Spaces for Deliberation: Eight Spatial Qualities for Designing Deliberative Assemblies

As citizens’ assemblies and other forms of citizen deliberation are increasingly
implemented in many parts of the world, it is becoming more relevant to explore and
question the role of the physical spaces in which these processes take place.

This paper builds on existing literature that considers the relationships between space
and democracy. These relationships have been studied with a focus on the
architecture of parliament buildings
1
, and on the role of urban public spaces and
architecture for political culture
2
, both largely within the context of representative
democracy and with little or no attention given to spaces for facilitated citizen
deliberation. With very limited considerations of the spaces for deliberative assemblies
in the literature
3
, in this paper, we argue that the spatial qualities for citizen
deliberation demand more critical attention.

Through a series of interviews with leading practitioners of citizens’ assemblies from
six different countries, we explore what spatial qualities are typically considered in the
planning and implementation of these assemblies, the recurring challenges related to
the physical spaces where they take place, and the opportunities and limitations for a
more intentional spatial design. In this paper, we synthesise our findings and formulate
a series of considerations for the spatial qualities of citizens’ assemblies aimed at
informing future practice and further research.