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their voting behaviour.4 Cortus Koehler studied the effects of the design of citycouncil chambers on communication behaviour in city council meetings.5

In this article I propose that the architecture of parliamentary buildings andthe design and contents of parliamentary chambers make three contributionstopolitical culture: they perpetuate the past, they manifest the present and theycondition the future. I call these functions, respectively, Preservation, Articula-tion and Formation.

Preservation is the mobilization, conservation and maintenance of culturalvalues over long periods of time. The fact that buildings are constructed ofdurable materials such as stone, wood, metal and glass means that architectureperforms well as a bearer of ideas over time. Not as explicitly as in medieval

cathedrals yet with surprising clarity, present-day public buildingsand objectsembody deeply-rooted cultural conceptsin their form and substance which arethen on display for later generations to absorb. With respect to parliamentaryhouses, the relevant principles and ideas that are perpetuated concern thenation, the state and the legislative institution itself. Sometimes this perpetua-tion spills over outside original territorial boundaries,as in the special case ofthe colonial reproduction of parliamentary architecture.

Articulation, the second function, is the manifestation of values and ideascurrently extant in political life at the time of the building's construction,remod elling, refinishing,or rearrangement. Housesof parliament are not merelymonuments, they are built environments and inhabited spaces. They expressnotjust cultural content that pre-dates the structure - as in Preservation - but also

contemporaneous atti tudesand

behaviour. Building interiorsare

particularlyimportant here, for their surfaces and objects are utilized by occupants on adaily basis and thus receive the imprint of current behaviour. Hence in theArticulation function architecture actsas a record or index of ongoing politicallife.6

By means of the third function, Formation, public architecture affects thepolitical future. A physical environment is created that indirectly influencesbehaviour within parliaments and by governments. While the physical settingdoes not by any means deterministically con trol the attitudes and behaviour ofpeople, it does condition their thoughts and actions in preliminary, subtle andinteractive ways.7 Buildings may be seen as a form of non-verbal communica-tion in which messages are encoded by builders and then decoded byoccup ants, with pro babilisticbut poten tially powerful cueing effectsas a result.8

As long as the setting remains intact it will transmit those cues, subject to the

* Samuel C. Patterson, 'Party Opposition in the Legislature: The Ecology of LegislativeInstitutionalization', Polity, 4 (1972), 344-66.

5 Cortus T. Koehler, 'City Council Chamber Design:The Impact of Interior Design Upon theMeeting Process', Journal of Environmental Systems, 10 (1980), 53-79.

6 Juan Pablo Bonta, Architecture and Its Interpretation: A Study of Expressive Systems inArchitecture (London: Lord Humphries, 1979).

7 David Canter, The Psychology of Place (New York: St Martin's Press, 1977).8 Amos Rapoport , Human Aspects of Urban Form (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1977, and The

Meaning of the Built Environment (Beverly Hills, Calif: Sage Publications, 1982).


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The Architecture of Parliaments 289

impo rtant limitation th at later generations may reinterpret the meaning of themaccording to evolving cultural premises.9

In all three of these functions, it should be bor ne in m ind, we find a mixture ofconscious, intentional acts on the one hand and the working of general culturaltransmission processes on the other. Those who conceive, plan, design andfurnish public buildings both follow the specific orders of regime officials andrespond unconsciously to their surroun ding cu ltural milieu. These two relation-ships of architecture to the political world are often indistinguishable from oneanother. Both contribute to the preservation, articulation and formation ofpolitical culture. We turn now to illustrations of the performance of each of thesethree functions in national parliamentary buildings in selected countries.

THE PRESERVATION FUNCTION

Houses of parliament preserve the content of political culture in a mostelemental sense when they are sited on gr oun d of special cultural significance. Byoccupying a place of historic or symbolic importance the building 'holds' thatground indefinitely on behalf of the political order, and thus perpetuates itshonour.

