| dc.description.abstract | Uganda has an increasing number of districts which was placed at a figure of 134 districts by October, 2019.Whenever a district is created, a need arises to create the physical location of administration for the highest authority within the district which is the district local government headquarters. However, the existing district local government headquarters have a unitary identity attached to them and some also resemble private entities.
The study was focused on evaluating the design of the current district local government headquarters. The study employed the qualitative research approach which involved techniques like literature reviews, observations of the existing district local government headquarter buildings and premises, and interviews with the different persons like the district residents, district local government officials, ministry of local government officials and the architects that design these district headquarters.
The study was carried out in four districts of Eastern Uganda which were Jinja, Namutumba, Butaleja and Mbale districts. The study was focused on the form, the spatial layout, and circulation and community activities of the four district local government headquarters. It was discovered that most district headquarters comprise of number of blocks that house the different departments of the headquarters. On top of this, it was also observed that these blocks were former residential quarters of the officials of the then administrative units that existed then. However, it was also seen that attempts were made to operationalize new infrastructure that houses these different department, with emphasis placed on the department of health since it also houses the medicine from the national Medical Stores for the district.
From the research findings, it was recommended to utilize symbolic entrances to accentuate the extents of the district headquarters as well as to strive to create uniformity through utilising the same material finish for the individual blocks of the district headquarters. This also culminates into the utilization of scale to create a hierarchy within the headquarters complex. Furthermore, it was recommended that corridors as much as they are circulation path also ought to double as overflow areas for the offices that they service hence having a width minimum of 2metres (2000mm). | en_US |
