Museo Interactivo Mirador, Science museum in La Granja, Chile
Museo Interactivo Mirador is a science museum in La Granja, Santiago, Chile, housed in a 7,000 m² brutalist building of concrete, mañío wood, glass and copper. Its design by architect Juan Ignacio Baixas follows a 12-metre-high, 180-metre-long north-south axis crossed by six transverse modules, forming a labyrinthine route with over 350 interactive modules.
The museum opened in March 2000 and quickly became an important site for scientific education in Latin America. Its establishment came at a time when interactive museums of this type were still rare in the region.
The museum's name, Mirador, means lookout point, and its initials spell mim. Its 7,000 m² main building, designed by Juan Ignacio Baixas, won best architectural project at Chile's 2000 Architecture and Urbanism Biennial and a special distinction at the 2005 Pan-American Biennial in Quito. The park holds native plant species.
The museum sits in a 16-hectare park in La Granja, at the border with La Florida and San Joaquín, and has a parking lot of 500 spaces. The central building's route has no fixed layout and works like a labyrinth, so allow time to wander. The park also holds the Túnel Universo astronomy building and a restaurant area.
The museum's park holds the Talud building, where the external company Aquarium Santiago works; the site previously housed the Aquarium Santiago itself. On 21 March 2011, First Lady Michelle Obama visited with her daughters Malia and Sasha during the official trip to Chile by President Barack Obama.
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