For the past five years van der Vegt and Max Cohen de Lara, his partner at XML, have studied the halls of parliament of all 193 United Nations member states. In a new book, Parliament,1 the duo elegantly connects architecture to the political process.

  • 1. Ref: http://www.parliamentbook.com/book
The United Kingdom House of Commons
The United Kingdom House of Commons - 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.” © XML
Brazil’s Câmara dos Deputados
Brazil’s Câmara dos Deputados - The Federal Government of Brazil, the União, operates according to a three-branch, democratic system. But you’d never know it looking at the Câmara dos Deputados. Oscar Niemeyer designed it, and the famed modernist architect was an affiliate of the Brazilian Communist Party. He built the parliament hall in the classroom style, with the black leather Eames-ian task chairs all dutifully facing the lectern in front. Even with the room’s oblong shape and gently tapered rows, the structure more closely resembles the parliament halls of Russia, North Korea, and China than any others. © XML
Germany’s Bundestag
Germany’s Bundestag - Norman Foster, the British architect behind the Gherkin and London’s City Hall, designed the German parliament building in 1999 as part of renovations to the Reichstag. Like most other European countries, Germany’s assembly hall follows the semicircle plan.The fan-shaped layout is neoclassical in origin; Ancient Greek and Roman theaters were the first to use amphitheater seating to give audience members better views and acoustics. “The reference to antiquity was to give the new state’s assemblies an aura of gravitas and ancient anchoring,” van der Vegt and Cohen de Lara write in the introduction to Parliament. The seating also places parliament members beside each other, eliminating visual signs of power. “Unlike the opposing benches, the semicircle fuses the members of parliament into a single entity.” © XML