The Palace of Westminster occupies a shoreline along the Thames river that isdeeply meaningful to English history, for example. On this place stood the oldRoyal Palace, which was the chief residence of kings of England for fivecenturies, from Edward the Confessor to Henry VIII. Westminster Hall, whosewalls inco rpo rate p art of the Palace's original G reat Hall of 1099, saw ma nyroyal coronations, trials and lyings-in-state. As for European examples, theAssembly Building of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia occupies ameadow in Belgrade on which the Great Serbian National Assembly met in1830 to confirm the autonomy of Serbia. The Palace of the Grand NationalAssembly of the Socialist Republic of Romania is sited on the Hill of thePatriarchy in Bucharest on which historic acts of nation-building occurred,namely the union of Moldavia with Vallachia in 1859 and the unification withTransylvania in 1918.

Another elemental act of Preservation by parliament buildings is thestabilization of newly created national orders. By providing a tangible symbol ofa new po litical system, the edifice helps to 'jell' fluid constitu tiona l situation s an dthereby helps to preserve the incipient order. The first Federal State House inBerne was constructed in 1852-57, shortly after the Swiss federation was formedin 1948. Th e erection of the building was an imp orta nt sy mbo lic act and helpedto solidify the federation and establish Berne as the legitimate capital city.Similarly, the German Reichstag, built in 1884-94, symbolized the unification ofGe rm any achieved by Bismarck in 1871. By the same token, the burnin g of theReichstag in 1933, prob ably by the Nation al Socialists, traumatically damag edthe German political psyche. The importance of the Reichstag to German

9 Lars Lerup, Building the Unfinished: Architecture and Human Action (Beverly Hills, Calif: SagePublications, 1977).


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nationhood is indicated by its careful reconstruction in1957-71, even thoughmodern parliamentary buildings had already been erected elsewhere.

The interior decor of houses of parliament may contribute to Preservation ofan established order by celebrating acts of its founding. In the sessions room, or'Hemicycle', of the lower house of the Legislative Assembly of Portugal, a greatlunette decorates the back wall, painted with figures from events that led to theadop tion of the Constitution of 1822. In Berne's Na tiona l Council chamb er,statues of William Tell and Staffacher's wife,dramatic personae from the play bySchiller that provides the legendary basis of Swiss liberties, look down fromniches in the walls. The Founding Father of the United States, GeorgeWashington, is apotheosized in the oculus of the US Capitol's rotunda, in a

giant concave painting located 180 feet above the floor. The walls of the rotundaare lined with a 300-foot frieze that begins with the Landing of Columbus,extends through the Declaration of Independence and Civil War, and ends withthe Birth of Aviation.

We do not have to examine just old parliament buildings to uncover suchPreservationist decor. The new Parliament House currently being completed inCanberra is being decorated so as to mark successive epochs in Australia'snational-building process. The approaching forecourt incorporates Aboriginalartwork and a fountain-surrounding 'island' so as to signify the pre-settledcontinent. The entry foyer is decorated with carved panels that represent thearrival of the first fleet of white visitors, while the reception hall inside containsan embroidery depicting the ensuing of white settlement.

Other physical features of parliament buildings celebrate the act of nationalintegration that was achieved by formation of the political order. The Reichsratin Vienna is built of stone from all crown provinces of the Austro-HungarianEmpire. The same is true with the Swiss Federal Palace, whose stone and woodcome from all Cantons. When the Federal Palace was erected in 1894-1900,artists, craftsmen, and labourers were deliberately imported from all corners ofSwitzerland to p articipate in creating this symbol of national union . Its rotu ndais decorated by stained glass windows that depict all economic areas of thenation and by statues of infantry soldiers representing each of the country's fourlanguage areas.

As Milne suggests, the exterior facades of public buildings often exude aparticular sense of strength, stability and dignity, thus presenting an image ofenduring and legitimate state power. Nineteenth and early twentieth centuryparliamentary buildings almost always possess strong facades. Typically theyare rendered in variations of neo-classical architectural style complete withcolumns, pilasters, cornices and entablatures. Often the centrepiece of thecomposition is a columned portico topped by a pendimented gable, the genericsymbol of government in the West. By self-consciously reviving the architectureof ancient Greece and Rome, such facades express values of reason, law andlegitimate governmen t pow er; the contem pora ry state is in this way linked withantiquity, thus establishing its temporal permanence beyond doubt.

