What if the aisle was abolished all together and Congress was forced to sit in a circle, kumbaya-style?

The firm embarked on a research project in 2010 that involved examining floorplans from as many of the 193 United Nations member states as they could–and visiting 15 of them in person. Several essential patterns in the structures’ layout began to emerge as they developed a spatial taxonomy for the book. Many of the convening spaces were organized like classrooms with rows of seats facing forward; or other typical patterns included horseshoes,opposing benches, semi-circles, or like a theater in the round. Each design is painstakingly documented–you can even explore 360 video inside the parliament rooms on the project’s website.

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But in addition to documenting parliamentary architecture all over the world, the authors also categorized governments based on the Economist‘s Democracy Index–full democracy, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes, and authoritarian regimes. They found that while governmental systems differed across the board, and their architectural pedigree may differ, what rarely changed was the configuration of assembly halls over time. Architectural tradition is rarely altered–and yet, it has the power to influence governments.

“The architecture of parliaments does not only represent a political culture, it also shapes them,” Max Cohen de Lara and David Mulder van der Vegt, co-founders of XML, write via email. “Parliament is the space where politics literally takes shape, as it is here that different political actors are organized in space through architecture. Whether the members of parliament are positioned ‘at arm’s length’ from each other–as with the United Kingdom–or in comfortable chairs–as with the Netherlands–in each instance, the debate will evolve in a totally different atmosphere.”

In American political rhetoric, “reaching across the aisle” is an all too cliche statement that speaks to the philosophical and physical separation of bipartisanship. What if the aisle was abolished all together and Congress was forced to sit in a circle, kumbaya-style?

“The book reveals a systemic lack of innovation in the architecture of spaces of political congregation.”

Cohen de Lara and Mulder van der Vegt believe the design of parliamentary structures changes so rarely for a couple of reasons. “First of all, politicians seem to be hesitant to change the status quo, possibly because they are afraid it might undermine their own legitimacy,” the architects say. “Secondly, architecture has become less of a public instrument and has become more and more part of private agendas, be it individual or corporate. Once built, parliaments are locked in time, whereas political systems can and should adapt to what is changing in the world. It is necessary to rethink our models for collective decision-making but it seems to be incredible difficult. Architecture can be one of the ways to work and experiment with it.”

In fact, XML is no stranger to architectural experimentation in government buildings. When the firm worked with designer Jurgen Bey to renovate a room inside the European Council building in Brussels, they opted for movable, interlocking furniture cushions that could be reconfigured depending on the type of conversation or activity the politicians would like to have.