Architecture and democracy. A new volume of PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA has been released

Did you know that the parliaments of countries with the lowest democracy rating according to The Economist (Russia, China, and North Korea) meet in "classrooms"? The horseshoe-shaped hall of the Verkhovna Rada is an average, hybrid model, and the most democratic is the parliamentary hall in the form of a circle. In total, there are five typologies of such spaces - this was the conclusion reached by the founders of the XML architecture studio, Max Cohen de Lara and David Mulder van der Vegt, also known as the authors of the book Parliamentbook, which compares the interiors of the halls for plenary meetings of all 193 UN member states.

The influence of architecture and design on democratic processes in society has been the subject of cross-platform studies many times, and their results have invariably caused lively discussion. It is logical, since the topic of democracy is the most democratic topic. We decided not to deviate from the mainstream and turn our #29 volume into a kind of Speakers' Corner to discuss pressing issues.

What should be the architecture aimed at the consolidation of society? Does radical design destroy our connections or create new ones? How will the monocentricity of cities be broken, who will win and who will lose? And do Ukrainians need specially designated places for rallies, spaces with a "political" function, or do we prefer to gather spontaneously wherever we want? We discussed all this on the pages of our March volume PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA - turn on!