Good examples of these neoclassical facades are found in the Palais de la


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Nation in Brussels, the Palais Bourbon in Paris, the Capitol in Washington andthe Reichsrat in Vienna. The last-named building was built in 1874-83 on theRingstrasse, Vienna's great street of public architecture. The Austrianparliam ent's architect, Theo phil Baro n von Han sen, justified its Hellenistic stylein explicitly political terms: 'The ancient Greeks were the first people to love thefreedom of regularity above all, and it was their style which besides itspronounced severity and regularity permitted a great liberty of development.'10

The Preservationist function extends also to the continuity of the legislativeinstitution itself. Typically legislatures revere their parliamentary spaces. Unlessfire or wartime destruction intervene, long-used legislative houses and chambersare lovingly preserved as testaments to a venerable past. Of course additions and

modifications to parliamentary 'accommodations' occur, but these usuallypertain to increased office and staff space rather than significant alterations tothe chambers themselves.

The British Paraliament is illustrative. Westminster Palace has been the homeof the House of Commons and House of Lords since the building was put intoits present external form by Sir Charles Barry in the 1840s. After the interior ofthe Commons chamber was destroyed by a German incendiary attack in 1941,Augustus Pugin's Gothic design was reproduced almost without change.Winston Churchill himself insisted on a faithful duplication of the oldCommons, arguing that its dimensions and appointments are inseparable fromthe British political tradition. All furniture and ceremonial objects were perfectlyreconstructed, including The Table (from which the motion 'to table' comes), theDispatch Boxes (on which the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader lay theirspeaking notes), the Bar of the House (a literal barrier at its entrance), thecanopied Speaker's Chair and the Petition Bag hanging behind it (source of thephrase, 'it's in the bag').

The Preservationist contribution of parliamentary objects is also illustratedin the US Congress. The mace of the House of Representatives dates from 1841and is a copy of the one destroyed by the British when they burned the Capitolin 1814. Th e Senate has no m ace, but it is not w ithout sacred o bjects. Its desksare of the style used since 1819 (many of them original), including inkwells,penholders and glass shakers of blotting sand. Another set of beloved objects islacquered snuffboxes that rest on ledges near the rostrum. The ivory gavel,believed to date from 1789, was accidentally bro ken by Vice-President Nixon in1954, but it is still brought to sessions in a velvet-lined box alongside a newreproduction.

A final point with regard to the Preservationist function is that it is manifestacross territorial boundaries. This is accomplished by means of houses ofparliament built in former colonies, at least in the British case. The House ofCommons of Canada meets in a chamber that is, like its namesake, oblong andlaid out with opposing Government and Opposition benches. A canopiedSpeaker's Chair occupies one end of The Floor with The Table facing it. The

10 The Austrian Parliament (Vienna: Osterreichische Staatsdruckerei, 1975), p. 22.


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Canadian Senate chamber emulates the British House of Lords, complete withroyal thron e, Go thic detailing, and red colora tion . Th e principal differencebetween legislative chambers in London and Ottawa is that members of theCanadian parliament sit at two-person desks rather than open benches.Chamber layout in Australia and New Zealand is similar, except that parallelrows of seating are joined by a semicircle of seats at one end. Reminders of theMother Parliament are particularly vivid in Wellington; there, one findsDivision Lobbies, desks for Hansard reporters, and a Speaker's chair decoratedwith the British coat of arms.

The British colonies that became independent after the Second World Waralso tend to emulate the parliamentary chambers of their former masters.

Although this is not the case in India, whose 1919 Parliament House wasintended to be of secondary significance to the colonial Secretariat, duplicates ofWestminster can be found in former colonies where legislative houses were builtsince independence. The Ugandan Parliament House at Kampala is clothed in amodern exterior but the interior of the National Assembly Chamber duplicatesthe layout, colour (green), and artefacts of the House of Commons. The Tablebears two English-oak dispatch boxes and a silver-gilt mace, with the latterpresented as a gift by the British counterpart (although redesigned somewhatsince the Western mace is unknown in East Africa). The Malaysian ParliamentBuilding in Kuala Lumpur similarly unites a modern exterior and traditionalinterior. The architect, Englishman Ivor Shipley, did not like the semicircularseating previously used in the country's parliament on the grounds that itencouraged departure from a proper two-party system:11

I was firmly convinced that the two-party system which existed should be clearlyexpressed in architectural terms and that the horseshoe plan being used in the existingLower House should be abandoned. The layout finally agreed for both Houses consistedof parallel rows of seating at right angles to the Speaker, facing a central well. This is theprinciple very similar to the layout of the Houses of Lords and Commons atWestminster, suitably modified to meet local conditions.

