El Bulli, a restaurant known for the gastronomic work carried out by Ferran Adrià between 1983 and 2011, changed the paradigm of world gastronomic restoration.

Since its closure, Ferran and several of his partners embarked on the creation of ElBulliFoundation, a private foundation focused on research and dissemination of gastronomic culture, with the intention of transforming the old restaurant into elBulli1846, the world's first major cooking, creativity and innovation laboratory-museum.

It is a center for preserving the legacy of elBulli. An exhibition LAB in which research and experiments are carried out to generate knowledge related to efficiency in innovation. Use the exhibitions as a work tool.

The starting point is the management and innovation system of elBullirestaurante and the learning acquired from consulting other companies and educational, cultural and artistic organizations. This analysis has led to the design of the Sapiens methodology, whose objective is to audit, question and enrich existing models and processes.

elBulli1846 is a museum to reflect on the knowledge, innovation and history of elBulli.

The complex is made up of three buildings and ten facilities integrated into the landscape. A comprehensive museum project of 4,000 square meters in the heart of the Cap de Creus Natural Park, Girona.

The outdoor facilities show elBulli's reflections on cooking and innovation.

Homage is paid to the Bullinianos and Sapiens is presented, the methodology that Ferran Adriá's team has developed to connect knowledge, a protocol that they apply in all their projects. The best example of this implementation is the Bullipedia.

elBulli1846 is located in Cala Montjoi, within the Cap de Creus Natural Park, a unique geological configuration with structures and outcrops that form a unique complex in the world.

The exterior museographic intervention is integrated with nature. Its design arises from the morphological analysis of unique geological processes found in the area, characterized by the outcrop of sedimentary rock sequences attributed to the lower Paleozoic.

The reports of the General Directorate for the Environment of the Generalitat de Catalunya corresponding to the geozones of Cap de Creus have been analysed, from which the main keys to the design process emerge.

The Montjoi Geotope is made up of slates, marbles and dark iron-rich phyllites, whose interaction with the sea transforms the original gray tones into ochres and reds as a result of oxidation.

Looking for a symbiosis with the landscape, it was decided to use stainless steel and corten steel as base materials for the construction of the facilities. The alternation of both connects with the natural game of tones and textures existing in the environment.

The combination of stratigraphic, tectonic and morphological aspects gives the area exceptional geological interest. Singular phenomena are identified that are used as a reference to develop the constructive concepts of the facilities, which in turn end up being formalized responding to the contents of each exhibition area. A tailor-made proposal is pursued for each facility within a group identity that responds to the environment.

The design of the facilities arises from a process of identifying those common points that share the folds, interferences, outcrops, faults, dikes or geological banding found in the area.

All of them show a series of common visual patterns resulting from the geological period in which they were formed. They are expressed through colour, geometry and texture, which, although intuitively perceived as intrusions into the predominant ecosystem, in turn transmit harmony to the whole. Seen from a certain distance, linear structures are perceived, in many cases, with simple shapes, with a certain rhythm of repetition on some occasions that makes them stand out from the landscape.

The first installation invites us to break with our certainties about what it means to cook. This rupture situation also occurs in "faults", flat fractures in the terrain due to tectonic forces.

Of special interest are the granodiorite shear zones of Roses, where the slip of one block relative to another can be seen, altering the continuity of the strata.

In the process of analyzing the environment, some sets of huge stone blocks have appeared that have been included as part of the morphological typification of the study despite not being geological phenomena. These types of constructions mark a milestone in history since they locate the transition from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic, the moment in which man intentionally begins to modify the landscape at his convenience, adding symbolic meanings to certain places.

These megaliths are taken as a reference for this installation due to the existing connection in their contents and intention. A horizontal volume 16 meters long is proposed that houses watercolors painted by Ferran Adriá inside, where he explains how cooking began. The drawings are accompanied by reproductions of objects, tools and containers corresponding to the Paleolithic and Neolithic. The size and rotundity of the volume, which is also presented floating slightly on the ground, connects with the megalithic structures.

The third installation revolves around the information codification processes in gastronomy and how a universal language can be created from its identification, synthesis and order.

The installation is made up of two pieces that exemplify this finding through a repetitive series of steel plates arranged in parallel, which have taken as a reference the geological banding of quartz and pegmatite that can be enjoyed in Cala Serena, where the intense deformation of the schists has given rise to perfectly parallel linear bands that seem to have been sculpted by humans.

