We Shape Our Buildings, Then They Shape Us

“We shape our buildings,” Winston Churchill said,
“And after that our buildings, they shape us.”
What he had in mind was the House of Commons,
Badly damaged in the war. Some
There were who thought it best to change the shape
In building it anew. But no, said Churchill,
We must retain it long and narrow, that’s
The heart of our democracy. With long
Benches face-to-face our system ended
Up with two parties both opposed
And several leaders in a row instead
Of having one distinct superior
Apart, as thrones will designate a king.
The process then of making laws involves
Debate by confrontation, contestation,
And polemic, rather than cooperation,
Harmony, or doing business with
The other side.
In contrast to all this,
The U. S. Congress meets in chambers
Built in semicircular style with aisles
Radiating out and facing one
Distinctive chair where a party leader sits.
Here there is no face-to-face debate
At all, the lines between the parties
Blur, and as the room resembles more
A theater than a boxing ring, the business
Of passing laws becomes more egotistic
Than communal, more stagy, showy, than
Effective in achieving anything.

Churchill’s deep remark applies with equal force
To buildings everywhere, of any kind,
To all the built environments we find:
The shape that they impose affects the course
Of people’s lives: the good ones are the source
Of pleasure, peace, and social intercourse,
The bad of stress, dispute, the unquiet mind.
It’s all in the way the spaces are designed.
I’d choose the kind that Churchill would endorse.

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