The popular architecture of La Gomera is similar to that of the other islands, and it is the result of blending a range of different cultural currents of Spanish and European origin. For this reason, there is a great variety of building styles, plus the fact that all of them have had to adapt to the geographic and scenic diversity of the Archipelago.

Houses vary depending on whether they are built in a gorge, on top of a mountain or close to the sea, adapting to the site and protect its inhabitants from adverse geographic conditions. That is why there are differences between rural and urban houses. The urban house has more foreign elements and blends in less with the natural environment, two factors that determine a specific type of traditional urban dwelling: houses have an entrance courtyard and a vegetable garden at the back for growing small quantities of produce. In the countryside, on the other hand, houses form part of their natural and agricultural surroundings, making them one of the ingredients of the farming landscape, reflecting the needs of the men, animals and farming utensils they shelter.

The materials used are pine wood, hard, tough heartwood, basalt rock and Arab tiles, which are highly fragile because of the poor quality of the clays to be found on the island.

Traditional architecture continues to play its role as a component of the rural landscape, but it has lost the function it had up until well into the first half of the 20th century. New life styles, emigration and the loss of competitiveness of the traditional crops have caused people to move out of farming, making traditional architecture more of a museum piece today than a functional element. Its recovery and conservation is due to the appearance of other uses, such as the second home and rural tourism.