Designed by OODA, Miramar Tower in Porto, Portugal, is a 6,000-square-metre residential building organised as a structuralist matrix of apartments, terraces, and shared spaces. Its form creates changing relationships between the city, sea, ground, and sky.
Alongside this architectural organisation, the project incorporates passive ventilation, solar thermal energy, water-efficient fittings, thermally broken glazing systems, LED lighting, and rainwater management. These measures are integrated into the building’s design rather than treated as separate additions.
Spiral accuracy and singularity
In scale and proportion, Miramar Tower relates to the buildings of Pasteleira Park to the north, while its organization responds to its position close to the sea. The structuralist scheme stacks individual dwellings vertically, with generous terraces and gardens intended to give each apartment some of the spatial qualities associated with a single-family home.
OODA’s structuralist scheme arranges one or two apartments per floor, creating an apparent spiral as the terraces shift around the tower. In section, the tower draws a formal comparison with Frank Lloyd Wright’s Johnson Wax Building.
At ground level, a planted atrium introduces vegetation into the shared spaces and contributes to a more sheltered microclimate.
Materials and resource efficiency
Several interior materials were selected with resource efficiency in mind. Bathroom floors and wall linings use RMC compact marble, produced through vacuum vibro-compression using natural marble and dolomite. The material can be repolished, has low water absorption, and is certified for zero hazardous emissions.
Interior flooring uses engineered poplar with a 3-millimetre oak veneer, reducing the quantity of hardwood required compared with solid oak boards while retaining an oak wear surface and appearance.
The project's supply chain makes use of regional manufacturers and suppliers. Joinery, doors, ironmongery, sanitaryware, flush plates, taps, and ceramics were sourced within a few hundred kilometres, reducing transport-related emissions.
Working with the site's eight-metre level change
The site’s natural topography contributes to the building’s environmental strategy. The ground falls by approximately eight metres along the length of the plot, allowing the basement parking areas to be arranged without a conventional access ramp.
The parking levels are directly lit and naturally ventilated. As a result, the project does not require mechanical ventilation or permanent artificial lighting for these spaces. Rather than treating the difference in ground level as a constraint to overcome, the design incorporates it into the organisation of the building.
Exposed concrete and shaded terraces
Exposed light-grey concrete forms the finished exterior surface of Miramar Tower, eliminating the need for an additional cladding layer. The same concrete treatment continues across the balcony soffits and base walls, keeping the material palette relatively simple.
The terraces provide shade and create a gradual transition between interior and exterior spaces.
The ground-floor atrium introduces natural vegetation into the building. Beyond its role as a shared space, the planted area contributes to a more sheltered internal microclimate and connects the communal areas with the surrounding landscape..
Energy systems and thermal performance
Solar thermal panels are provided for every apartment, reducing reliance on conventional energy sources for domestic hot-water production. Each apartment is also equipped with its own EV charging point, integrating charging infrastructure into the residential development.
The specified OTIIMA system uses reinforced thermally broken aluminum profiles with polyamide bars and double tempered glazing. At Miramar Tower, the system provides thermal and acoustic performance while allowing large glazed openings that connect the apartments with their terraces and views.
The thermally broken frames help limit heat transfer through the window assemblies, while the double glazing contributes to the envelope's thermal and acoustic performance.
Rainwater management and reduced water consumption
The tower’s concrete planters incorporate native, low-maintenance species and small shrubs, helping reduce maintenance requirements while introducing vegetation throughout the building.
For the intensive planter system, the project specifies ZinCo’s Floradrain FD 60, installed by Landlab. The drainage and water-retention element stores rainwater and makes it available to the substrate through capillary action, helping reduce irrigation demand.
Water efficiency is addressed at apartment level through basin and bidet mixers with an A+ water-efficiency rating, identified by the project team as the highest rating within the Portuguese classification scheme.