THE ARTICULA TION FUNCTION

We turn now to the second function performed by parliamentary houses withregard to political culture, Articulation. Here architecture does not conserve the

past so much as express contemporaneous values and attitudes. It constitutes aform of non-verbal language that states features of the political culture that mayor may not be revealed in other ways. These statements are particularly manifestin building interiors, where used surfaces and objects act as an index to currentbehaviour.

On e way that parliam entary interiors constitute a political statement is in thenumber, placement and size of assembly chambers. When a legislature consistsof two houses, this is naturally reflected in the existence of two chambers, in

1 ' W. Ivor Shipley, Th e Parliament Building of Malaysia',Journal of the Parliaments of theCommonwealth, 46 (1965), 177-81.


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that doub le use of one chamb er is rare. Occasionally bicameralism is aban don edin favour of unicameralism, and when this happens a corresponding shift occursarchitecturally. In Sweden, after lengthy controversy, one large new chamberwas constructed within the interior of the old Riksdag. In New Zealand, after theSenate was discontinued, its former chamber was emptied of most furniture so asto be available for a variety of public functions. In South Africa tricameralismwas recently adopted, requiring the construction of a new wing on ParliamentBuilding in Cape Town.

Since in most bicameral systems the two houses are seen as possessing equalstatus, some manifestation of architectural equality between the two chambers isusually present. This may be in the form of equivalent room dimensions, as in

Parliament House in New Delhi, or equivalently large building wings, as at theCapitol in Washington. In France equivalency is achieved by housing eachchamber in an equally magnificent historic building, the Bourbon Palace for theNational Assembly and the Luxembourg Palace for the Senate. In Canada thetwo chambers are both housed in a single building block, but they aresymmetrically placed at opposing ends of the floor plan so as to confer equalarchitectural status. Despite widespread use of the terminology 'upper house'and 'lower house', in almost all countries the two chambers are located on thesame storey of parliament house.

Unequal standing between the houses may or may not result in differentiationbetween chambers. When the British House of Lords lost most of its substantivepower its chamber in Westminster remained as elegant as ever, although it isnoteworthy that when the House of Commons burned during the war it was theLords who moved temporarily to the Queen's Robing Room, not the electedMPs. In West Germany the Bundestag and Bundesrat do not have equalconstitutional standing: the popularly-elected Bundestag cann ot be overruled incertain matters by the Bundesrat, which is composed of appointees of Landergovernments. Accordingly, the Bundestag chamber and the wing housing it aremuch smaller than those occupied by the Bundesrat. Also, because theyrepresent governments rather than citizens, members of the Bundesrat possessa special seating area in the Bundestag chamber, the 'Bundesrat bench'.

Also equality of chambers may be empty of meaning. The Su preme Soviet ofthe USSR consists of two houses, the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of theNationalities. But as politically powerless organs they do not even possesscham bers of their own. Their biennial two -day sessions are frequently joint -there is little practical reason to have the bodies convene separately - and takeplace in general-purpose halls or theatres within the Kremlin, such as the GreatHall or the Hall of Congresses.

As regards chamber layout, it is instructive to launch a discussion of this topicby commenting on the medieval estates of the Middle Ages. These bodiestypically met in square or rectangular rooms. At the mid-point of one side of theroom the king, the focal point of attention, would be seated. The royal thronewas normally elevated on a high p odium and covered by an honorific cano py orbaldachin. Members of the estates were then seated in blocks, with the First


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Crown's senior civil servants advise ministers sitting at the adjacent Govern-ment bench.

Another very different tradition obtains in several European countries andJapan. Here, ministers and other executive officials have their own chairs ordesks, entirely distinct from those given to legislators. These items of furnitureare placed, moreover, so as to face members of paraliament, not join them. Theofficials are situated either in straight rows, along the front of the room, as inItaly and West Germany, or in concave arcs, as in Austria and Romania.Typically these ministerial benches have high desk skirts or even frontal walls,giving their occupants high status and psychological protection. In somecountries, such as West Germany, these benches convey the point that ministers

need not even be members of parliament. Elsewhere the power and prestige ofthe execu tive itself is articulated. Regardless of rationale, the executive's presencein such a setting becomes the dominant visual focus, overshadowing even thechamber's presiding officer.

