Aside from recreation, the Excursion de France additionally supplies a possibility to (re)uncover our landscapes and every now and then their geological oddities. The primary level of its 2026 version, on Saturday 4 July, places Barcelona within the highlight. The Spanish town is legendary for the well-known Sagrada Familia basilica designed by way of the architect Antoni Gaudí. That is specifically impressed, on a cultured stage, by way of geology and dwelling issues, particularly microfossils.
The primary level of the Excursion de France is going round Spain, in particular Barcelona. The town is house to the enduring Sagrada Familia, designed by way of Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi.
A possibility to go back to the connections between structure, lifestyles and geology, very found in Artwork Nouveau, which very much impressed Antonio Gaudí. Those influences are discovered, as we will see, within the architect’s masterpiece.
When nature evokes artwork nouveau
Some radiolaria (Cirtoidea) that the architect Binet most well-liked: he regarded as essentially the most gorgeous Clathrocanium reginae (most sensible row, 2nd from the left) and Pterocanium trilobum (a long way proper within the heart row), the person who would encourage a enormous door. Ernst Haeckel, “Kunstformen der Natur” (1904)
Artwork Nouveau, a creative motion born on the finish of the nineteenth century, is in response to the aesthetics (strains, colours, embellishes) of nature and its buildings. Taking nature as a reference approach reacting towards the rationalism of the start of the commercial generation.
For the German biologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919), nature is attached with artwork. It was once particularly marked by way of the symmetry of microorganisms akin to radiolaria. His drawings of planktonic organisms, particularly his works Kunstformen der Natur (Creative Kinds of Nature), printed from 1899 to 1904 within the type of a large number of notebooks, won nice popularity.
His representations of micro- and macro-organisms considerably influenced the artwork of the early twentieth century. The most productive examples of this fusion will also be noticed within the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, together with Consistent Roux’s jellyfish chandelier, but in addition 4 “radiolarium” lamps and frescoes in response to Ernst Haeckel’s drawings.
Radiolarian chandelier on the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco. Radiolaria of the Common Exhibition and the upward push of functionalism
It’s the similar with the enormous door, on the Common Exhibition in Paris in 1900, by way of the French architect René Binet (1866-1911). Binet’s e-newsletter of Ornamental Sketches, impressed by way of Haeckel, was once probably the most foundations of Artwork Nouveau.
The enormous gate of Binet’s Common Exhibition was once impressed by way of the crowd of radiolarians, cirtoids, and particularly Pterocanium trilobum. Library of Congress, Public area by the use of Wikimedia
Herbal bureaucracy rise up from their suitability for serve as and from morphological regulations. All this considerably impressed the architects of the time.
The French architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879) wrote that we will have to “seek a reason for every form because every form has its reason” in his preface to Entretiens sur l’structure. This college of idea culminated within the e-newsletter, in 1917, of D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson’s (1860-1948) Shape and Enlargement, which loved monumental good fortune with architects.
For functionalists (the functionalist motion in structure), the shape and look of a construction will have to derive from its serve as. In 1923, the Austro-Hungarian biologist Raoul France (1874-1943) wrote:
“Necessity prescribes certain forms for certain qualities. (…) In nature, every form (…) is a creation of necessity.”
Those parallels with structure are taken up by way of the French architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965), who broadcasts:
“Biology is now a key phrase in structure and concrete making plans.
Geological influences of Montserrat in Barcelona
In France, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc would be the inspiration for plenty of Artwork Nouveau architects, who triumphed on the Common Exhibition in Paris in 1900. Barcelona may be prominent by way of Artwork Nouveau monuments, together with the ones of the architect Antoni Gaudí, with the Sagrada Familia182.
“The architecture of the future will be built by imitating nature, because it is the most rational, sustainable and economical method.”
Whilst a pupil, Antoni Gaudí labored at Montserrat Abbey (Catalonia), whose panorama influenced him such a lot that the towers of the Sagrada Familia are every now and then regarded as an ode to Montserrat.
Landscapes across the Benedictine Abbey of Santa Maria de Montserrat (Catalonia, Spain). P. De Wever, supplied by way of the creator
Its towers, very similar to stone needles, reproduce the verticality of the peaks of Montserrat, whilst the facades, sculpted as though by way of erosion, resemble rock partitions. Those cliffs are composed of conglomerate as a result of the erosion of the Pyrenees.
This similar roughly rock offers identical reliefs in different places, which additionally every now and then space the folks of the Church, as within the monasteries of Meteora, in Greece.
Rock formations in Meteora, a geological formation in northern Greece. The monastery is nestled in a corral. Statis Floros, CC BI-SA Biomimicry in structure, from radiolarians to diatoms
Let’s return to radiolarians, and particularly to their microfossils. The skeleton is the one part of research for the micropaleontologist.
Alternatively, the geometry of radiolarian skeletons obeys the similar rules of basic physics as the ones governing the interface between liquids or between liquids and solids. There may be a putting similarity in form between the cleaning soap bubble affiliation and sure skeletons of those organisms.
The experiment permits us to completely perceive the method related to the volumes created by way of decrease floor tensions by way of immersing forged twine buildings in a bathtub of soapy water. Then we take a look at identical buildings, as a result of bodily forces act in the similar manner.
Tetrahedral twine buildings immersed in a cleaning soap tub. there’s. – The tetrahedron taken out of the tub displays veils of soapy water, forming a extra complicated inner construction. b. – With a rounded tetrahedron: the interior form, just about the former one, inspires the skeleton of the well-known radiolarian (see c). c. – Skeleton of the present radiolarian: Callimitra agnesae, drawn by way of Haeckel. P. De Wever et al. 2001, Supplied by way of the creator
Nature’s buildings are the results of loads of thousands and thousands of years of trial and mistake, associated with, for instance, mechanical resistance or saving in assets, particularly when it comes to the power required to deposit the fabric (silicon or limestone, and so forth.). The ensuing bureaucracy correspond to bodily and chemical wishes. It’s not sudden that they encourage architects and invite us to determine a bridge between artwork and science thru biomimicry.
Past Artwork Nouveau, this microscopic international persisted to persuade the architects of enormous constructions such because the Geode of the Cite des Sciences park, the Porte de l. a. Villette in Paris, inaugurated in 1985, or the Biosphere Pavilion of the US on the Common Exhibition in Montreal in 1967.
We discover identical structures within the works of the German Frei Otto for the roof of the Olympic Park in Munich for the 1972 Olympic Video games, or Jergo Gribble with the hippopotamus construction within the Berlin Zoo.
The hippopotamus construction within the Berlin Zoo, which was once inbuilt 1996 by way of the architect Jorg Gribble in cooperation with M. F. Manleitner – open image large🔍. Christoph Magnuson, CC BI-SA
Much more fascinating, as a result of this time it isn’t a duplicate, however a random similarity: it is moderately extraordinary to note that the construction of the Hagia Sophia dome in Istanbul resembles a diatom, despite the fact that on the time of its building (sixth century) we nonetheless did not know the form of the diatom! Alternatively, this dome is strictly built of diatomaceous earth, the one rock gentle sufficient for its dimension. Or when science joins, centuries later, the creativeness of architects.
Comparability of the dome of Hagia Sophia (Istanbul, Turkey) noticed from the interior in its present state (left), with Haeckel’s diatom drawing (proper). Haeckel 1904/Eusebije, CC BI
A prior model of this newsletter was once printed on June 8, 2026 at the Planet Terre ENS Lyon website online.
