A drawing, a scale, a site and an intention. The negative of every service is the clarity of the brief we agree at the start.
Model, mold, pour, cure, finish. The six services below are the shapes this cycle takes when it meets a real building.
Six Casting Services
CSIArt works for architects, developers and heritage teams who want artwork built into the fabric of a building rather than added to it. The services below can be commissioned alone or combined into one casting run managed by CSI ART BUILDING LTD.
Facade panels carry relief across an entire elevation. We work from the architect elevation, break it into castable fields, and produce panels in glass-reinforced plaster or mineral composite. Each panel is numbered, and its mold is retained so a damaged piece can be recast to match instead of patched on site.
Figures, pattern and story raised from the wall. We cast single relief pieces or sequenced mural runs for lobbies, courtyards and civic thresholds, finishing to the light and touch the setting demands.
Measured decorative elements cast to drawing: cornices, capitals, brackets, architraves and one-off profiles, delivered ready to fix with matching fill and touch-up material.
Artwork that belongs to one place. We survey, respond to approach and daylight, then cast and install on site with every fixing, joint and shadow gap resolved before the panels leave the bench.
We advise design teams on scale, material, budget, maintenance and integration with structure and services. Early involvement keeps the artwork whole through value engineering and planning review, and keeps the client clear on what is being bought and why.
Where a historic cast element has failed, we take a silicone master from the original or a surviving fragment and reproduce the profile in a compatible plaster, finished to sit honestly beside aged work.
Every service on this page follows the same disciplined path, even though the outputs differ. A commission opens with a brief in which we agree what the surface must do, what the budget allows and how the casting run fits the wider construction programme. We then price the work in stages, so the client always knows what is being bought: design and modeling, mold making, casting, finishing, delivery and, where required, installation.
For sculptural facade panels and relief works, the design stage produces a scale model and a finish sample before any full-size mold is cut. For cast plaster fabrication and restoration, the starting point is a measured survey of the existing element or the architect drawing, and we match profiles with a silicone master taken directly from the source. For site-specific installations and art consulting, the early work is research: light studies, viewpoint mapping and a clear statement of intent that the whole team can hold to.
We offer a controlled palette of finishes: raw plaster with a soft matte tooth, burnished surfaces that catch low light, pigmented casts coloured through the body rather than painted on top, and sealed finishes for exterior exposure. Each finish has a documented maintenance routine, and we supply touch-up material with every installation.
Heavy casts need engineering as much as art. We detail concealed brackets, restraint systems and movement joints so that a panel can expand and settle without cracking on the face. On facades we coordinate with the cladding and structural packages, and we provide fixing drawings for the main contractor to build from.
Plaster and mineral composite are low-energy materials compared with many facade options, and because we retain molds a damaged piece can be recast rather than the whole elevation replaced. Repairability is a form of sustainability, and it is designed into every edition we produce.
At completion the client receives a handover file: as-built drawings, fixing details, finish references, edition numbers and the maintenance schedule. This file is what allows the building to care for the artwork long after we have left the site.
Our method does not change between services. It begins with the brief and the site, moves into a scale model we can hold and correct, and then into the negative mold. We test the release, control the mix, and pour by hand so the surface keeps the mark of the making. The cast cures under cover, is trimmed at the seam and finished to the grade the design asks for.
Two details separate a successful integrated artwork from a decorative afterthought. The first is early involvement: the sooner casting is considered alongside cladding, structure and lighting, the fewer compromises are forced later. The second is documentation: we keep a numbered record and a retained master for every edition, so the building can be maintained across its whole life.
Because CSIArt controls model, mold, cast and installation, the design intent survives each handover. There is no gap between the studio that imagined the surface and the bench that made it.
CSI ART BUILDING LTD keeps a limited number of casting runs open each season so every commission gets the bench time it needs. If your project has a facade, a relief or a repair to resolve, book a casting brief and we will map the run with you.
Book a Casting Brief