4 minute read
Early Ecology and Biotechnik
by coersmeier
Image: Die statischen und mechanischen Leistungen der Pflanzenzellen, Die Technischen Leistungen der Pflanzen, R. H. France Leipzig, 1919.
Raoul Heinrich Francé, Vienna 1923
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Raoul Francé was a microbiologist, botanist and prolific author of natural philosophy. He was also the editor of various popular science magazines, including Mikrokosmos the periodical of the German Mycological Society which he founded in 1906. France introduced the idea of Biotechnik, which describes living systems in terms of technological mechanisms, and biological processes as models for engineering systems. Today Francé is considered the founder of Bionics, the field that refers to just this flow of concepts from biology to engineering and vice versa. Francé’s wife Annie Francé-Harrar, also a well-known biologist and author, worked throughout the years by his side and continued parts of his scientific work after he passed in 1943.
Francé’s ideas of integrating natural and technological systems have been illustrated in various of his books, including Die Technischen Leistungen der Pflanzen (The Technical Achievements of Plants) in which he draws direct parallels between natural structures and machines [Figure 3]. As part of his Biotechnik concept, France argues that all processes in the world employ a combination of seven Grundformen or basic technical forms: Crystal, sphere, plane, rod, ribbon, screw and cone. He referred to processes of both the human and natural world, including architecture, machine elements, crystallography, chemistry, geography, astronomy, and art- every technique in the world’. 8
Francé is also considered a pioneer of modern ecological thought. With his idea of Biotechnik he aimed at providing a model for human beings to live in harmony with nature. His concepts helped shape public awareness of the inherent value of all living things, their codependencies as well as their interactions with non living entities. In his publication “Doctrine of Life”, he worked out a blueprint for the way by which human civilization could be allowed to grow without destroying the planet. The theory was popularized in 1923 as a method of creative activity called “biocentric constructivism”. This biocentric theory had a profound impact on early modernist culture. In Bioconstructivisms Detlef Mertens describes the specific ways in which it has influenced mid-1920s artists and architects, particularly those associate with ‘international constructivism’, Lazar el Lissitzky, Kurt Schitters, Hannes Meyer, Werner Graef, Hans Richter, and Mies Van der Rohe.9
Suggested readings:
Oliver Botar. The Biocentric Bauhaus. The Routledge Companion to Biology in Art and Architecture. 2017 Taylor and Francis Group.
Charissa N Terranova and Meredith Tromble, The Routledge Companion to Biology in Art and Architecture.2017 Taylor and Francis Group.
Detlef Mertens. Bioconstructivisms. University of Pennsylvania, ScholarlyCommons, Department of City and Regional Planning (2004).
Raoul H. France, “Die sieben technischen Grundformen der Natur.” Das Kunstblatt 8, (January 1923): 5-11. Excerpt from France, Die Pflanze als Erfinder. For Mertins’ take on Mies and France, see Detlef Mertins, Mies (London and New York: Phaidon Press, 2013) 108-111, 329-331.
Moholy-Nagy, The New Vision. 60-61.
Quoted in Laws, “Die Wirken,” 15. On the Gropius and Moholy connections, see 76-77.
Raoul H. France. Die technischen Leistungen der Pflanzen. Veit & Company. Leipzig,1919.
Raoul H. France. Die Pflanze als Erfinder. Stuttgart 1920
Raoul H. France. Bios. Die Gesetze der Welt. (Grundlagen einer objektiven Philosophie IV-V. Teil). Stuttgart und Heidelberg 1921
Raoul H. France. Der Organismus. München 1928
Raoul H. France. Naturbilder. Wien 1932
Klaus Henkel: Die Renaissance des Raoul Heinrich Francé. Mikrokosmos, 86 (1): 3-16, 1997
René von Romain Roth, Raoul H. Francé And The Doctrine Of Life. AuthorHouse (2000) Figure 3 (top): Der Bildungswerk der Kleinwelt Figure 4 (bottom): Der Bildungswerk der Kleinwelt
Figure 1 (top) : Die technischen Leistungen der Pflanzen Figure 2: Die statischen und mechanischen leistungen der pflanzenzellen, Die Technischen Leistungen der Pflanzen, R. H. France Leipzig, 1919.
Figure 3 (top): Der Bildungswerk der Kleinwelt Figure 4 (bottom): Der Bildungswerk der Kleinwelt
