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01 Abstract
Ernst Haeckel’s Art Forms in Nature, published in various sets of plates from 1899 to 1904 represents a major turning point in the design thinking of organic architecture. This publication, composed from a set of lithographs, depicts microscopic organisms like the radiolarian or medusae in a technologically advanced yet artistic expression that unveiled beautifully rich forms of natural geometry. For many, this publication was the first to reveal the intricate structures of microscopic life and this paper explores its impact on the birth of zoological architecture.
Specifically, this paper will focus on early Art Nouveau architects like René Binet and mainly Antoni Gaudí, showing a comparison of their work completed both before and after the release of Art forms in Nature. Through projects like Casa Vicens, Park Guell, Casa Batllo, Casa Mila, and La Sagrada Famila, Gaudi specifically shows an affinity for organic design and a clear shift from symbolic biomimicry to structural and formal inspiration. Ultimately, this paper aims to prove that Haeckel’s work is at least partially responsible for creating a new paradigm of design thinking; one that is born from the natural world and works to learn from the art of evolution.
02 How do we understand nature?
Throughout our history, our understanding of nature has shifted and evolved. Different societies understood nature in ways that connected directly to their way of living. Civilizations like the indigenous North Americans, for example, viewed nature as an incredibly sacred system. Teepees, longhouses, and cliff dwellings are all examples of indigenous architecture that reflected a tactile relationship between human and environment (Nabokov and Easton). Architectural forms in these instances weren't meant to be imposed onto the landscape, but emerged from it. Nature was understood as a remarkable complex being - one that is immersive, not abstracted or categorized.
This understanding began to change during the Enlightenment era. Figures like Carl Linnaeus introduced systems of taxonomy that started to categorize nature in a new way. Plants and animals fell into hierarchical structures based on their observed traits and physical features. Nature in this case wasn’t understood as an immersive being anymore, but a system to be dissected and described (Foucault). Architecturally, this idea manifested itself in the form of natural-looking ornament with examples such as the design of the Petit Trianon (1762) by Ange-Jacques Gabriel. The building follows the enlightenment ideals of order and clarity, but suggests that nature is not a living system, but a catalogue of identifiable parts such as the carved garlands and stylized rosettes. These elements of nature, much like the Linnaeus system, were carefully organized and applied to the building with precision.
Following the inception of these ideas, Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) published his series of Art Forms in Nature (1899-1904). Haeckel was a German zoologist, philosopher, and artist, who created 100 lithographic plates for this series. Each plate documented various biological forms, but rather than organizing these life forms into charts, diagrams, or definitions, he presented them as surreal compositions that highlighted natural beauty and symmetry. Previously unseen microscopic forms such as the radiolarians or medusae aren’t simply illustrated with technical accuracy but with vibrancy and devine beauty (Haeckel). His understanding of nature, while still technical, veers closer to the historic understanding of nature as an immersive, and beautiful being. The duality of his approach is what I believe marks this publication as a historical turning point. He helped bridge the gap between science and art and positioned biology and zoology as inspiration for artists and architects (Breidbach)
03 Influence on the Broader Art Nouveau Movement
These plates may have had an impact on the broader Art Nouveau movement as well, which was gaining momentum during the same period of time. In Europe, architects like Hector Guimard, Victor Horta, and René Binet were all creating architectural forms that were inspired by these patterns of natural growth. The entrance gate for the 1900’s Paris World Fair for example bears a striking resemblance to some of the radialorian forms explored by Haeckel.
Figure 1. Top: Plate 71: Stephoidea, from Art Forms in Nature by Ernst Haeckel (1899–1904). Bottom: Entrance Gate to the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle, designed by René Binet.
It’s no coincidence that these images strike a resemblance together. A direct connection between both Haeckel and Binet can be found within Binet’s own publication, called Esquisses Décoratives (1905) which was co-authored by Gustave Geffroy. Much like Art Forms in Nature, this book consists of illustrative plates showing natural forms, but in this case they are applied to various objects, like architecture, furniture, and jewelry. The accompanying text to the plates explicitly argues for a new architectural language drawn by natural geometry, and while doing so they explicitly praise the scientific artistry of Haeckel’s illustrations.
Figure 2. Top: “Chapiteau,” p. 13. Bottom: “Lustre: Électrique,” p. 36. From Esquisses Décoratives by René Binet and Gustave Geffroy (1905).
