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

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

Miguel Fisac Miguel Fisac (1913–2006) was a Spanish architect, urban planner, and painter. He was a member of Opus Dei. Biography Miguel Fisac Serna was born 29 September 1913 in Daimiel in Spain. His father was Joaquín Fisac, his mother Amparo Serna. He ...

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

pharmaceutical company The pharmaceutical industry discovers, develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceutical drugs for use as medications to be administered to patients (or self-administered), with the aim to cure them, vaccinate them, or alleviate sympto ...

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

pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to 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 sometimes Taoist, ...

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

ruled surface In geometry, a surface is ruled (also called a scroll) if through every point of there is a straight line that lies on . Examples include the plane, the lateral surface of a cylinder or cone, a conical surface with elliptical directrix, t ...

. 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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