An even stronger statement of executive power is made in parliamentarysessions held in some communist countries. This is done by placing largenumbers of ruling party leaders and high government officials at a separate setof several benches. This block of special seating is located behind the centrallectern of the presidium that faces the parliamentary mem bership. M oreover thebenches are elevated in successive steps, giving their occupants superiority ofheight over house members seated on the flat floor below. In both the SovietUnion and the People's Republic of China literally hundreds of such seniorofficials are installed in this highlighted sector of the room, seated behind sevenor eight straight benches that reach across the entire width of the space. On thewall behind their backs is placed a key symbol of state power, such as a giantstatue of Lenin, as in the USSR, or a huge seal commemorating the revolution,as in Ch ina. At the front of this bastion runs a high desk skirt, a wall, or a row ofpotted flowers, firmly segregating those who actually hold power from thosewho merely legitimize it.

Turning now to patterns of seating on the parliamentary floor, we recall thatmedieval estates were seated in blocks, one to each estate. The Westminsterseating pattern emulates this idea somewhat, in that Gover nme nt M Ps sit in oneblock of benches and Opposition MPs in the other (at the right and left of theSpeaker, respectively). Thus Government and Opposition face each otherdirectly, across a space approximately twelve feet wide. Winston Churchill andother commentators contended that this arrangement encouraged a two-partysystem, but clearly it has not prevented the emergence of third parties in Britain.While party discipline is rather strong in Britain, it must be kept in mind that,unlike in the medieval estates, MPs vote as individuals rather than by bloc.

Outside Britain and the Commonwealth countries, the common pattern ofmembership seating is very different. Legislators typically sit in a semicirclefacing the presiding officer. The resulting fan-shaped array of seats lends itself todifferentiated placem ent by political party . Various rad ial sectors of thesemicircle can be occupied by parties according to their ideological orientation,


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literally from 'left' to 'right' from the presiding officer's perspective. This conceptis said to have originated at the time of the French Revolution, when the EstatesGeneral rebelled against Louis XVI by breaking loose from bloc voting. Pro-monarchy members took chairs to Louis's right while those opposing the statusquo placed themselves on his left. When J. P. Gisors constructed a permanenthall for the National Convention four years later, he converted a Parisiantheatre for this purpose. Its ampitheatre form lent itself perfectly to a left-rightarray, and became the basic model for the seating of members in non-Westminster parliaments ever since. Moreover this left-right spatial frameworkhas become the basic metaphor for organizing modern political ideology.13

Variants of course exist. While most chambers are themselves semicircular to

accom mo date fan-configured seating, in German y and the United States theroo m is rectang ular. There , the semicircle is created by furniture arra nge me nt,not the composition of the space itself. In some countries, such as Hungary,Israel and Ireland, the arc is quite deep, creating a horseshoe shape. Also a fewexceptions exist to the rule of seating conservatives on the right and radicals onthe left: in India the government always sits to the right regardless of its partycomposition, and in Ireland it is always to the left - because, it is said, thedoorw ay is on that side of the room . In Newfoun dland, which has been a part ofCanada only since 1949, the Government is on the left for a similarly practicalreason: the chamber's potbellied stove is on that side. In the US Congress themodern practice is to place Democrats on the presider's right and Republicanson his left, opposite the usual ideological direction. Although this has been the

case since at least the 1870s, early in the nine teenth centur y the m ajority partyautomatically sat on the right, regardless of ideology. Other differing seatingcriteria are by geographic area (Norway, Romania and the federal houses ofGermany and Yugoslavia); corporatist-style social or economic constituency(Czechoslovakia, Hungary, North Vietnam); and alphabetical order (Ban-gladesh, Cameroon, Spain).14

The nature of the furniture provided for individual members can affect theirstatu s as legislators. The greatest s tatus, perh aps , is afforded by the individu aldesk and chair, clearly separate and self-standing. This is the case in the USSenate, for which I have been unable to find an equivalent elsewhere. CertainlyAmerican Senators pride themselves on being individually important publicfigures. The op posite extrem e is the undifferentiated bench s eating found in theUS House and in both UK chambers. Originally American Representatives hadindividual desks, but they were abandoned in 1913 as the House grew in size andbecame more crowded. Intermediate arrangements in parliamentary accom-modation around the world are: two-person desk-chair combinations, as inCanada and New Zealand; segmented adjoining tables, as in Israel, Italy,

13 R. K. Gooch, Parliamentary Government in France: Revolutionary Origins, 1789-1791 (NewYork: Russell and Russell, 1960). J. A. Laponce, Left and Right: The Topography of PoliticalPerceptions (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981).

