A Seat at the Table: United Nations and the Architecture of Diplomacy

Abstract

The end of World War Two found diplomats and politicians negotiating architectures of global governance and the future world order. During those initial conversations, tables emerged as the quintessential object of liberal internationalism. Diplomats understood the politics of seating and how tables silently installed hierarchies, entangling their shape and form with discussions on emerging cultures of assembly and the possible organisation of the UN’s public spheres. Who gets a seat at the table? Does the table have a head? How close or far away should the delegates sit? Who sits next to whom? These were all questions running through the delegates’ minds each time a new committee deployed itself around desks. Architects and designers were called in to design diplomatic encounters within the UN Headquarters. The goal was to humanise what aspired to become the machine of international relationships while architecturally articulating an even bigger bureaucratic organisation that would bring order and peace against the chaos, fear, and paranoia that the war generated. This essay will examine the emergence of the circular table as a tool and a technique of multilateralism, ultimately interrogating the role that design and architecture played in shaping global governance.