1_Historical heritage. Génova is a neighborhood with its own history and development, located on the outskirts of Palma. Due to its history, the old town surrounding the project’s Plaza contains numerous buildings and elements with heritage value that must be taken into account. Given these factors, the proposal must be based on integration with its surroundings. To this end, design resources such as the use of neutral materials and adaptation to the existing topography have been utilized.

2_The complex urban layout and hilly morphology give the neighborhood a distinctive character. The plaza area is composed of narrow, intricate alleyways and passageways, with steep slopes, ramps, and stairs to overcome the neighborhood’s uneven terrain. While this gives Genoa its own identity and enriches it with a unique visual dynamism, it also poses a significant barrier to connectivity, which is exacerbated by the situation of people with reduced mobility.
Our proposal does not renounce this complexity, but rather incorporates it into its design as a way of integrating it into the context. The flatness of the plaza gradually transforms in scale to connect almost naturally with the southern passageway. In this way, the barrier between the plaza and the passageway is eliminated to the south. The passageway and plaza are integrated and seamless.
Furthermore, special care is taken to create comfortable connections that strictly comply with regulations for people with reduced mobility. The ramp and stairs that directly connect levels +90 and +86 are integrated into the architecture of the socio-cultural center, just as the passageways around the plaza are. In this way, the ramp is not constructed as an independent, central element, but rather frees up public space and seamlessly integrates with it.

3_Network of public spaces. Due to its morphology, Génova is not characterized by open spaces. Furthermore, spaces such as Sant Salvador Square are primarily used by vehicles rather than pedestrians. For this reason, our proposal places special emphasis on creating open spaces full of possibilities for organizing different activities in the neighborhood.
A new, large public space is created on level +86 to access the Socio-Cultural Center, along with a children’s play area. A large open space is created on the roof of the Socio-Cultural Center, with the pavement extending toward Sant Salvador Square to calm vehicle traffic. In this way, the areas of the two squares are combined, forming a large new open space in the Génova neighborhood.