dr. dalsace was a member of the french communist party who played a significant role in both anti-fascist and cultural affairs. in the mid-1930s, the maison de verre's double-height "salle de séjour" was transformed into a "salon" regularly frequented by marxist intellectuals like walter benjamin as well as by surrealist poets and artists such as louis aragon, paul éluard, pablo picasso, max ernst, jacques lipchitz, jean cocteau, yves tanguy, joan miró and max jacob. according to the american art historian maria gough, the maison de verre had a powerful influence on walter benjamin, especially on his constructivist - rather than expressionist - reading of paul scheerbart's utopian project for a future "culture of glass", for a "new glass environment [which] will completely transform mankind," as the latter expressed it in his 1914 treatise "glass architecture". see in particular benjamin's 1933 essay "erfahrung und armut" ("experience and poverty").