''La Pagoda'', officially known as ''Laboratorios Jorba'', was a building in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Miguel Fisac Miguel Fisac Serna (1913–2006) was a Spanish architect, urban planner, and painter. He was a member of Opus Dei from 1935 to 1955, but later publicly criticized that organization as well as the character of its founder, Mons. Josemaría Escriv� ...

. It was located near the ''Avenida de América'' and served as the headquarters of ''Laboratorios Jorba'', a

pharmaceutical company The pharmaceutical industry is a Medicine, medical industry that discovers, develops, produces, and markets pharmaceutical goods such as medications and medical devices. Medications are then administered to (or Self-medicate, self-administered b ...

. The popular name of the building refers to the visible structure's resemblance to a

pagoda A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist, but some ...

, with each floor rotated 45º from the lower one and joined with a

hyperboloid In geometry, a hyperboloid of revolution, sometimes called a circular hyperboloid, is the surface generated by rotating a hyperbola around one of its principal axes. A hyperboloid is the surface obtained from a hyperboloid of revolution by def ...

ruled surface In geometry, a Differential geometry of surfaces, surface in 3-dimensional Euclidean space is ruled (also called a scroll) if through every Point (geometry), point of , there is a straight line that lies on . Examples include the plane (mathemat ...

. It was controversially demolished in 1999, despite being widely recognised as one of the city's architectural icons.Ricardo Aroca, (1999), ''Una muerte sin anunciar. Crónica de la destrucción de los laboratorios Jorba'', Arquitectura Viva, Madrid, nº 67, pág. 112

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