The residential area where the Alborada Residential Building is located is a result of the growth of the city of Granada. The complex designed by Alejandro Muñoz Miranda is located in an area surrounded by green spaces and large avenues on the outskirts of the city where the plots are built in isolated blocks.

On the outside, a play of volumes in the form of cantilevered terraces generates an alternation of shadows and dynamism to the façade, while inside we find a play of voids and solids in the form of double heights that enrich the interior and shape the corridor that gives access to the homes.

The project developed by Alejandro Muñoz Miranda is arranged around a corridor that connects two linear blocks of a bay, where communications between the different levels of the building are developed. Each dwelling has a large cantilevered terrace, which is not limited by the roof of the terrace immediately above by a play of volumes on the façade.

In search of a low energy demand for the building, the cantilevered terraces alternate their position seeking to capture the maximum possible natural light in the day areas of the dwellings, while the façades on their short sides to the north and south are blinded to make them more airtight and protect them from the heat and cold.

Edificio Residencial Alborada en Granada por Alejandro Muñoz Miranda. Fotografía por Javier Callejas Sevilla

Alborada Residential Building in Granada by Alejandro Muñoz Miranda. Photograph by Javier Callejas Sevilla.

Project description by Alejandro Muñoz Miranda

In the extension of the city of Granada towards the west, the planning has developed an urban growth based on plots of land built in isolated blocks. The continuity of the growing city, contained by the ring road, proposes high-rise blocks on plots of land with green spaces for community recreation. All the neighbouring buildings are configured as compact volumes in which the centrelines are used to the maximum without intermediate meeting spaces and with access distributors to the housing without external lighting. The challenge of this project is to optimise the built surface to the maximum and to introduce the maximum spatial intentionality in the communal routes. In this way, the first strategic design operation consists of grouping the housing in two slender volumes, separating them transversally from each other and shifting them longitudinally to introduce in their intermediate position the access distribution corridors to the housing.

Edificio Residencial Alborada en Granada por Alejandro Muñoz Miranda. Fotografía por Javier Callejas Sevilla.
Alborada Residential Building in Granada by Alejandro Muñoz Miranda. Photograph by Javier Callejas Sevilla.

These appear as spaces contained between the two longitudinal pieces of housing, always looking towards the horizon, to the south towards the fertile plains of Granada and to the north towards the city. In addition, these corridors hollow out longitudinally, generating double heights that cross transversally, which adds a condition of weightlessness to this access route to each housing. At their ends, these corridors recognise the spatiality of the double height and are shown to the outside through a double storey lattice that changes the domestic scale of the building. To increase the sensation of spatial amplitude in these fissures-corridors, they are clad in a gloss-lacquered white wooden panelling that acts as a mirror, expanding the space horizontally and where a rhythm of matt panels is interspersed in which the access doors to the housing are incorporated.

The second strategy is for each building to have a large overhanging terrace, which is not limited by the roof of the terrace immediately above it. This condition was established after the COVID experience, where there was a shortage of private outdoor terrace space in a block of flats. This is why this project proposes the typological alternation of builing on odd and even floors in order to generate terraces with a double-height roof, creating an alternating staggered façade. This volumetric operation of the alternating terrace overhangs generates a vibration through the shadows and the movement of the overhangs with their front parapets, introducing a character of volumetric abstraction on the background plane of the building.

Edificio Residencial Alborada en Granada por Alejandro Muñoz Miranda. Fotografía por Javier Callejas Sevilla.
Alborada Residential Building in Granada by Alejandro Muñoz Miranda. Photograph by Javier Callejas Sevilla.

The typological idea of the house is that the entrance hall separates the day zone from the night zone. The day area revolves around the outdoor terrace, which can be accessed from the living-dining room and the kitchen, with the terrace acting as a catalyst for movements towards the exterior. The night area is organised with a central distributor that separates two bands, the bedroom band with vertical openings in the façade and the bathroom and cleaning room band that remains in the interior. In the inner band of toilets, the cleaning room appears as a wildcard space since, by means of a system of folding doors, this space is enlarged, taking over the corridor.

The main façades of the building receive light from the east and west, with the block oriented longitudinally almost north-south. In this way, the building have almost the same hours of sunlight throughout the day. The openings in the living rooms are recessed a metre and a half into the interior, creating a space for protection from the rain and the sun before the exterior of the façade plane. This gap enhances the terraces and the vertical openings of the bedrooms and kitchens, generating a rhythm and abstraction that moves away from the conventional block of flats. On the other hand, the two parts of the residential programme to the east and west are completely blind on their north and south sides, thus enhancing the fissure of the access corridors to the building and generating an intentional and fictitious image of two independent, slender, displaced buildings.

Edificio Residencial Alborada en Granada por Alejandro Muñoz Miranda. Fotografía por Javier Callejas Sevilla.
Alborada Residential Building in Granada by Alejandro Muñoz Miranda. Photograph by Javier Callejas Sevilla.

