GESA
A cultural and innovation complex for Palma, connecting the historic city to the sea.
The city of Palma set out to turn the former GESA power headquarters and its waterfront into a public place for culture and innovation - a landmark between the Levante and La Soledad neighbourhoods and the sea.
We took part in the open competition and were selected among the final ten proposals. This is the scheme we submitted.
Connection
One word carried the whole proposal. Palma has an old city and, right beside it, the ground for its immediate future. The scheme sets out to connect the two, and to connect both to the sea.
We open the closed GESA block, correct its proportions and carve light wells into its depth, so daylight and movement pass through instead of stopping at a wall. Around it, the ground is given back to the city as open, green, walkable public space that reaches from the neighbourhoods down to the water.
The result reads as one gesture: a new skyline that keeps the old GESA landmark, and a continuous public route from the historic city to the coast.
Scope
- Keep and reactivate the GESA landmark within a new skyline
- Open the volumes and add light wells for daylight and cross-movement
- Public space first - mostly open, green and walkable ground
- A continuous route from the neighbourhoods to the sea
- Climate-led detailing for the Mallorcan setting
- Heritage strategy developed with ESTUDIO MB
Approach
The proposal works on two scales at once - the single heritage building and the district it anchors. Every move serves the same aim: a place that is open, shaded, green and continuous, and that treats the existing GESA structure as an asset to build on rather than a constraint to hide.
Selected among the final ten, the entry set out a position for the site that MIRROR still stands behind.