Figure 2 for example, shows two plates from this publication. Up top is a drawing of column capitals but rather than using any classical forms, it shows a branching web-like ornament directly reminiscent of the radiolarian skeletons depicted by Haeckel. The image on the bottom is a design for an electric chandelier based off of marine biology, with symmetrical, tentacle-like fixtures, again showing the influence of Haeckel's work.
04 Antoni Gaudi
While Binet’s design was notable for its clear biological influences, it was Antoni Gaudi (1852–1926) who emerged as the leading figure in the development of organic architecture in the early 1900’s. As a devout Catholic working in Catalonia, Gaudi was already interested in natural and organic forms even before encountering Haeckel’s work (Collins). In this paper, I’d argue that the publication of Art Forms in Nature enabled him to become the groundbreaking architect that he was. In examining his work both before and after the publication of these plates, it’s increasingly clear that the illustrations (or other work directly inspired by the illustrations such as Binet’s) provided Gaudi with a meaningful understanding of microscopic nature, which may have fueled some of his greatest creations. While I cant find any definitive historical account which proves that Gaudi owned or studied Haeckel’s Art Forms in Nature, the visual and conceptual parallels between the two suggest some sort of relationship. Additionally, the Binet’s entrance pavilion was one of the most photographed works of the 1900’s World's Fair and its images appeared in publications like L'Architecture, Art et Décoration, and many others that spread across Europe, making it likely that Gaudi could have studied it.
05 Antoni Gaudi - Pre Publication
In the early stages of his career, Gaudi was already deeply fascinated by natural forms. Looking at his early architecture it's evident that he was already incorporating these forms into his designs. A clear example of this is Casa Vicens (1883-1885), a summer house built as one of his first design commissions.
Figure 3. Casa Vicens, Antoni Gaudí’s first residential commission (1883–1885) Image courtesy of Mobles 114. mobles114.com. Accessed 9 May 2025.
The facade of the building for example is rich in geometric repetition and floral motifs. Perhaps influenced by illustrations of the Linnaeus system, Gaudi uses repetitive images of nature as the cladding of the building.
Figure 4. Top: Watercolour botanical illustration by Georg Ehret, visualizing Carl Linnaeus’s classification system, from Systema Naturae (18th century). Bottom: Author’s photograph (2023) of the Casa Vicens façade (Antoni Gaudí, 1883–1885), showing geometric repetition and floral ornament suggestive of symbolic natural order.
His use of nature in this case is more closely aligned with the use of it during the Enlightenment Era with previously mentioned examples like Petit Trianon (1762) where nature is categorized and strategically applied to the orders of a building. The form of the building isn’t influenced by the mechanics or the assembly of nature, but a preexisting condition upon which nature is applied.
While this building doesn’t prove that Gaudi was inspired by Haeckel's illustrations (nor could it because it predates its publication), it does make a point in proving that Gaudi was inspired by illustrations in general. Casa Vicens bears a striking resemblance to some of the intricate patterns explored by Owen Jones in his publication, the Grammar of Ornament (1856). The publication acted as a design manual which catalogued ornamental styles from a wide range of cultures, like the Islamic, Egyptian, or Persion designs.
Figure 5. Top: “Moresque No. 2,” Plate XI from The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones, photographed by the author. Bottom: Interior room of Casa Vicens (Antoni Gaudí, 1883–1885)
As seen in figure 5 for example, the blue and gold muqarnas-style ornaments on the ceiling both visually and structurally resemble the patterns drawn by Jones in his publication, suggesting that Gaudi may have been influenced by the plates.
After this project, Gaudi begins to transition from a rigid application of nature, to a more fluid and formal understanding of it. Park Güell (1900-1914) is a great example of this. In what was originally a failed garden city, the development was commissioned by Eusebi Güell, who was known to have also seen René Binet’s entrance gate to the 1900’s world's fair. The park designed by Gaudi, features a far more fluid geometric translation of his ideas. Serpentine benches, and tree-like columns climb up the terrain of the park and mark a movement in his design style. As seen in figure 6 however, his designs were not yet completely organic though. While they appeared curvier formally, he still frequently uses his previous geometric design language (which was possibly derived from Jones) as a cladding surface. Both images below show different versions of this geometric application.
Figure 6. Top: Main stairway and terrace entrance of Park Güell, designed by Gaudí (1900–1914), photographed by the author. Bottom: One of the checkerboard-patterned spires on the gatehouse building of Park Güell, also designed by Gaudí and photographed by the author (2023).
