Over and above the studios and lecturing venues available in the Department, students also have access to the following facilities: 

LIVING LABORATORY

As part of the Department’s celebration of its 75th year of existence, the Boukunde Building is being upgraded to establish a living laboratory and pedagogical space that will inspire research-led design and enable international collaboration. The building provides an excellent case study of a green retrofit of academic buildings that also provides opportunities for ongoing research on occupant wellbeing, including indoor air quality, lighting and acoustics. Because the building includes both naturally ventilated spaces and a range of mechanically ventilated and conditioned spaces that mimic open-plan office environments, it provides an excellent test bed for interventions that do not require transformation of the building envelope. 

COMPUTER LAB

The lab comprises 50 Dell workstation computers for the use of students who study in the Department of Architecture. This lab is also used for instruction in the following software: Autodesk REVIT, AutoCAD, Artlantis, Sketchup, and 2018 Twinmotion and other.

 LASER CUTTING AND 3D PRINTING FACILITIES

This service is provided to students at designated hours throughout the week, enabling students to cut or 3D-print prototypes or final designs. The Department makes use of one A2 industrial laser cutter and one Zbuilder Ultra 3D printer. A Creaform 3D scanner completes the three-dimensional development and printing processes.

PRINTING LAB: HP PIXEL LAB

Students can print work on 80 gram or 120gram paper on one of the four HP printers available in the HP Pixel Lab. A printing manager oversees the printing processes and maintenance on these machines at set printing times. 

READING ROOM

The following resources are available in the Department of Architecture Reading Room:

• A selection of the latest local and international journals on architecture
• Interior architecture and landscape architecture
• A collection of books on design
• Materials and construction
• Reference works
• Product catalogues and samples
• Undergraduate and postgraduate thesis documents since 1949
• Two databases are available – TOBi (indexed journal articles since 1985)
• TOPi (index of archive documents and drawings in the collection of the Department).

​These can be accessed on Sabinet as ArchUP and PlanUP. Also available are the UPSpace digital repository and AbleUP (the African Buildings and Landscapes Environment, with AbleSpace and AbleWiki).