14 Valentine Herman, Parliaments of the World: A Reference Compendium(Berlin and New York:De Gruyter, 1976), pp. 260-66.


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Germany and Japan; and continuous tables with only slightly differentiatedseats (as in separate backs), found in Belgium, Denmark, Finland and France.While space and cost are factors that inevitably affect members' furniture,itsindividualization and quality can say much about the perceived importance ofthe single legislator. Perhaps the status of US Senators is uniquely high by worldstandards .1 5

All parliaments provide special seating for members of the press and public.This is usually situated in upstairs galleries rather than on the floor of thechamber itself. In contrast to more recent municipal council chambers, whereoutsiders have been brought downstairs, national parliaments preferto keepvisitors off the floor. This pattern probably indicates boththe exclusivity of the

floor and considerations of physical security. In some chambers, such as theIrish Dail and the new Australian Parliament, galleries are faced with glass foradded protection. Galleries in the American Congress are unusually ample andopen, in that they surround the House and Senate chambers on all four sides.This design, in combination with other factors,has been considered by some toreveal Congress's 'democratic' nature.1 6 Lords and Commons at Westminsterdiffer interestingly on this score; in the undemocratic Lords reporters and' s trangers ' are restricted to galleries along the rear wall only, whereas in theCommons the galleries surround the entire chamber, with press and Hansardreporters placed just above the Speaker.

THE FORMATION FU NCTION

The third contribution of parliamentary architecture to political culture isFormation, i.e. behavioural consequences that continue on into the future.These consequences are, however, non-deterministic and by no means easilypredictable. This mean s we must be circumspect and speculative in approachingthem. Still, the impossibility of precise analysis should not keep us fromrecognizing the potentially powerful effect of the mood cues that physicalsettings transmit to their human occupants. Because various settings induce'standing' patterns of expected behaviour within their confines (suchas speakingin a low voice within a church or library), architecture helps to channel andregularize behaviour.17 Experimental research on the effects of room character-istics on vocal behaviour shows that speakers tend to speak more slowly inlarger and more reverberant rooms.1 8

15 Paul Goodman suggests that the Senators' separate desks portray them as a kind of stateambassador. (Utopian Essays and Practical Proposals (New York: Random House, 1952), pp. 171-72.)

16 John F. Harbeson, T he National Legislative Chambers',Journal of the American Institute ofArchitects, 18 (1952), 2559-64.

17 Roger G. Barker, Ecological Psychology: Concepts and Methods for Studying the Environmentof Human Behaviour (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1968).

18 John W. Black, T he Effect of Room Characteristics Upon Vocal Intensity and Rate', Journalof Acoustical Society of America, 22 (1961), 174-6.


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When Churchill told the Commons in 1943 '.hat he believed its guttedchamber should be faithfully rebuilt, he declared in what is now a famoussentence: 'We shape o ur b uildings, and afterwards our buildings shape u s.' Thisidea was the basis for his proposal to retain an architectural space that had had,he believed, a formative effect on British political life. A key theme in his 1943speech was that the intimate atmosphere of Commons should by all means bekept intact. At 45 x 68 feet (about 3,000 square feet), the House is one of thesmallest parliamentary spaces extant, and with the Prime Minister's urging itwas kept that size. To him, 'a small chamber and a sense of intimacy areindispensable'. Furthermore, since the benches can accommodate only 437 ofthe House's membership of 635, drama as well as intimacy is possible: 'If the

House is big enough to contain all its Members,' Churchill said, 'nine-tenths ofits debates will be conducted in the depressing atmosphere of an almost emptyor half-empty cham ber'. On mo men tous occasions, he went on, all members willcome to hear, creating a 'sense of crowd and urgen cy'.19 Another parliamentarychamber famous for its intimacy is the US Senate, whose floor dimensions are84 x 51 feet or 4,284 square feet. Most parliamentary chambers are in the 5,000-8,000 square foot range; reportedly the largest is the Germ an Bundestag, w hichat 115 x 112 feet possesses over 12,000 square feet.

