The Ceramic House in the Italian Concession district is the obsessive creation of Zhang Lianzhi, who covered every surface — walls, ceilings, floors, furniture, even the toilet — with ceramic shards, broken plates, figurines, and porcelain fragments over three decades. The result is somewhere between folk art installation and genuine folk madness.
The interior is dense with imagery: animals, historical scenes, landscapes, traditional Chinese motifs, all pieced together from fragments in a mosaic that covers every centimetre of available space. The effect is simultaneously overwhelming and oddly charming. It is housed in an old villa in the Italian Concession and makes a worthwhile short stop when exploring that neighbourhood — the visit takes about 45 minutes and the entry fee is modest.