(10) A staircase in the Glass House, Budapest, by Ludwig Kozma, with treads and risers constructed in glass.
(II) The Shocken Store at Chemnitz by Erich Mendelsohn. The 'ribbon' window.
buildings, but abroad there is a considerable body of
examples of a direct and logical application of modern
building methods and materials to the particular
problems of the large store. Mendelssohn's various
shops, the Magasins Auspach by Charles Siclis and
Polak, the Beehive Store by Dudok and the Coopera
tive de Volharding by J. W. E. Buys will be readily
called to mind. The remarkable feature of these is
their large glazed surfaces. No longer is the window-
area more or less confined to the ground floor but
continuous on all floors. Apart from the increased
illumination and floorspace thus secured, the saving
of time in building and thus of expense, the sheerer
and slicker finish, the crisper and cleaner design,
various incidental advantages are obtained, such as
facility of upkeep and cleaning and the use of all voids
in the facade, when illuminated at night, as an
exterior design factor and for display and advertise
ment.
What has occurred in shops has also occurred,
though naturally to a modified extent, since display
is no longer desired, in factories, offices, warehouses,
hospitals, houses, and indeed in all types of buildings
except those whose purpose demands either solid
construction or for some reason, as in theatres and
cinemas, the elimination of light. Thus the com
pletely glazed wall is to be seen in the Tabakfabrik
Van Nelle at Rotterdam by J. A. Brinkmann and
L. C. van der Vlugt, the Bauhaus at Dessau by Walter
Gropius, the Daily Express Building by Ellis and
Clarke, the Messehaus at Prague by Oldrich TyII, the
Immeuble Clarte' at Geneva by Corbusier, the swim
ming bath by Mallet-Stevens, the Pressa Restaurant
at Cologne, the Open-Air Schools at Suresnes by
Beaudouin and Lods, the Glass and Steel Church at
Cologne by Otto Bartning, and so onalmost every
type of building has been successful built in glass and
one or other of the alternative frame constructions.
Messrs. Ellisand Clarke's Daily Express Buildingshows
glass used not for its property of transparence or
translucence but for its qualities as a coloured opaque
facing material. Coloured polished opal as a facing
material has a number of advantages which are
increasingly recommending it to the architect. Like
all glass it presents a smooth, clean and hard surface.
It is independent of colour limitations. It is procur
able in accurately standardized units and thus admits
of ready fixing and easy replacement. It is unsympa
thetic to applied ornament and therefore an excel
lent corrective to designers, and in the finished
building it provides a glossy lightness which does not
belie the structure and which gives a pleasant, clean
airiness to the street in telling contrast to the pon-
derousness of the average mason ry-ridden 'ed ifice.
It is, above all, durableextremely so in its tough
ened variety. When, as is bound to happen, more
and more buildings have their f^ades glazed and
faced with glass in one form or another, the differ-