Room size is not the only feature to have behavioural effects. A prominentspeaking lectern, solidly built to afford psychological protection, can encouragemembers to address their colleagues from one central spot. This tends tointroduce more formality than when members feel free to speak from their seatsor in the aisles. The U S Hou se has two lecterns but the Sen ate has non e. In Britainthe Despatch Boxes serve this purpose. Most European parliaments are fittedwith a major lectern, often placed atop a rather high podium or integrated witha rostrum or tribune.

A 'debate' rather than 'meeting' atmosphere is also induced by acousticalconditions that permit the human voice to be easily heard, unaided by publicaddress systems. In some parliamen ts, such as Denm ark, all speakers must comeforward to use the dais microphone; in the French National Assembly andAmerican House several microphones are scattered throughout the chamber. Inthe House of Commons a generalized sound reinforcement system is used, whichamplifies all voices without anyone needing to speak directly into a microphone.No voice amplification is used in the American Senate.

Seating arrangements also have an impact on behaviour. Westminster-styleopposition seating, across the two Sword Lines woven into the carpet of TheFloor, must surely invite an atmosphere of confrontation between Governmentand Opposition. The alternate semicircular or fan-shaped arrangement canfacilitate ideological debate, provided that seats are permanently assigned (atleast by bloc) and are ordered in a partisan array. The presence of aisles organgways between partisan segments of seating can serve to accentuate party

19 Robert R. James, ed., Winston S. Churchill, His Complete Speeches, 1897-1963(New York:Chelsea House, 1974), Vol. VII, pp. 6869-73.


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chambers cannot be transversed by a direct walk. In a system installed beforemod ern co mm unications, one cham ber can tell whether the other is in session bymeans of red and w hite light bulbs mo unted in chandeliers hanging ou tside theirdoors.

An example of extreme cameral sociofugalism is encountered in South Africa.The tricameral system created in 1983 to implement apartheid in its legislativemanifestation established a House of Representatives for Coloureds (those ofmixed race) and a House of Delegates for Indians (Asians). No legislative bodywas established for Blacks. The two n on-W hite bodies have their own ch ambe rs,with the Coloureds meeting in the chamber of the former upper house and theIndians in a space created temporarily in a light court. Meanwhile the White-

only House of Assembly meets in the largest and most historic chamber, built in1910 to house the Union Parliament. Thus tricameralism in South Africa notonly divides legislators into separate bodies but creates a ranked class systemamong these bodies. Tellingly, all three chambers possess an identical Speakerand secretarial officialdom, all of whom are White officers of the House ofAssembly. When the three bodies meet jointly they do so in the old Unionchamber. On these occasions the Speaker presides over a session in whichWhites are seated on the right (the Go vernm ent side in W estminster terms), theCo loured s on the left, and the Indians in the centre - in chairs tempo rarily set upbetween the permanent benches. We have in short a vivid instance of wherearchitecture not only reflects social policy but seems intended to perpetuate it.

Spatial relationships can also influence interaction between the legislature

and the executive. The fact that the Supreme Soviet meets within the very wallsof the Kremlin is not irrelevant to the powerlessness of that bodyvis-a-vis th eparty's and government's leadership. At the other extreme, the mile and a-halfthat separates the Capitol and White House in Washington is similarly notinsignificant to und erstanding the meaning of separation of powers in Am ericangovernment. In many countries something of a compromise between these twopoles prevails, as illustrated by the common Whitehall location of Westminsterand 10 Dow ning Street. In Ottaw a the Can adian Prime M inister's offices areacross Wellington Street from Parliament Hill.

