Facade and Porch Art Nouveau Decoration

When we started our work, the facade had already been decorated by mosaic and bird bas-relief, but looked unfinished. The hardest thing was to add new details that the owners wanted but also make the composition coherent.

Aims: to add new matching decorative details to the facade; to design and make a tree bas-relief on the central part of the wall under the balcony.

Outcome: artists and sculptors of VII MIRACULA Studio did both the architectural and sculptural finishing of the exterior and the art-nouveau finishing of the porch of the mansion.

Slideshow

Mosaic pictures on the facade required framing. Therefore, we created a decent natural ornament and drapery framing hand-carved from VII MIRACULA fair-faced concrete and attached to metal wireframe by our sculptors.

The top of the facade on the side of the main porch had been decorated by mosaics, and the panel had had bible references. Having created a three-D ornament, we connected them into one story, apart from that, we formed a balcony area, which made the composition coherent and complete.

The tree with the hidden Serpent is part of a bible story depicted on the mosaic. Not only did we have to create the object from scratch, but also to design it.

An iron wireframe with model shades of the future tree was made under the half-round overhang of the balcony. It was then covered by a metal gauze and concrete on top for further sculpturing. We made sure that the construction was firmly secured and the pressure on the wall was the lowest possible. Besides, we decided that the balcony lattice had to be decorated by leaves and apples similar to the ones on the tree.

The design and the sculpturing were made by our female artist. Everything from a trunk with the Serpent to the smallest leaf was carved and painted by hand. Regardless of the art exquisiteness, the finished work is durable and weather resistant.

At first, the tree was to be painted with monochromatic brown and beige colours, but then we decided to add a highlight and make a coherent composition of a high relief and a bas-relief on the frieze. This is how we came up with golden apples on the leaves.

The effect is amazing: the tree seems to have a solid colour from afar, but as soon as the sun sheds its light on the crown of the tree, it shines like gold. The play of light and shadow won’t fade with time due to the permanent paint that we used.

Porch Finishing

The porch finishing combines art-nouveau smooth lines and natural patterns. The protruding parts of the concrete construction have a metal wireframe. The colours mimic the ones of natural marble and granite.

Some details, e.g. a woman face, were hand-carved without wireframes. The hardest part of the sculpting was that it should have been done in one go with no adjustments. However, the work was done with high quality and accurate detailing.

All the decoration details created in the project are both beautiful and practical. VII MIRACULA fair-faced concrete pieces of works remain untouched by any weather and do not require additional surface treatment.

 

Despite the variety of decorations we managed to make an integral composition of new crucial objects and the initial design. The mansion has become a major tourist attraction of the village and an ornament to its owner!

As a big art-nouveau fan, the owner has pointed out that the exterior of the building exceed the scope of the style and can easily be referred to as kitsch art nouveau. Nonetheless, he enjoys the excessiveness which makes us study every element of the house endlessly. If you’re also dreaming of an extraordinary facade design meeting or exceeding your expectations, welcome to our studio!

Facade Finishing Process

Any work starts with a concept design. In this case the base was the owner’s favourite art nouveau, and our new elements had to match the panel and the fresco painting on the facade.

A few painting layouts linking the mosaic panel and the tree sculpture were made. Eventually, the top of the facade was decorated with branches and leaves completing the crown. The central mosaic was framed with a three-D fair-faced concrete natural pattern.

In this project the fair-faced concrete construction had to be attached to a face brickwall. VII Miracula technology made the procedure quick and smart. Load-bearing elements of the metal wireframe were installed on the wall, and a forming micro-mesh steel net was attached to them. The net was covered with concrete grout.

This is the way we got the initial volume of the decoration which was then adjusted and perfected by a layer of fair-faced concrete. It is a combination of high-grade cements with plasticizers which allows to make fine and delicate patterns requiring a high-quality surface and edge treatment.

Since most of the new elements are light, the base that we used under them was white. Then the shades of beige and grey were applied by hand layer by layer. The dyeing method helps to convey the depth and the volume. It is particularly visible on the tree high-relief. The Serpent looks like a real one!