This installation represents a turning point in the visitor's journey, which is found with three concentric rings of corten steel stamped with texts. This is a three-dimensional synthesis of the diagram used by the elBulli team to explain their creative innovation system.

The symbolic use of concentric circles has been a constant in the art world since cave paintings, examples of which include the Pedra de Fenals d`Aro caves, found in 2009, to Richard's iconic Land Art interventions. Long, which could be perceived as geological phenomena given their impact on the landscape.

These circles are also the birth point of a forest of questions that extends throughout the plot, between trees and bushes, linking with each of the facilities.

This installation presents the cataloging system for the 1,846 dishes produced at elBulli, which in turn are summarized in 19 styles. Reaching the final result of each of these elaborations was a long, complex and intuitive process, a permanent meeting of opposing forces. This process could be identified with the calcareous-detrital interferences that can be observed in Cala Rostella, where a series of folds can be seen that are the result of the encounter of compressive stresses in different directions that have deformed originally linear and parallel plates. Following the guidelines used in the previous installations, this meeting of forces in perpendicular planes of different magnitudes has been synthesized to represent the asymmetry of these processes.

The installation reflects the complex system of connections necessary between the parts of our body when enjoying a gastronomic experience. A series of supports have been created on which Luki Huber has designed a proposal based on these electrical connections.

These podiums continue with the constructive logic of the banding and geological faults, applied in previous installations, playing with the serial repetition of steel plates that emerge from the ground, which in turn are inclined to support the installation.

This installation presents all the people who have participated in elBulli projects throughout its history, the bedrock of contemporary gastronomy.

In Geology, the parent rock is the consolidated rock on which soils are formed. It is not usually visible since it is found at a great depth, and contributes to the soil most of its mineral components. The same type of rock can give rise to soils with different characteristics, depending on the conditions of the environment in which it evolves.

The Volt Andrau migmatite outcrops are a unique example in Catalonia of this type of rock. This outcrop serves as a reference to shape the installation, which is presented as a group of steel plates that emerge organically from the ground, and serve as support for a series of printed glass with all the names of the Bullinians arranged chronologically. , accompanied by a group of 3D printed figures.

Sapiens is a research methodology that arises from the synthesis of the topics exposed in the previous installations.

The location of this facility on the plot is strategic, both for its physical condition and for the importance of its content. It is located in a natural topographical bottleneck in which the views of the sea open up and access is given to the esplanade that precedes the buildings of the complex. Seeking the greatest integration with the environment, it has been proposed as a continuation of the shrubby structures present throughout the route.

These are three organic structures that surround the visitor, forming a kind of nest inside which we will discover the keys to the Sapiens methodology. The nest is understood as an incubation space that houses the birth and growth of a form of thought that ends up going out into the world once it has reached maturity.

Its formal result also shares a certain parallelism with another of the most attractive geological formations that can be seen in Cap de Creus. These are the quartzite folds of Mas de Rabassers in Dalt, formed by alternating bands of quartz and carbon that fold in on themselves, generating bubbles whose interior seems to manifest a concentration of energy.

The Bullipedia is a constantly growing encyclopedia made up of more than 30 specialized books resulting from different research processes around gastronomy.

The installation displays existing publications, and becomes the canvas for future ones. Apart from its exhibition nature, it offers a space for reading, reflection and dialogue, in the Platonic style, designed for both visitors and research groups that attend regularly. The objective is to offer an inspiring work environment with views of the sea, in the shade of the trees, made up of platforms where you can rest, study or talk, and can even be converted into a grandstand.

The installation integrates into the environment taking as a reference the rhythm and proportional scale of the linear pegmatite dikes that appear on the coast, igneous formations that look like incisions and contrast with the dominant rocky landscape of dark schists.

The most important milestones in the history of elBulli are shown and how the systematization of innovation was applied through the language of cooking and the exploration of the limits of the gastronomic experience.

The visit is structured around three spaces; the terrace, the kitchen and the dining room.

Through hundreds of original documents and objects, it is possible to understand elBulli's relationship with artists, scientists or designers, apart from the relationship with Japan. The hours recorded around elBulli in films and documentaries, the tools used and created in his laboratory, the dialogue with science or the role of congresses.

This is the last stop on the visit to elBulli 1846, a multipurpose space in the shape of a rock, which has brought together all the projects "with elBulli DNA" since 2011 and which, when the museum is closed, will be a meeting and project development room.

Pics

Javier de Paz | Asier Rúa