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Palau de Congressos de Palma de Mallorca, Spain
SPANISH ARCHITECTURE AWARD 2017
The Palau de Congressos de Palma (Convention Centre) enjoys one of the best locations on Palma’s Paseo Marítimo seafront, only five minutes from the airport, the cathedral and the historical heart of the city, and offering spectacular views of Palma Bay. Amidst the light and the Mediterranean Sea, the building designed by the prestigious architect Francisco Mangado rises, in his own words, “as a special place in which the landscape, sea and design merge with extraordinary intensity, making it a focus of influence and genesis for the city.” The project wants to make the most of the light of Palma by creating reflections and shadows while playing with the image of a huge fish stranded on the beach. In their design and construction, both buildings have taken into account the idea of continuity and integration with the seafront promenade, while also ensuring the greatest degree of efficiency by allowing the autonomous operation of each of the units (grand auditorium, small auditorium and exhibition area) to allow reduced energy use and maintenance costs.
As well as a prestigious career as an architect (with works such as the Baluarte Convention Centre and Auditorium in Pamplona, the Museum of Archaeology in Vitoria and the BBAA Museum in Oviedo, among others), Francisco Mangado (Navarra, 1957) also has a long academic curriculum as a visiting professor at the American Universities of Harvard, Yale and Cornell and in the Polytechnic Schools of Milan and Lausanne. He has also been a professor at the University of Navarra since 1982. Mangado has received numerous Spanish and international architectural awards, most recently the Berlin Art Prize-Architecture 2017.
The Grand Auditorium can host more than 1,900 people and is the “jewel in the crown” of the building, unique in the Balearic Islands and internationally. This immense auditorium has the finest acoustic conditions, comfort and versatility, given that it can be divided into two smaller auditoriums with 1.249 y 729 seats to host several events simultaneously.
The Small Auditorium can host events for up to 462 people and is equipped with the same technology as the Grand Auditorium. It is also connected to the Exhibition Area, allowing it to perfectly combine exhibitions with presentations and all types of events.
The Exhibition Areas occupy a total of 2,340m2 and consist of a huge ground floor (1,640m2) with a height of 11 meters and a mezzanine floor measuring 700m2 with a height of 7.6 meters for smaller exhibitions or as a complement to the main ground floor area. Together with the lobby areas, the ground floor of the Palau provides a total surface area for exhibitions of 3,000m2 with direct external access. The lobbies are located at different heights and in strategic areas such as the access to the Grand Auditorium and the Small Auditorium, and mostly face the sea, with panel-glass walls providing abundant light and breath-taking views of Palma Bay. These spaces are another great feature as their architectural beauty is accompanied by their functionality.
It was the architect of the building who created a bespoke chair for this magnificent venue: the Palma chair. It was designed with pure straight lines following the sobriety of the venue and reminiscences of Origami thanks to the peculiar shapes of the seat & back outer panels. All chairs are equipped with anti panic writing tablet concealed in the side standards and finished in the same colour of the upholstery – similarly, tipping seats have inner slow return systems inside for noiseless operation as well as embroidered numbering and fixing box.
