Located in the heart of the Yixing Creative & Cultural Ceramic Avenue (CCCA) in China—a site converted from the former Zisha Second Factory into a hub for contemporary ceramic culture—Shanghai-based architecture and design practice Wutopia Lab has crafted a spatial narrative that surpasses the conventional architecture of bookstores witnessed globally. Charged with crafting a building adjacent to Kengo Kuma's UCCA Clay Museum in the same district, the studio conceived Ceramic Pages, a bookstore with a gallery and café, as a three-part spatial metaphor for the craftsmanship that goes into the making of the famous, purple clay Zisha teapots.

Wutopia Lab’s chief architect, Yu Ting, devised a tripartite architectural journey for the bookshop, paralleling the transformation of raw clay into a refined teapot. Each level of Ceramic Pages embodies a distinct phase of this metamorphosis: preparation and shaping, kilning and ultimate refinement manifested through materiality, light and spatial sequencing. Its material and zoning choices are thus dictated by themes of pottery (overall spatial design), clay (first floor), fire (second floor) and water (third floor).

Upon entering Ceramic Pages, visitors are greeted by an atmosphere dense with textures and colours typical of raw clay, where warm yellow tones create an active atmosphere evocative of a ceramics workshop and referencing its site in Yixing, an area known for its teapots. The bookstore design’s ground floor, representing the beginning stages of the teapot's construction, is segregated into separate zones—pottery's preparation, tenderising and shaping—mirroring the steps in creating the teapot’s rudimentary form.

Here, bookshelves are created with flowing curves, resembling the inside of a teapot, in shapes of moulded clay, while a central 'spout' structure runs through the floors, acting as a conduit for natural light. Thin strip lights, which are designed to imitate the effect of a skylight entering a ceramic vessel, produce a sacred atmosphere that the Chinese architect describes as “the shrine in the pot”.

Moving up to the first level, the bookstore is converted into a fiery room, representing the kiln stage of pottery. The area, which hosts a café and sales space, envelops guests within a cavernous, radiating pyre, where red-to-blue gradations replicate the searing heat required for firing ceramics. Seating and shelves appear to be set ablaze, augmenting the imagery of burning and transformation in the bookstore’s interior design.

One of the most dramatic features of this level is the red steel staircase design that ascends towards a cantilevered terrace, extending five metres outward. Overlooking the UCCA Clay Museum, this circular terrace is conceived as a sun-like platform and becomes a communal centre for gathering and interaction. Its dynamic presence strongly supports Wutopia Lab's vision of the bookstore as an alchemical space where ideas, as clay, are transformed before emerging in a polished form.

The third floor is symbolic of the culminating stage of producing the teapot. As an exhibition space, this level is characterised by a soft, watery atmosphere, with its floor paint and softly curved ceilings summoning an image of a teapot brimming with clean liquid, as gentle water ripples. Ting describes it as “a water wonderland, signifying maturity and enlightenment”.

Despite the lack of physical water, the dance of light on reflective surfaces gives the impression of movement, echoing the serenity with which the ritual of tea drinking is performed. The 'spout' shape that runs vertically through the Chinese architecture is realised here, its emptiness representing the last act of pouring knowledge and its spiritually and ritually charged results.

Wutopia Lab’s design approach for Ceramic Pages is marked by an architectural representation or idealisation of teapot imagery instead of a literal interpretation. As Ting notes in a conversation with STIR, “We used the mindset of crafting a teapot to create an interior with the imagery of a teapot—without resorting to a literal teapot design.”

This philosophical undercurrent is reflected in the building’s striking red terrace as well as its facade design covered with ceramic suspended panels. This element connects the space with the city around it and reinforces the idea that the transformation of materials, like humans, reflects an ongoing process, as seen from within and without.

The biggest challenge for the 2,087 sq m project was reconciling the conceptual idea with its operations program, which included a bookstore, a gallery and a café. Wutopia Lab addressed this by envisioning the space as a continuum, using the 'spout' as a spatial link within the contemporary architecture and its red terrace as a physical and material extension into the city.

Reflecting on the project's design evolution, Yu Ting tells STIR, "Traditional Chinese scholars believed that a teapot contains an entire universe. The act of pouring tea is a form of communication. In our design, we had to find a way to ‘pour out’—not just to store.” The architectural 'spout' does this by letting air and light travel through one opening, mimicking the flow of water, and the terrace extends this movement outward, connecting to the broader urban and cultural context. The bookstore's architecture and design, thereby, endorses CCCA's ambition of establishing itself as a global hub for contemporary ceramic celebration and discussion.

Through material, light and form, Ceramic Pages by Wutopia Lab encapsulates the metaphor of pottery-making: of creation, endurance, refinement and completion, inviting visitors to experience the journey of raw earth to polished artistry, which is, in this context, as much about architecture as it is about human aspiration.

Project Details

Name: Ceramic Pages Bookstore
Location: China
Typology: Bookstore & Cultural Space
Client: Yixing Taodu Asset Management Co., Ltd.
Architect: Wutopia Lab
Design Team: FANG Xiaobin, DAI Ruoyu
Lighting Consultant: Chloe ZHANG, CAI Mingjie, WEI Shiyu
Construction Drawing Design: Jiangsu Wan’an Architectural Survey and Design Co., Ltd.
Construction Firm: Guangdong Yuda Construction Group Co., Ltd.
Materials: GRG, Coloured Micro-cement, Glass, Coloured Stainless Steel, Perforated Aluminium Panels, Wood
Area: 2,087 sq m
Year of Completion: 2024