Picassiette House, Chartres

Maison Picassiette is a house entirely covered in mosaics made from broken pottery, glass, and porcelain fragments, created by Raymond Isidore between 1938 and 1962. Isidore, a municipal street sweeper in Chartres, began collecting shards of ceramic debris during walks and used them to decorate every surface of his modest three-room home — walls, ceilings, floors, and even furniture. Over 24 years, he expanded his work to cover the exterior facades, courtyard, a small chapel, garden sculptures, and a final structure he called the Tomb of the Spirit.