In new or expanded parliamentary facilities being constructed considerableattention is paid to the relative proximity of legislature and executive premisesand the ease of movem ent between them. The new parliament house for Ug and aconsists of two separate structures, a chamber edifice and a tower for ministerialoffices. Footbridges connect the two so as to facilitate the legislative-executiveintegration that is at the heart of the Westminster system.22 The ParliamentHo use of New Ze aland , built in 1918, is directly conn ected to a drum- like officebuilding built next door in the 1960s, known locally as the 'beehive'. The Britisharchitect who designed the beehive placed the cabinet room on its top floor, withthe PM's suite immediately below. The new building was not without itsbehavio ural consequences; whereas prior to the beehive ministers were crowded

2 2 Philip Pullicino, 'The Parliament House of Uganda', The Parliamentarian, 45 (1964), 390-4.


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into parliament offices in close proximity to backbenchers, now they enjoysuperior but isolated accommodation.2 3

The new Parliament House in Canberra, whose construction is beingconcluded as these words are being written, is expected by some to have far-reaching consequence s for Australian gov ernm ent. A gigantic 1,000-foot-squarestructure, the new parliamen t is laid ou t in essentially four equal q uad rants . TheHouse of Representatives and Senate occupy two ofthese. The third is taken upby the public entrance and the fourth is given over to the executive and cabinet.One analyst, Terry Fewtrell, argues that the building 'will change the style andthe substance of the Pa rliamen t' and 'alter the environm ent of Australian federaladministration'. One reason, he says, is that the building's vast size and the

grand nature of its public entrance will depict the structure not as a parliamenthouse but as a people's building. Within it, Fewtrell believes, the Prime Ministerreceives far more architectural attention than is appropriate for a governmentbased on Westminster principles. What will develop, he says, is greatermovement toward a presidential system. Also, Fewtrell thinks that back-bench ers will be separ ated from ministers becau se of the separ ate executive wing.In addition the generous co mm ittee space provided will upgrade the imp ortance ofparliamentary comm ittees.24 In future years observers of Australian politics willwant to look back to determine whether these predictions of such a formativeeffect on political culture did or did not come to pass.

CONCLUSION

We have noted numerous examples of how the architecture of the paraliamenthouse - in many nations the prime physical symbol of government - haspossessed relevance for political culture. The thesis of these pages has been thatparliamentary architecture can perpetuate, manifest and shape political culture.What is called the Preservation function is illustrated by the building'soccupancy of sacred sites, its symbolization of new constitutional orders, itscelebration of nationhood, and its expression of the stability of the state and thecontinuity of legislative traditions, even beyond original territorial boundaries.The Articulation function is exemplified by how numbers of chambers reflectnumbers of houses; by ways in which house importance and equality areexpressed; by the manner in which royalty, presiding officers and the executiveare honoured; and by how various seating arrangements make statements aboutparty government, legislator status, and the role of the public and press. Finally,For matio n of culture seems to have occurred - or could occur potentially -depending on the degree of chamber intimacy, the availability of lecterns andmicrophones, the arrangements of seats and aisles, the presence of ancillaryspaces such as division lobbies and party rooms, and spatial relationshipsbetween bicameral houses and between the parliament and the executive.

23 Fergus C. F. Sheppard, 'Parliamentary Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand',The Parliamen-tarian, 47 (1966), 207-8.

24 Terry Fewtrell, 'A New Parliament House:A New Parliamentary Order', unpublished, 1984.


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302 GOODSELL

In reflecting on the importance of our subject,it is one thing to have hou ses ofparliament located in distant national capitals, with the layout of their innerchambers familiar only to legislative insiders. Under this circumstance theimpact of parliamentary architecture on political culture is essentially mediatedby national elites. Mass behavioural involvement is limitedto tourists who visitthe capital city and watch from upstairs galleries. As this century draws to aclose, however, we are finding that parliamentary architecture and design canperhaps have a much greater impact on political culture. With widespreadadoption of television coverage of legislative sessions taking place, chamberinteriors and building facades will increasingly become familiar scenestoordinary citizens. This could mean that in the future their design and use will

perform the functions of Preservation, Articulation and Formation on a scaleunknown in the past. This may be the true importance of introducing televisionto the legislative process, rather than the consequences of citizen education,institutional reform or legislator exhibitionism expected by some.25 Perhapsparliament houses will become stages no t merely for a relatively closedenactment of political rituals, but for widespread projection of political imageryto the masses, shaping the whole nation's concept of its political self.

2 5 Ronald Garay, Congressional Television (Boulder, Colorado: Greenwood Press, 1984).

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