Edificio Mirador

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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.

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