The UK’s House of Commons, for example, meets in the Palace of Westminster, in a room modeled after an opposing-bench configuration. Designed by architects Charles Barry, Augustus Pugin, and Giles Gilbert Scott in 1950, the parliament room places the two main political parties face-to-face. This typology allows for clear delineation between the ruling party and the shadow party.
Bombs destroyed the previous parliament hall in World War II. When Winston Churchill ordered it rebuilt, he asked Barry, Pugin, and Gilbert Scott to design the room to the same specifications as its predecessor, even though the number of parliament members had swelled.
Van der Vegt says those tight quarters actually help politicians do their jobs. “It’s too small, so not everyone has a seat, so you automatically have a more intense debate,” he says. “But also, through these opposing benches, you immediately understand the positions of the debate.”
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- [in-enaction] The Design of Parliaments Has a Funkadelic Impact on Politics | WIRED, Saturday, September 17, 2016 - 05:24