Edificio Mirador
Edificio Mirador (‘Lookout Building’) is a residential building in the Sanchinarro neighbourhood of Madrid, Spain. It was designed by architectural practices MVRDV and Blanca Lleo and completed in 2005.
The 22-storey building is formed by a collection of mini ‘neighbourhoods’ stacked vertically around a square-shaped ‘sky plaza’. This plaza acts as a community garden, emulating the main plaza of a village. The name of building is derived from the fact that the plaza, located 40 m above ground, allows residents to look out over the Guadarrama Mountains in the distance.
The development contrasts with the uniformity of the surrounding housing blocks, and the mass-produced repetition of the standard family home. The aim was to integrate a range of different social groups and lifestyles with various housing types, sizes and styles.
By grouping the housing units into small blocks, and then 'gluing' them together, the architects created what they termed a ‘towering community superblock’ with different window sizes and façade colours.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
Featured articles and news
PAC report on the Remediation of Dangerous Cladding
Recommendations on workforce, transparency, support, insurance, funding, fraud and mismanagement.
New towns, expanded settlements and housing delivery
Modular inquiry asks if new towns and expanded settlements are an effective means of delivering housing.
Building Engineering Business Survey Q1 2025
Survey shows growth remains flat as skill shortages and volatile pricing persist.
Construction contract awards remain buoyant
Infrastructure up but residential struggles.
Home builders call for suspension of Building Safety Levy
HBF with over 100 home builders write to the Chancellor.
CIOB Apprentice of the Year 2024/2025
CIOB names James Monk a quantity surveyor from Cambridge as the winner.
Warm Homes Plan and existing energy bill support policies
Breaking down what existing policies are and what they do.
Treasury responds to sector submission on Warm Homes
Trade associations call on Government to make good on manifesto pledge for the upgrading of 5 million homes.
A tour through Robotic Installation Systems for Elevators, Innovation Labs, MetaCore and PORT tech.
A dynamic brand built for impact stitched into BSRIA’s building fabric.
BS 9991:2024 and the recently published CLC advisory note
Fire safety in the design, management and use of residential buildings. Code of practice.
NBS launches industry guide for specification writing
Available for free and as immediate download.
Peter Barber’s work revives forgotten building types.
Insights of how to attract more young people to construction
Results from CIOB survey of 16-24 year olds and parents.
Focussing on the practical implementation of electrification.
Preston flood scheme completes primary school SuDS
Three primary schools benefit from SuDS schemes.