Can buildings threaten democracy?
In May 2022, the Restoration and Renewal Sponsor Body and Delivery Authority released a report on Understanding the public’s view. Collecting views from over 20,000 people, the report discussed how citizens feel about the Palace of Westminster and its prospective renovation. Much of this input can be summed up by the following quote: “It’s lovely, but it’s quite intimidating”.
It is not just citizens who feel this way. As shown in a History of Parliament article on First Impressions of the Palace of Westminster, parliamentary buildings also appear to intimidate MPs, “reinforc[ing] a feeling of not being welcome”. Jenny Tonge spoke of “a crumbling old Dracula’s castle”, while Robert Cecil felt like “a rather small ant in front of this great institution”.
A report from the Committee on Standards in Public Life described intimidation of office-holders as “a threat to the very nature of representative democracy in the UK”. Intimidation impacts diversity, engagement, and freedom of discussion. Moreover, intimidating buildings are detrimental to the ‘openness’ that modern representative democracies seek to communicate:
Modern parliaments themselves are intimidating buildings that are hard to access for the majority of citizens. They are typically gated and guarded. It also feels to many as if only certain types of people – those with the right suit, the right accent, bank account, connections, or even last names – are welcome to enter them. (Landemore 2022, p.2)
Do intimidating buildings therefore present a threat to democracy? Or do certain audiences consider intimidation necessary, even desirable? Can parliamentary buildings be lovely because they’re quite intimidating?
Walking interviews
Myself, Samuel Johnson-Schlee, and Ryan Swift have been conducting ‘walking interviews’ with MPs, Peers, and parliamentary staff. As we walk a route of their choice, interviewees tell us their views and memories of Parliament. This method allows us to explore key themes at the same time as the buildings they pertain to, since:
“interviewees are prompted by meanings and connections to the surrounding environment and are less likely to try and give the ‘right’ answer. Indeed, it seems intuitively sensible for researchers to ask interviewees to talk about the places that they are interested in while they are in that place.” (Evans & Jones 2011, p.849)
We have discussed interviewees’ earliest memories of this place. We have discussed how they feel inside the Palace, and whether these feelings change over time. Naturally, Restoration and Renewal has also been a frequent topic of conversation: what should change, and what shouldn’t.
The interviewees frequently described the Palace as intimidating, not only in terms of appearance but also layout. Even highly experienced staff members noted that “the Palace does feel imposing…it’s such a labyrinth, and I’m always worried I’m going to get lost.” This reflects the existing literature about parliamentary buildings in general. Such spaces can “reinforce the self-perceptions of those government officials and bureaucrats who identify this exalted territory as their own”, reinforcing “existing hierarchies” (Vale 2014, p.8).
Interviewees also recalled interactions with citizens in Parliament. They shared the key takeaways from these interactions, some of which were rather surprising. For example, it was suggested that for many citizens, the idea of Parliament as an intimidating place is not only expected but desired:
“some people almost want it to be intimidating. I think they’d be disappointed if they see it from the outside (and it’s very impressive) but they came inside and it didn’t match that…they would feel let down.”
This raises an immediate and obvious question: why would anyone want parliamentary buildings to be intimidating?
Meeting expectations, or getting things done?
There are many possible explanations as to why people may want parliamentary buildings to be intimidating. Two seem especially convincing to us.
First: meeting expectations. Walking into Parliament and being intimidated is consistent with what most citizens would expect. This could manifest as feelings of awe, even powerlessness. In any case, it seems plausible that some citizens would be surprised, even disappointed, if their expectations were not met.
Secondly: getting things done. Visitors often come to Parliament with a specific purpose and goal. An intimidating building may seem conducive to that. Citizens may want an environment exuding power and purpose, as an implicit reassurance that their concerns will be addressed. This is reflected in an interviewee’s observation that:
“coming into places like Portcullis House where it’s quite informal…less impressive, intimidating, it doesn’t quite feel as important…Sometimes it is good for [publics] to come through this way and to see all the stone and statues…they feel like something’s going to be done about what they say.”
