Bio-inspired Expiatory Temple

Beside my participation to the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona (read earlier post) it was also an opportunity to visit the famous expiatory temple of the Sagrada Familia. Its construction began in 1882 and, one year later, Antonio Gaudi was apointed its project director. He worked on the projectover 40 years until his death in 1946. The temple is still underconstruction since this date, sponsorized by private donations.

There is a very interesting exhibition for all people interested in artificial life and bio-inspired architecture. It shows the origins of the organic architecture used by Gaudi in all his works. Many architectural parts and details of the temple were designed using models quite common in nature in both flora and fauna.

The inside of the temple is like a forest of giant trees, with trunks, branches and masses of leaves as ceiling. Between them, some holes let us see the sunlight as in a large wood. The stairs inside each bell-tower (90 and 112 meters high) are based on the internal structure of seashells. Another example among may others is the geometric shape of a Gaudi Column based onthe helicoidal growth of leaves on an oleander branch.

Antonio Gaudi said himself: "I captured the purest and pleasing images of Nature, who is ever my Mistress."