06 Antoni Gaudi - Post Publication
While his early stages of his career had shown that he was a naturally inspired designer, it was only after the publication of Art Forms in Nature (completed in 1904) did Gaudi start to design things in the formal image of nature and architectural zoology. In fact, it was in the same year that Haeckel's publication was finished, that Gaudi was commissioned to redesign an existing building in Barcelona, Casa Batlló. This building represents a major turning point in his architecture, transforming him from someone who visually cues nature ornamentally, to someone who shapes it three dimensionally.
Figure 7. Left: Discomedusae, Plate 8 from Ernst Haeckel’s Art Forms in Nature. Right: Roof and balconies of Casa Batlló (Antoni Gaudí, 1904–1906)
As seen in figure 7, the facade of Casa Batlló for example is emblematic of the colorful and symmetrical marine figures found on plate 8 of Haeckel’s illustrations. In addition to the color derived from the plates, organic forms like the balconies begin to emerge as moments where the building closely resembles a sea creature than it does any of its neighbors. The color, texture, and form of the facade breaks free from the strict pattern making that Gaudi had been making in his previous projects.
Additionally, looking inside the building, various moments of the residence embody different forms of zoological life. The light wells on the inside of the building for example, transition from white to deep blue tiles, mimicking the depth created by light in the ocean - or perhaps mimicking the transparency of a jellyfish as illustrated by Haeckel. Gaudi’s obsession with nature is no longer expressed as surface detail, but three dimensional experience, closer to the likes of the indigenous North Americans and their understanding of nature as an immersive being.
Following the success of Casa Batlló, on top of his other Barcelona based projects like Park Güell, Gaudi was commissioned by a wealthy developer to create a multi-unit residential building nearby, one which would later go by the name of Casa Mila (1906–1912). This project displayed his fascination with a new “architectural zoology” in various ways. The balconies, like in Casa Batlló, become a moment of biological inspiration, this time resembling Haeckel’s Plate 6: Tubulariae. As seen in figure 8.
Figure 8. Top: Tubulariae, Plate 6 from Ernst Haeckel’s Art Forms in Nature, Bottom: The undulating stone façade and iron balconies of Casa Milà (Antoni Gaudí, 1906–1912), photographed by the author (2023).
The facade becomes a three dimensionally sinuous feature, equally echoing the rolling spanish hillsides, and the flowing vegetative geometries explored by Haeckel’s illustrations. It is here that we can see just how far he had come since the design of Casa Vicens, where the facade was dominated by a geometric expression.
After visually seeing the facade of the building one encounters another shift in the design thinking of Gaudi. A wrought iron door which closely resembles the organic cellular membrane structures found in Haeckel’s plates. This is a significant turning point in his design thinking, because it's not only the visual taxonomy of nature anymore, but the utilitarian elements of life creeping into the design. This design action also suggests that he may have been aware of René Binet’s book, Esquisses Décoratives (1905), where he similarly explored the organic design of utilitarian objects like doors, rings, and keys, alongside architectural elements. This parallel interest increasingly is almost circumstantial evidence that Gaudi may have engaged in the same discourse as Binet, as seen in figure 9.
Figure 9. Lichenes, Plate 83 from Ernst Haeckel’s Art Forms in Nature.
Figure 9. Photograph of the wrought iron and glass entrance door to Casa Milà (Antoni Gaudí, 1906–1912), taken by author (2023).
Figure 9. Page 43 from Esquisses Décoratives by René Binet and Gustave Geffroy (1905), depicting an organically ornamented door.
Various other examples of immersive zoological design also exist throughout the building such as the floor tile patents used in the children's bedrooms, the catenary arches created in the attic, emblematic of the shells and bones of a marine creature, or the rooftop patio which features sculptures of various marine and elemental life forms. It's also worth noting, that Gaudi’s observation of natural materials, and marine biology likely didn't start or end with Haeckel’s Art Forms in Nature - in fact, when visiting Casa Mila, a copy of Cabinet of Natural Curiosities by Albertus Seba (Seba) is presented to you in the gift shop, reinforcing the buildings connection to zoological prints (at least sentimentally).
07 The Sagrada Familia
In comparison to his other work, the Sagrada Familia is by far the most impressive, and the most emblematic of his obsession with architectural zoology. It's a great example for this essay because it was designed both before and after the publication of Haeckel’s Art Forms in Nature. Particularly the Nativity Facade which was designed in part beforehand.This was the first facade of the building designed under Gaudi’s direction and it features a variety of richly ornamented biblical scenes, animals, and plant motifs, all of which are ornamented into what is categorically a gothic facade. In contrast to this, the Passion facade, which was designed after the publication, follows the three-dimensional shift in form that we’ve been studying with projects like Casa Batlló and Casa Mila.
