The New World Embassy

At the Oslo Triennale, Jonas Staal’s The New World Embassy: Rojava will bring representatives from Rojava together with politicians, diplomats, academics, journalists and artists.

The New World Embassy: Rojava is developed in collaboration with the Oslo Architecture Triennale: After Belonging and KORO/URO, to create a temporary embassy in the Oslo City Hall that will represent, through cultural means, the ideals of stateless democracy developed by the Democratic Self-Administration of Rojava.

Studio Jonas Staal, Preliminary design of the New World Embassy: Rojava. Drawing: Studio Jonas Staal and Paul Kuipers

The embassy will consist of a large-scale oval shaped architectural structure, designed by Studio Jonas Staal in collaboration with architect Paul Kuipers and designer Remco van Bladel as an “ideological planetarium”. The New World Embassy: Rojava will operate for two consecutive days, bringing representatives from Rojava together with international politicians, diplomats, academics, journalists, students, and artists.

Studio Jonas Staal, Architectural model as a preliminary study for the New World Embassy: Rojava. Photo: Remco van Bladel

Through open deliberation and public discussion, the New World Embassy: Rojava proposes a platform to build new transnational relationships and explore alternative models of people’s diplomacy. This includes an analysis of the history, ideals, and implementation of stateless democracy, the successes of Rojava in building a new civil society in a war-torn region, and, finally, the alternative that Rojava proposes in order to confront the crises of democracy seen on a global scale.

Celebration of the start of construction of the New World Summit – Rojava parliament with the international delegation and the Rojavan communities. Photo: Ruben Hamelink


26–27 November 2016
Democratic Self-Administration and Studio Jonas Staal, New World Embassy: Rojava 
Oslo Architecture Triennale
curated by: Lluís Alexandre Casanovas Blanco, Ignacio G. Galán, Carlos Mínguez Carrasco, Alejandra Navarrete Llopis, Marina Otero Verzier
Oslo, Norway