The communal space providing access to the plot is a gate with a light metal canopy. The gates are configured with a diagonal grid of L-shaped profiles that add vibration to the vision and shadows of the gates. These communal areas are completed with access to the garage below ground level and secluded gardens leading to a swimming pool. The design of the underground car park is developed by means of longitudinal buttressed slabs connected with half ramps at the ends. The garage thus appears as a continuous space that improves visibility, orientation and ventilation.

From a bioclimatic point of view, a building with good thermal inertia is proposed. The exterior sate cladding envelops the entire building, avoiding thermal bridges. The cantilevered terraces are counter-roofed to capture maximum light in the daytime areas of the building (living rooms and kitchens) and the facades on the short north and south sides are blinded to make them more airtight and protect them from heat and cold. These strategies create a low heat energy demand and improve the energy certification by introducing an aerothermal hot water system.

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Architects
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Muñoz Miranda Arquitectos S.L.P. Lead architect.- Alejandro Muñoz Miranda.

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Project team
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José Manuel García Ibáñez, Architect (Preliminary Project, Basic Project, Execution Project, Final Project) / José Díaz Montes, Architect (Preliminary Project, Basic Project, Execution Project) / Vida Katarina Vidovic, Architect (Basic Project) / Matia Zanuttini (Basic Project). Architect / Ángel Aguilera Delgado, Architect (Basic Project) / Tomasso Francucci, Architect (Execution Project) / Sara Adorno (Execution Project) / Alexandra Capcha Barrionuevo (Execution Project) / José Jódar Llinás (Execution Project).

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Collaborators
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Quantity surveyor.- Juan Aparicio Muñoz.
MEP Engineer.- Manuel Gómez Pastor.
Telecommunications Engineer.- Francisco López Julián.
Structure Engineer.- CALCONSA XXI SLU.

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Contractor
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Ferrovial Construcción SA.

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Developer
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NOGA Desarrollos Inmobiliarios S.L.

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Area
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Over ground level.- 6,277 sqm. 
Below ground level.- 2,732 sqm.

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Dates
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Design.- 2020.
Construction start.- 2022.
Completed.- 2024.

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Location
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C/ Bubión nº1, 18.003 Granada, Spain.

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Photography
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Alejandro Muñoz Miranda (Granada, 1974) Dr. Muñoz Miranda earned his Ph.D. in Architecture from the School of Architecture in Granada. In 1999 he won the First National Final Project Prize from the Spanish Ministry of Education. From 2000 to 2003 he was the benefactor of a University Teaching Staff Research and Training Grant from the Ministry of Education. In 2002-2003 he moved to Columbia University to write his PhD Thesis under the supervision of Professor Kenneth Frampton. Finally, in 2011 he finished his PhD Thesis whose title is: “Using technique in architectural conception: towards a tectonic ethic” obtaining the qualification of “Sobresaliente Cum Laude”. He has been a professor of Architectural Projects since 2007, Deputy Director of International Relations from 2016 to 2020 and Deputy Director of Culture and Students from 2020 at the School of Architecture in Granada.

He was invited to exhibit in the Spanish Pavilion at the 7th Venice Architecture Biennale 2000, curated by Alberto Campo Baeza, and selected for the exhibition of “Young Architects of Spain”, organized by the Ministry of Housing of Spain in 2008, touring Europe and America. In 2013, his work was selected for the XII Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism, and his thesis was a finalist in the IX Biennial Competition Aquia/Tesis of the Caja de Arquitectos Foundation. He obtained the “García de Paredes” Award 2005-2008 from the College of Architects of Granada for the best-built work. In 2018 he published the book “The Space Between Earth and Sky” with the publishers Nobuko and Diseño Editorial. In 2019 his work was a finalist in FAD Awards in Architecture Category. He was a finalist in the Dezeen Awards 2019 and the BIGMAT Awards 2019.

In 2020 he was awarded the Prize of the Architecture Awards of the College of Architects of Málaga for the best built work 2018-2020. In 2021, he was selected for the XV Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism. In 2022, he obtained the ExAequo Mention of the “Carlos Pfeifer” Award from the Official College of Architects of Granada and his work was exhibited in Seoul at the Architecture Design Institute of Korea, on the occasion of the Spain-Korea Best Architecture Exhibition.

In 2024, he received the Andalusia Architecture Prize, awarded by the Junta de Andalucía in the “Construction and Innovation” category. Finally, he won and was a finalist in several national and international architectural competitions. His built work has been published in numerous national and international indexed journals and magazines such as METALOCUS, Arquitectura Viva, AV, 2G, On Diseño, Detail, Bauwelt, Domus, Mark, Speech, Arhitectura, AIT Magazine, AMC Le Moniteur, Plot and others, and in international books of architecture published by Gustavo Gili, Pencil, Loft, Links, Daab.

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Published on: January 8, 2025
Cite: "Reinterpreting typology. Alborada Residential Building by Alejandro Muñoz Miranda" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/reinterpreting-typology-alborada-residential-building-alejandro-munoz-miranda> ISSN 1139-6415
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