club de mar-mallorca. palma de mallorca

The Palma seafront, stretching from the Cathedral westward, was long interrupted by the marina of the Club de Mar. This project emerges to mend that rupture, opening the club to the city after fifty years of private existence. It proposes a “continuity extension” of the promenade, both longitudinally and transversally, in dialogue with major urban transformations: the comprehensive renovation of the seafront and the removal of the Porto Pí elevated roadway.

The project unfolds on land reclaimed from the sea, composed of two intertwined realms: the marina, hosting vessels of all sizes, and the buildings, containing technical, administrative, social, and leisure functions. The architectural layout responds to the site’s geometry, its relationship with the city, and above all, to movement: boats, bicycles, cars, wind, water, visitors.

Here, architecture becomes hybrid—simultaneously landscape and construction, a fragment of a larger infrastructure. Horizontality dominates: recessed structures and walls liberate perimeters, blur volumes, and transform the cluster into a place rather than a building.

The main operations are to traverse, duplicate, defragment, and filter. A new internal street threads the site, connecting the promenade directly to the cruise docks. Its two-level configuration multiplies public space and subtly modulates privacy, guiding the passage from casual visitors to regular members without signage or barriers.

Structural lines follow the street, while generous openings frame transversal glimpses toward the sea. The “toward the water” direction orchestrates plan and construction, with a restrained palette of recurring systems. Longitudinal volumes, connected by walkways and punctuated by open patios, fragment the mass and temper sunlight. The result is a space of soft boundaries, read as landscape rather than object.

Horizontal and vertical gestures combine to create expansive architecture, where distinct microcosms emerge within the continuous whole. Strategies from previous projects—dissolving polarities, intentional ambiguity—intertwine with new ideas: wandering without destination, reflection, resonance. Water and horizon, even when distant, permeate the experience. Movement gives rhythm, yet invites stillness: flows bloom into fans of motion, and one pauses unexpectedly, caught in the choreography of the site.

Vegetation becomes a building material: climbing plants filter southern light, permeable patios reveal the ground, and the atmosphere constantly shifts. Green layers and high-efficiency systems reinforce the sustainable dimension of a club renewed as an open, permeable infrastructure, fully attuned to its urban and environmental context.