In the Canary Islands, an Artist Residency Blooms in an Abandoned Farmhouse

Bert Pieters and Yves Drieghe left their home in Brussels to spend a year abroad in 2020, with no idea where they’d end up. Over the previous decade, the couple had built a successful branding agency with offices in Belgium and Holland from scratch, but the pandemic left them wanting for a change—something different, something new.

Within a year, they sold their agency and decided to set up a new life on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. As they browsed properties away from the island’s main tourist strips, they discovered a farmhouse in the Los Valles region and started to get excited. They’d been searching for somewhere that felt local and cozy, and a space they could make their own—and the charming country home was set on an expansive plot of land that had been handed down for at least three generations.