NEW WORLD SUMMIT – ROJAVA

Designers: Democratic Self-Administration of Rojava (West Kurdistan) and Studio Jonas Staal (Netherlands); Concept: Sheruan Hassan, Amina Osse, Democratic Union Party (Rojava) and Jonas Staal, Studio Jonas Staal (Netherlands); Location: Dêrik, Canton Cizîrê, Rojava; Years: 2014–18

New World Summit – Rojava consists of the design and construction of a new public parliament for the stateless government of Rojava in northern Syria—an alliance of Kurdish revolutionaries, Assyrians, and Arabs—and served as the location for an international summit that aimed to confront common crises through power and resource sharing with a diversity of peoples. Described by one of its revolutionary leaders as the “People’s Parliament of Rojava,” the circular, open public forum embodies this new democracy’s foundational value of collective self-representation, not a separate space for elite representatives but one for all to gather, to imagine new worlds and bring them to life.

Image: Inauguration of the New World Summit – Rojava parliament or the “People’s Parliament of Rojava,” 2018; Design by the Democratic Self-Administration of Rojava and Studio Jonas Staal; Credit: Ruben Hamelink © Jonas Staal