• The project maintains the most significant features of the market building.
• Two market façades will be facing diagonally and run in line with the roads heading towards Pere Garau.
• The roof will be extended to cover part of the square

The project GO THROUGH THE MARKET, CROSS THE SQUARES unanimously wins the contest of ideas and drafts for the restructuring of the Plaça Pere Garau square and the Municipal Market Pere Garau. The winning project has been developed by the architect Francisco Pizà, in collaboration with Francisco Cifuentes, Carles Oliver and José Antonio Martínez Lapeña.

The winning proposal of the contest envisages to maintain the building in its current location. Its shape will be modified so as to be aligned diagonally to the adjacent roads in order to gain a new perspective of the Plaça de Pere Garau square. The market will be provided with a large central passageway to enliven the activity in the future pedestrian area to be developed on C/ Nuredduna and the roof will partly cover the exterior market area. The refurbishment project will allow for the development of new facilities in the neighbourhood: an underground car park, a nursery and a pedestrian area.

This contest of ideas and drafts has been highly welcomed, in fact a total of 96 projects were submitted. Based upon the selection criteria stipulated in the contest's terms and conditions, the members of the jury unanimously selected this project as the winning project. The second and third prizes have been declared desert. The terms of the contest envisaged a first prize amounting to 20,000 euros to be awarded to the winner.

As stipulated in the terms and conditions of the contest, the continued Market activity must be ensured throughout the course of the refurbishment works and the number of sale stands must be maintained. The members of the Technical Commission created in the neighbourhood (made up of the neighbours, market users and retailers), in collaboration with the Town Planning Department, the Department for Mobility and the Department for Infrastructure of the City Council of Palma and the councillor for the eastern Llevant district, will continue taking part in the decision-making process concerning the development of this project, that will be specified in the drafted project of execution.

JURY

The jury in charge of choosing the winning project was made up of representatives of the Pere Garau neighbourhood, of the Pere Garau Market, of the City Council of Palma and of several professional associations.

More specifically, the following people made up the jury: members of the Town Planning Department, of the Department for Health Care, the Department for Mobility and the Department for Infrastructure of the City Council of Palma, the councillor of the eastern Llevant district, neighbours from the Pere Garau neighbourhood, who were represented by two members of the Pere Garau Citizen Entities' Committee, a member of the Association of Users of the Pere Garau market, representatives of the Official Association of Architects, of the Official Association of Civil Engineers (roads, canals and harbours), a nationally acknowledged architect appointed by the Government Assembly of the COAIB, a locally acknowledged architect appointed by the Government Assembly of the COAIB, a civil engineer (roads, canals and harbours) appointed by the Demarcation Assembly from the Balearic Islands of the CICCP and a member of the ARCA association.

The jury specially valued in the winning proposal that "it is the proposal that best reflected the needs detailed in the contest's terms and conditions with regards to the different areas of action (market, square and urban environment) and that best adapts to the new city model envisaged by the City Council".

With respect to the market, "the type of intervention is highly valued, since it maintains the most significant features of the existing building while it modifies the building's aspect by integrating a large uniform roof and arranging the ground floor distribution so as to become aligned with the different roads heading towards the square¿.

With respect to the square, "the proposal has managed to highlight the market's perimeter area and approaches the entire area from a holistic and flexible point of view, that allows for a gradual reconsideration of the future traffic on the square as well as the execution of the pedestrian area envisaged by the City Council. Besides, it also establishes the location of the new car park in the area that was stipulated in the contest's terms and conditions".

As regards the urban environment, "it is precisely due to the proposal's flexibility with respect to the configuration of the square and to the ability of the envisaged building to highlight the emerging areas on one side and the other, that the selected project idea has been considered to be able to transfer this criteria to the adjacent roads".

The members of the project team have been awarded the Ciutat de Palma 'Guillem Sagrera' Award for Architecture in two occasions.

PROJECT CONTENT

The project envisages to maintain the emblematic market building in its existing location and the market's ground floor will be modified from its original rectangular shape to create a diagonal shape along two of its lateral façades. The building will no longer be a nuisance to the urban activity flow, but will instead provide an open perspective onto the lateral squares, in relation to the roads heading towards the square. The market will be traversed by the pedestrian area.

The longitudinal façades and the market's current distribution, with the interior passageways connecting the two lateral squares, will be maintained.

The central passageway, that will guide towards the pedestrian area, will be enlarged. The market is open to the pedestrian traffic, thereby offering those people passing by the attractive sight of the sale stands.

The roof, that repeats four times the structure of the existing lateral naves, partly covers the building's exterior and even covers part of the square. It arranges the exterior market area, provides shadow to the public area and protects it from the rain. In the extremes of the building we will find, on the one side, the access to the first floor, leading to the pedestrian area, whereas the other side will be hosting the nursery.

The exterior market is distributed in such a way as to follow the direction of the diagonal roads, so typical for Palma's suburban developments, and the pedestrian traffic circulation will be connected with the market's interior. Wires fastened to the prolongations of the roof offer convenient support to the awnings.

The car park envisaged in the project is the car park stipulated in the contest's terms and conditions and a vertical staircase will connect the market with an entrance for the delivery of merchandise, that will be located on the first underground floor.

PREMISES

The project envisages systems aimed at attaining the maximum level of sustainability and the minimum energy costs:

• Photovoltaic solar panels on the roofs facing south. The generated energy, that would be sold to the electricity company, would equal the energy consumed.
• A microgeneration system that would generate both electricity and hot water.
• A geotechnical system of tubes laid underground, beneath the car park, to support the generation of cold and heat in the air-conditioned areas.
• Protection from the sun in the entire building thanks to a system of exterior shutters, providing maximum isolation in closed areas.

Besides, the project envisages the following features:

• Elimination of architectural barriers, creation of toilets adapted to the needs of the disabled, foster energy efficiency, ensure functionality, etc.
• The number of sale stands is being mantained.
• An area for the storage of general waste, an area that has to be properly ventilated, cooled, etc.
• Inclusion of a nursery service on the ground floor for the market's clients.
• It envisages the most direct connection possible with the newly built underground car park.