.
And because of it, people who pass through Pitaya today leave knowing the island inside and out, carrying its legacy in their pockets.
Today, Pitaya Coliving is a coliving full of returning guests, and that’s the final ink drop of the story about Pitaya’s identity.
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