Debate chamber
Therefore, a debate can occur basically anywhere, even in the street, in a hallway, on board a moving vehicle, or any number of other unusual locations.
Other facilities may include one or more podiums for delivering speeches, possibly located on a stage to facilitate presentation of the debate to an audience.
For example, disagreements over the shape of a negotiation table delayed the Vietnam War peace talks for almost a year.
Conversely, the more participants that are present, the greater is the disparity of sight lines between those sitting immediately adjacent and those more directly across, whose position in turn becomes more oppositional.
[4] Whether outdoors or in an enclosed space or chamber, such as a cave, it is likely that the earliest designated places for group discourse or debate occurred around a fire, for light, heat, or protection from predators.
The first official debating model that emerged (centuries later) after the fall of the Roman Empire was the Magnum Concilium, or Great Council, after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.
These were convened at certain times of the year when church leaders and wealthy landowners were invited to discuss the affairs of the country with the king (of England, Normandy, and France).
[5] In the late 18th century the United States of America established the U.S. Congress, a bicameral legislative model that would form the template of many newly emergent republics around the world.
This format is used in the Westminster style of parliamentary debating chambers, such as in the Parliaments of the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other former British colonies.
This supports oppositional or divided groupings, from which emerged in the 19th century the two-party political system in the UK, and its dominions and colonies.
[7] Examples and images: House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons of the United Kingdom, Cortes of Castilla–La Mancha A hybrid of the bifurcated and semi-circular seating configurations combines a central aisle with a curved end at one end facing the focal point (e.g. Speaker's chair) at the other.
Examples and images: India's Lok Sabha, Australia's House of Representatives, National Assembly of South Africa, Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, New Zealand's House of Representatives The hemicycle or semi-circular seating configuration originated in late 18th century France when the post-revolutionary leaders selected the amphitheater form as one that would symbolize and foster unity, in contrast to the "impression of parliamentary fragmentation" of the British configuration.
[8] This configuration was soon emulated in other parts of Europe and in the United States Congress, the Capitol Building being designed by French architect Benjamin Latrobe.
Examples and images: France's National Assembly, U.S. House of Representatives, UN General Assembly, Parliament of Finland, Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, Scottish Parliament, German Bundestag, Riksdag of Sweden Circular seating configurations for places of discourse have been envisioned as early as the 12th Century story of the Knights of the Round Table.
In the late 1940s, facilities for the United Nations Security Council, a body formed during and immediately after World War II, were designed to support collaboration and avoid confrontation.
These include legislative assembly facilities for indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in Northern Canada, Great Britain, and Polynesia.
[12][13] Examples and images: United Nations Security Council, Senedd of Wales, Wilp Si A'yuukhl Nisga'a), Legislative Assembly of Nunavut, Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories, meeting halls of the Society of Friends, National Parliament of the Solomon Islands.
More recently this has developed into direct two-way communication in small and large meeting rooms (virtual events), and even through personal hand-held devices into nearly every corner of the world.
