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

carried out by Béla Székely, the metal frontage and the letters of the logos were supplied by Haas & Somogyi and the neon lamps were provided by the Fóthy-Fény neon equipment factory. The designer markedly separated the shopfront from the other storeys of the Eclectic apartment block with a ferro-concrete cornice and by replacing the apertures on the ground floor he constructed vast shop windows. The almost four metre high ceiling and the enormous dimensions were a must if curtains and carpets were to be properly presented. On the corner, a 7 X 7 m shop window, as spacious as a room, was built to appear as a virtual “theatre" for trading. Indeed, an engine-driven revolving stage was installed, which could be seen not only from the outside but, through the glass, from the wide entrance passage and from inside the shop. Clltramodem features appeared all over the shopfront. The rounded forms of the “streamlined style" can be seen everywhere, light was thrown on the entrance passage, closed only for the night, from recessed ceiling illumination and the metal frames of the show-cases projecting from the pink cast stone surface with their huge panes of glass were given a sparkling granular appearance through the mixing of gold dust into their paintwork. The shop has two doors. One is fitted with a handle only on the outside while the other has a handle on the inside only so that customers can instantly find their way in and out. ERMA, the company’s logo, appeared on the two most striking points - above the entrance the metal letters were 1.5 metres tall, while on the corner it was written in somewhat smaller metal lettering. These elegant signs were an organic part of the composition; as a result of their omission after the shop was nationalized, the basically intact shopfront became ordinary without its distinctive features. In the mid-1980s the Röltex company had the shopfront restored according to its original design. They even had the ERMA sign of their legal predecessor re-made. Röltex has been privatized and its new management has given its shops a new interior design. The same postmodern furnishings appeared in ERMA as elsewhere with no regard given to the shop’s still usable interior, which is beginning to fall into ruin. Moreover, for business reasons, the new owners did away with the corner shop window and its revolving stage, making it part of the inner space. We can only wonder when they will alter the shopfront, protected as part of the nation's applied arts heritage, to bring it in line with the trendy interior.

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