Until a few years ago, the models of ways of living present in the public imagination were very limited. People lived with their families, as couples, alone, or – especially during youth – sharing a home with friends or strangers. Gradually, along with social changes and the economic context, other alternatives have become more popular, and their names are becoming increasingly well-known.
One of these options is coliving spaces, which have private areas and common areas, designed for people who work remotely and are usually rented seasonally. In contrast to the more common ones, located in cities, some examples of a different model have gradually appeared: rural coliving.
“I kept reading news about the depopulation of rural Spain and Galicia, talking about how the countryside was dying”, says Agustín Jamardo, who runs Anceu Coliving with his partner and business associate, África. That reading of the news, combined with her own experience travelling and living in similar spaces, was the seed for her project, which opened in 2020 and which has already hosted “around a thousand people from 40 nationalities”. Instead of setting up a coliving space in a city, they did it in a village to contribute to its revitalisation and fight against the narrative that nothing ever happens in villages.
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Characteristics of a rural coliving
What exactly does a rural coliving consist of? Jamardo explains that, in his case, it is a space for teleworkers and creative people, a place to live for stays of between one and three months. “People who work remotely usually dedicate themselves to their own projects, whether self-employed or employed by others. As for the creative ones, we have a workshop for anyone who wants to do some more ‘dirty’ things, like painting, woodworking, etc.”, he says.
To accommodate these types of audiences, space is important. Anceu Coliving is in Anceu (Pontecaldelas) not because its promoters were from there or had any kind of relationship with the village, but because they found the perfect infrastructure: an old rural hotel with a restaurant that, with very little renovation, adapted perfectly to its new identity as coliving: it had ten rooms already set up, a dining area, an industrial kitchen and three adjacent buildings that they converted into coworking spaces (they were dining rooms). “With a small facelift, we were able to open very soon”, says Agustín Jamardo.
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Regarding the choice of different materials and the changes they made, the head of Anceu confesses that he is a very pragmatic person, focused on functionality. “When we opened, there were beds and tables; we didn’t need anything more”, he recalls. The houses are made of stone and the roofs of wood, and in the few renovations they have made (changing windows, a new roof…), they have kept the same materials.
Furthermore, both Anceu and other rural coliving spaces like Sende (in Senderiz, Ourense), pioneers in Galicia and now with a second location in Portugal, emphasise another important detail for any teleworker thinking of spending some time in a more or less remote village: the internet connection is very good.
The importance of the local community
Perhaps one of the biggest differences between urban and rural coliving spaces is the importance that the latter places on maintaining a relationship with the local community, on being in the village and becoming part of it. Agustín Jamardo says that they wanted to make that intention clear from the very beginning: the first person they hired was “a native of Anceu, lives in Anceu and continues to work with us”.
They also wanted to fight against the idea that nothing ever happens in villages, that if you want any kind of cultural or creative offering, you must go to a city. Thus, since 2022 (before it was more complicated due to pandemic restrictions) they organise events and activities in which they interact with the village. “We usually bring in resident creative people, who do things like murals, creative writing workshops or natural dyes. Sometimes people from the coliving community join in, but the important thing is the people from the village. “The rural area is being revitalised and becoming a more attractive place”, he says. It’s not an abstract statement: since they started, six people who went through the coliving have moved to Anceu. “In a village of 90 inhabitants, that means the population has grown by 7%”, he points out.
These are stories like that of Ana, a girl from Alcalá de Henares who, after living in coliving for a year and a half, bought the transfer of a mobile book sales project (La Furgolibro) and combines it with a series of activities called La imaginaria, an offline community through books. “She is doing activities all over the area. People get together and talk about books”, Jamardo points out.
Another case is that of Victor, who was an online English teacher and lived for six months in the coliving, where he ended up staying for free in exchange for opening the Casa do Pobo three times a week. “That’s how he met people from the town; they became very good friends, and they offered him a house that wasn’t for rent, which was the old town bar. He has set up a gym there and created a basketball club. “Pontecaldelas didn’t have a basketball club before”, he adds.
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These examples show that the key difference with urban coliving spaces which are sometimes labelled as gentrifying centres and are partly responsible for rising housing prices. In rural areas, coliving does not exist without a close relationship of collaboration and community with the neighbourhood, the people of the village. The Galician government itself has recognised the potential of these types of initiatives and has been promoting them since 2024 through the Fixar programme.
This community spirit also transcends the boundaries of the locality in which they are located and unites the different rural coliving spaces with each other. The manager of Anceu says that they have a close relationship with Sende and also with iSlow, another coliving project on the Costa da Morte. “They are different contexts, Sende is a village of eight inhabitants, but we share values and that desire for the revitalisation of the rural. Community is the added value that coliving spaces have compared to rural houses”, he concludes.
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Perhaps one of the secrets to preventing villages from becoming empty is to start making things happen. And that some of the people (usually between 25 and 45 years old) who spend a season in a rural coliving decide to make the village in question their permanent residence.
