Reflection on Public Interfaces: Civic Architecture for Hubballi–Dharwad Municipal Corporation
Reimagining civic architecture as a people-centric interface where public space, landscape, and governance converge to empower everyday urban life.
Civic architecture has long been associated with authority, administration, and institutional control. In many Indian cities, municipal buildings remain disconnected from every day public life, functioning as closed bureaucratic systems rather than inclusive civic interfaces. Reflection on Public Interfaces: A Case of Hubballi–Dharwad Municipal Corporation is a thesis project by Shreya Mahabalshetti that challenges this conventional paradigm. The project explores how civic architecture, when integrated with landscape and public space, can restore lost connections between governance and the people it serves.
Set in the twin cities of Hubballi and Dharwad in Karnataka, the proposal reimagines the municipal corporation headquarters not as an isolated administrative block, but as a shared civic ground—one that redistributes power spatially, socially, and symbolically back to the public.
Urban Context: Hubballi–Dharwad as a Civic and Economic Hub
Hubballi–Dharwad is the second-largest urban agglomeration in Karnataka after Bengaluru. While Dharwad functions as the educational and cultural nucleus, Hubballi has evolved into a major commercial, industrial, and transportation hub of North Karnataka. The city houses key government offices, courts, hospitals, libraries, and transport infrastructure, with nearly one lakh people crossing the city centre daily.
The site for the project lies within the Hubballi–Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) complex, a strategically important zone that also contains colonial-era administrative buildings dating back to 1856. Despite its centrality and historical value, the precinct suffers from poor spatial organization, inadequate public amenities, and a lack of interactive civic spaces—highlighting the urgent need for a contemporary civic architecture intervention.
Site Analysis: Public Movement and Spatial Deficiency
A detailed study of the surrounding context reveals intense pedestrian and vehicular movement. Major bus routes, including BRTS and KSRTC corridors, pass directly through the HDMC complex, with multiple bus stops located within a 50-metre walking radius. This makes the site highly accessible and visible from across the city.
However, figure-ground analysis shows an imbalanced built-to-open ratio of approximately 80:20, which is insufficient for the floating population of over one lakh people. The dominance of commercial structures, coupled with the absence of meaningful public open spaces, results in congestion, visual clutter, and a lack of civic relief. The project identifies this condition as an opportunity to reposition civic architecture as an urban connector rather than a barrier.
Existing Structures: Colonial Legacy and Functional Obsolescence
The site contains multiple existing buildings, including the main court complex and HDMC office blocks. Most of these structures consist of small, poorly ventilated rooms, originally designed for limited administrative functions. Over time, they have become unfit for public use due to inadequate lighting, ventilation, accessibility, and workspace quality.
Two British-period buildings—the Commissioner’s Office and the J-Block administrative building—stand out as architecturally and historically significant. Constructed as load-bearing masonry structures with sloped tiled roofs and red lime-plastered facades, these buildings narrate the colonial administrative history of Hubballi–Dharwad. The proposal retains and adaptively reuses these heritage structures while removing or repurposing the rest of the unfit buildings.
Concept: Public Interfaces as Democratic Architecture
At the core of the project lies a powerful conceptual question: Can civic architecture shift the perception of power from government to people? The design responds by transforming the municipal corporation office into a porous, transparent, and publicly accessible civic interface.
The new civic architecture is structured around clear, socially relevant design strategies that balance administrative efficiency with public engagement. Rather than isolating governance behind walls, the building is layered vertically and horizontally to allow visual and physical interaction between citizens and civic functions.
Design Strategies: Architecture Integrated with Landscape
A gently sloping ramp at the entrance creates a welcoming gesture, symbolically dissolving hierarchical thresholds. Offices are arranged across multiple levels at varying heights, enabling the public to visually perceive administrative functions without compromising operational privacy.
Landscape plays a critical role in reinforcing the idea of shared civic space. A central public park weaves through the site, connecting old and new structures via semi-open plazas, shaded walkways, and pause points. Existing trees are retained, and new green pockets are introduced to soften the institutional character of the precinct.
Spaces such as open courts, seating zones, and shaded pathways are strategically placed to encourage informal gatherings, protests, discussions, and everyday civic participation—making the landscape an active extension of civic architecture.
Old and New: Adaptive Reuse as Civic Continuity
The retained British-era buildings are repurposed as cultural and civic exhibition spaces, narrating the administrative evolution of Hubballi–Dharwad. These structures act as anchors of memory, while the new municipal building represents a forward-looking governance model.
The spatial dialogue between old and new is carefully mediated through transitional plazas and connective axes, ensuring continuity rather than contrast. This approach reinforces the idea that civic architecture is not static, but an evolving reflection of democratic values.
Sections and Spatial Experience
Sectional studies reveal how the building negotiates scale, light, and openness. Subtle level changes allow daylight to penetrate deep into administrative spaces, while maintaining visual connections to the surrounding park and heritage buildings. The architecture avoids monumentality, instead emphasizing human-scale proportions and experiential clarity.
The result is a civic environment that feels approachable, legible, and inclusive—qualities often missing in institutional architecture.
Reflection on Public Interfaces demonstrates how civic architecture, when thoughtfully integrated with landscape and public space, can reshape the relationship between governance and citizens. By dissolving rigid boundaries, reactivating heritage structures, and prioritizing people-centric design, the project proposes a new model for municipal architecture in Indian cities.
Submitted as an Institutional Excellence Award entry at UnIATA 2019, the thesis stands as a compelling argument for architecture that does not merely house power, but redistributes it—transforming civic buildings into democratic spaces of engagement, transparency, and collective ownership.
