Centred around Plaza Gomila, close to the city’s harbour, El Terreno is among Palma’s most historic neighbourhoods. Until the 1990s, it was a cultural hub – home to many of the city’s famous artists and writers and known for its nightlife, with famous performances by musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles, and Tom Jones in its bohemian nightclubs. However, it has recently seen a long period of neglect and decline.

The Fluxà Family, owners of the Mallorca-based Camper shoe brand, purchased a series of neighbouring plots around the Plaza and asked MVRDV and GRAS to develop a renewal plan that echoed Camper’s philosophy of combining heritage with innovation and creativity. The resulting designs, collectively named Project Gomila, aim to recover the essence of a neighbourhood that occupies a lasting place in the memory of many Mallorcans.

The largest building, at the heart of the ensemble, is the Gomila Center, a renovation of a 1979 design by architect Pere Nicolau. The proposal also includes the new constructions of Las Fabri-Casas, a set of blue row houses with a saw-tooth roof, the red townhouses known as Las Casitas, a sustainable apartment building built in compressed earth blocks. A green building directly adjacent to Plaza Gomila, simply named La Plaza, as well as the yellow Casa Virginia, and a small construction next to the Gomila Center, are all renovations of existing neighbourhood buildings.