Ferkai András: Shopfronts - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1996)

sionists and the piano bar with its Thonet chairs evokes a turn of the century ambience.

Finally, there is a representative of innovative or “de- constructionist" shopfronts that has nothing to do with the plane of the facade. The shopfront by the architect György Major (38 Andrássy út, District VI) was originally made for Olivetti, but due to various construction and deadline-related problems the company withdrew its commission, which is why the space is now occupied by a travel agency. The frontage is indeed innovative. A glass case has been fitted to the aperture in the facade so there is not one single horizontal or vertical line or plane. Everything about it is oblique like the slanting walls of a “Drunkards’ Room” in a fun house. Not even the push-door turns around a vertical axis. This construction, which resembles a house of cards, is characterised by an airy lightness as the safety glass panes are joined together without any frames. In places they overlap and meet at an angle like the iron beams supporting the gallery and projecting out from the interior.

The “enchanted shops” of Budapest

There are some shops in the capital which are interesting from a point of view other than that of art history. Their shopfronts are no masterpieces and not even their furnishings are under protection. Yet they are worth visiting for their magical atmosphere. It is as if time had stopped in these

Barta goldsmith’s at 10 Bárczi István utca, V

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