Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Built between 1918 and 1921, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House is a madcap, cast-concrete temple of a building. The architect’s first Los Angeles project is often cited as a precursor of Californian Modernism but, with its 3D-design concrete fireplace, it also anticipates the mid-century penchant for bas-relief. Reinvented in Modernist, mostly geometric guise, the ancient art of sculpting a raised-up surface was soon cropping up from Californian fireplaces to the Co-operative Insurance Society building in Manchester, where postwar artist William Mitchell created one of his many striking 1960s and 1970s murals. Now the bas-relief is back. Sculptural wall features are being rethought, with a nod to their mid-century forebears. Ceramic tiles are trading flat surfaces for 3D patterns; one-off wall pieces are being sculpted in wood and metal; and eco-friendly materials including compacted cardboard and fabric waste are being pressed into the mould of yesteryear’s concrete. At Design Miami in December, the eclectic booth of LA and New York-based gallery The Future Perfect captured the mood. One wall was given over to a sinuous, sculptural wall panel, its interlocking pieces wrought in ivory-coloured clay by French artist Olivia Cognet.“I’m inspired by that super 1970s moment, how artists were using bas-relief,” says Cognet, a former accessories designer for brands including Lanvin, Isabel Marant and Sonia Rykiel. After learning the skill as a hobby, her first commission was for a Paris home in 2021. Today her pieces can be found in homes across the world, as well as Fendi stores, and while she continues to be inspired by the Californian landscape and its Modernist architecture, she has since moved to the south of France. I’m inspired by that super 1970s moment, how artists were using bas-reliefHer first studio in Vallauris was once the atelier of ceramicist Roger Capron — a space that “still has some of his work: a bas-relief floor, a table, a barbecue”. “Seventy per cent of our production is bas-relief artworks,” says Cognet, who employs a team of 10 and has moved to a larger, industrial space to keep up with demand. LA-based Ben Medansky’s statement textured walls grace the homes of private clients as well as members’ clubs and hotels: a lounge area at boutique New York hotel The Manner, for instance, features two columns clad in organically built-up blue and white panels; at LA’s Proper Hotel, an indoor pool room designed by Kelly Wearstler is lined along one wall with chunky 3D tiles. In New York, interior designer Laura Gonzalez opened a new showroom last summer featuring a floor-to-ceiling ceramic fireplace surround by Laurent Dufour, its gently curving cream-coloured panels playfully revealing two dogs’ heads. Artist Peter Lane creates large-scale architectural installations in his vast Brooklyn studio; his work can be found in Tiffany’s New York flagship store, the Four Seasons at Park Lane in London, and the East Hampton home of Robert Downey Jr — a blue-and-gold-glazed fireplace, in neo-Brutalist style. All interiors have potential. “At the moment we are working on a large mural for a private swimming pool in London,” says Kris Scheerlinck, one half of London-based design duo Boquita de Cielo. The Belgian architect and his partner in work and life, interior designer Koen Meersman, first began working with ceramics to recreate antique tiles for a renovation project. They trained with a Japanese master and have made their name with bespoke hand-carved clay tiles, finished in their own range of natural ceramic glazes, and installed in homes from Madrid to South Korea. The pair spent 13 years living in Barcelona, where, says Meersman, “there is a strong tradition of having ceramic features in common spaces, inside and outside, of apartment buildings”. But ceramic is only a small part of this 3D revival. Cognet has been developing her “shape language in new materials, going from ceramic to leather to stone to wood”, she says of new explorations that were recently shown at The Future Perfect’s LA space. Polish interior design studio Paradowski Studio worked with artist Tomasz Opaliński to create a wooden bas-relief wall in the lounge of Kraków’s Puro hotel, a space inspired by the city’s mid-century architecture. More unconventional materials are also at play. At the Mix hotel in Brussels, for instance, designer Lionel Jadot commissioned a cast-concrete relief mural from Belgian-Moroccan artist Omar Griouat to run alongside the pool, but also worked with the collective Papier Boulette to clad a meeting room in a papier-mâché bas-relief, crafted from cardboard salvaged from the hotel’s construction. In Milan, design duo Studiopepe’s geometric-relief Pleiadi tiles are constructed from cotton linters — a byproduct of fabric production. Used in its natural, undyed state, it is tactile and textural, but also “sustainable and breathable, [with] acoustic-dampening properties”, they say. “Designers are always looking for new ways to incorporate texture,” says interior designer Linda Boronkay, crediting Arts & Crafts and Art Deco versions of the trend as inspiration. “In one of our projects in Beirut, we ran with the idea of bas-relief in all sorts of shapes and forms.” A fireplace is wrought in brass and bronze, hammered and punctured to resemble raised-up cigar leaves, while cornices are decorated with papier-mâché and plaster wild flowers. “It’s hyper-textural,” she says. But adding 3D elements does not necessitate architectural intervention. Cox London brings a romantic and botanical approach to the 3D wall trend with a trailing and leafy grid of iron and bronze, inspired by Edward James’s Surrealist sculpture garden in the Mexican jungle, Las Pozas. It can be added to a space in the same way as a painting. Boquita de Cielo also produces ready-to-hang framed panels and, at London design store 8 Holland Street, the current exhibition by Gavin Houghton, titled Such a Relief (until February 22), features clay and plaster reliefs. They may be small compared to some of the bold 3D statements being made today, but they certainly don’t fall flat.Find out about our latest stories first — follow @ft_houseandhome on Instagram