This alludes to a perception that MPs cannot be productive without an intimidating workplace. This is highly relevant to ongoing questions of trust in institutions, and those who work in them. It is also relevant to debates around ‘virtual’ or ‘hybrid parliaments, and working from home, in which parliamentarians such as Jacob Rees-Mogg have been vocal.
What do we want from our buildings?
At this point we should recall that we are citing perspectives and recollections – not direct observations – of what citizens want. ‘Users’ of this space (parliamentarians and staff) think that citizens might want intimidating buildings. Perhaps this perception reflected interviewees’ own desires for parliamentary buildings to remain intimidating?
Our findings suggest not; there was broad consensus that changes in this respect would be a positive step, at least in theory. For example, a Conservative Peer commented that:
“Change is not a bad thing…We protect many of our traditions and it’s right that we should…at the same time…we should be in a position of saying ‘actually, doing it [another] way might work’.”
An SNP MP commented that when:
“you find yourself here as an elected Member…you’re absolutely going to go along with what this building is telling you to be, which is absolutely rooted in the establishment…this ancient place basically says…‘here’s a path for you to follow’, as opposed to people coming to this place and thinking ‘how I make a change here?’.”
However, in practice, our findings still suggest a mixed picture. A staff member ventured that “even people who structurally are alienated by parliament also wouldn’t want to change it. Because it’s kind of part of the specialness…And if you are in a very neutral, modern space, you might lose that romance and charm, that for some reason gets to a lot of people”. This appears to validate Kim Dovey’s observation that architecture:
“shape[s] a representational world wherein certain forms of identity and place are stabilized and authorized through built form. Architecture engages in imaginative play with our dreams of status, sexuality, security and immortality; our fears of violence, death and difference…architecture has great inertia – it inevitably ‘fixes’ a great deal of economic capital into built form…architecture is ‘society’s superego’ in the sense that it enforces a social order.” (2010, p.39)
We see such inertia (representation and embedding of a social order) at play here; it is even seen to apply to those who are marginalised and alienated as a result(!). This shows us just how pervasive the embedded power dynamics in parliamentary buildings can be, and how reluctant people can be – even those who would most clearly benefit – to change them.
What we talk about when we talk about intimidation
We can safely assume that a desire for intimidation is not universal. As Sabina Siebert points out, “[d]eriving a sense of power and entitlement from the buildings is interpreted by some
people as positive, but others are critical of it”. Our initial findings suggest considerable variance and complexity in what citizens want from their own parliament.
Our interviews also demonstrate how important it is to fit the space to the audience. Citizens want a space that reflects their expectations. Sometimes they expect to be awed, sometimes they expect to have their concerns addressed, and sometimes they want to explore a welcoming and inclusive space.
There are forms of intimidation that must always be condemned and avoided. For example, we would recall a staff member’s observation that those with experience of elite universities may feel much more at ease in the Palace. As a result, “maybe it’s more intimidating to people who don’t feel like they’re part of the groups that tend to go to those sort of places”.
Moreover, citizens don’t just want their representatives to be responsive to their desires and expectations. They expect representative spaces – and the use of them – to be responsive. This provides an additional impetus for greater engagement. Moreover, as Matthew Flinders has pointed out, Restoration and Renewal involves a public building and public money. Citizens should therefore be part of this process.
Staff and MPs need to be part of a dialogue about their workspace. Our interviews with MPs, in particular, revealed how much the buildings affect the work going on inside them. It is important to find out what different publics want to change about Parliament, and what they want to keep. Ideally, this should involve walking interviews, to discuss and experience the space at the same time. We may be surprised by the answers we get. What seems clear is that people can respond very positively to being overwhelmed by history, if it is their history.
Alex Prior is a Lecturer in Politics with International Relations at London South Bank University
Disclosure statement – LSBU Centre for Social Justice & Global Responsibility provided funding