Over the course of the 1920s, writer Joseph Roth sensed the deeper significance of the style of architecture known as 'the international style', in which the culling of ornament, as well as of vol umes, came with the hygienist myth of maxim um sunlight and transparency for housing. lhe SHOP WINDOW was poised to be raised into a GLASS BUILDING, causing all intimacy to be lost to inhabitants overexposed to the eyes of all, the loss of the temporal bearings of daily l i fe being accompanied by a disorientation in the rhythms of life. lhe lighting of towns, at nigh t, was to be further rounded of by the elimination of load-bearing wal ls, wi th the 'curtain wal l ' and automatic blinds serving as shutters for the 'cameras l ucidas' of an era in which the snapsho<sup>t</sup> would shortly overcome the hold of long-term durations and the purely pi·omotional MED IA BU ILD ING would even illuminate the public space of the city, as in Times Square.
THE GREAT ACCELERATOR
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