Museo Lagomar

Originally conceived by César Manrique and designed by the artist Jesús Soto for the British developer Sam Benady with an architectural vision which could evoke mental imagery from the arabian nights mythology. In the early 1970s actor Omar Sharif came to Lanzarote to film “The Mysterious Island”, he visited LagOmar, fell in love with it and bought it.

San Benady knowing Sharif’s reputation as a card player challenged him to a game of Bridge. Sharif accepted the challenge, not realizing that Benady was also a champion Bridge player, and allegedly lost the house.

In 1989 architects Dominik von Boettinger from Germany and Beatriz van Hoff from Uruguay bought the house and initiated the last phase of development. They sought the advice of local artists and created a vernacular architecture inspired by the elements and the island’s capricious topography.

The existing caves were refurbished using wood and artifacts from local shipwrecks, for the beams and lights. Local flora was incorporated in the design: cactus, palm, aloes and bougainvillea, to form an oasis within the rock. They used glass, washed concrete and pebbles to generate circular patios, the lake, cascades and a series of curvaceous spaces avoiding all forms of square tiling whatsoever.