Governmental architecture

Topkapı Palace Museum: Tower of Justice

The basic functions of government, to an even greater extent than those of religion, are
similar in all societies: administration, legislation, and the dispensing of justice. But the
architectural needs differ according to the nature of the relationship between the
governing and the governed. Where governmental functions are centralized in the hands
of a single individual, they are simple and may be exercised in the ruler’s residence;
where the functions are shared by many and established as specialized activities, they
become complex and demand distinct structures. There are, however, no basic formal
solutions for governmental architecture, since the practical needs of government may be
met in any sheltered area that has convenient space for deliberation and administration.
A distinct type is created rather by expressive functions arising from the ideology of the
different systems of political organization (monarchy, theocracy, democracy, etc.) and
from the traditions of the various offices of government (law courts, assembly houses,
city halls, etc.). Governments that exercise power by force rather than by consent tend to
employ the expressive functions of architecture to emphasize their power; they tend to
produce buildings of a monumentality disproportionate to their service to the
community. Those in which the ruler is given divine attributes bring religious
symbolism into architecture. Democratic governments have the responsibility of
expressing in their architecture the aims of the community itself, a difficult task in the
modern world, when the community may be neither small enough to express itself easily
nor homogeneous enough to agree on how to do so.

The simple democratic processes of the Greek city-states and the medieval free towns
produced governmental architecture on a domestic scale, while the Roman Empire and
later monarchies seldom made important distinctions between the palace and the seat of
state functions. The widespread growth of representative government and the increase
in the size and functions of the state in the 19th century created a great variety of
buildings, some for entirely new uses. Some examples are: first, capitols, courthouses,
parliament buildings, printing offices, and mints and, later, post offices,
embassies, archives, secretariats, and even laboratories, when the work, the increased
personnel, and the complexity of mechanical aids demanded specialized architectural
solutions. Bureaucracy, for better or for worse, has made governmental architecture
more important than at any time in history.