Figure 10. Top: The Nativity Façade of the Sagrada Família, designed by Antoni Gaudí before 1904,. Bottom: The Passion Façade, designed after 1904 and constructed later by Gaudí’s successors. Photographs by the author, 2023.
The passion facade, while visually simpler, is far more three dimensional. Layers of angular figures and exoskeletons break free from the influence of a gothic cathedral and evoke images of the radiolarias drawn by Haeckel in Plate 71: Stephoidea. A whole separate essay can be written on the zoological elements of the Sagrada Familia, but some of the notable relevant ones include the tree-like columns lining the Nave, which are designed after the publication, or the coral-like spiralling staircases used to access the towers.
Among his other works, it’s here that the logic and beauty of biology becomes the grammar of architecture, and as I've attempted to argue through this paper, it may have not happened if it weren’t for Haeckel’s innovative study of zoology. By visualizing the invisible, Haeckel provided architects with a new set of formal, structural, and metaphysical tools. He gave form to the formless and pattern to the organic.
09 References
Binet, René, and Gustave Geffroy. Esquisses Décoratives. Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 1905. Breidbach, Olaf. Visions of Nature: The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel. Prestel Publishing, 2006. Collins, George R. Antoni Gaudí. George Braziller, 1960.
Foucault, Michel. The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. Vintage Books, 1994. Haeckel, Ernst. Art Forms in Nature. Bibliographisches Institut, 1899–1904.
Jones, Owen. The Grammar of Ornament. 1856. Reprint, Princeton Architectural Press, 2001.
Nabokov, Peter, and Robert Easton. Native American Architecture. Oxford University Press, 1989.
Otto, Frei. Finding Form: Towards an Architecture of the Minimal. Edition Axel Menges, 1995.
Seba, Albertus. Cabinet of Natural Curiosities: Locupletissimi Rerum Naturalium Thesauri 1734–1765. Edited by Irmgard Müsch, Jes Rust, and Rainer Willmann, Taschen, 2001.
Figure 1:
Haeckel, Ernst. Art Forms in Nature. Plate 71, “Stephoidea.” Bibliographisches Institut, 1899–1904.
Binet, René. Entrance Gate to the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle. 1900. Colorized photograph, public domain.
Figure 2:
Binet, René, and Gustave Geffroy. Esquisses Décoratives. Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 1905, pp. 13, 36.
Figure 3:
Mobles 114. Casa Vicens by Antoni Gaudí. Mobles 114, https://www.mobles114.com/en/casa-vicens/. Accessed 9 May 2025.
Figure 4:
Ehret, Georg. Botanical Illustration for Carl Linnaeus’s Systema Naturae. ca. 18th century. The Linnean Society of London. Accessed 9 May 2025.
Gaudí, Antoni. Casa Vicens. 1883–1885, Barcelona. Photograph by the author, 2023.
Figure 5:
Jones, Owen. The Grammar of Ornament. Day & Son, 1856. Plate XI, “Moresque No. 2.” Photograph by the author, 2025.
Gaudí, Antoni. Casa Vicens. 1883–1885, Barcelona. Interior photograph. https://casavicens.org/en. Accessed 9 May 2025.
Figure 6:
Gaudí, Antoni. Park Güell. 1900–1914, Barcelona. Photographs by the author, 2023.
Figure 7:
Haeckel, Ernst. Art Forms in Nature. Plate 8, “Discomedusae.” Bibliographisches Institut, 1899–1904. Gaudí, Antoni. Casa Batlló. 1904–1906, Barcelona. Exterior detail. Photograph by the author, 2025.
Figure 8:
Haeckel, Ernst. Art Forms in Nature. Plate 6, “Tubulariae.” Bibliographisches Institut, 1899–1904. Gaudí, Antoni. Casa Milà. 1906–1912, Barcelona. Photograph by the author, 2023.
Figure 9:
Haeckel, Ernst. Art Forms in Nature. Plate 83, “Lichenes.” Bibliographisches Institut, 1899–1904. Gaudí, Antoni. Casa Milà. 1906–1912, Barcelona. Entrance door detail. Photograph by the author, 2023. Binet, René, and Gustave Geffroy. Esquisses Décoratives. Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 1905, p. 43.
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