Yearbooks

Programme: BSc Architecture

Kindly take note of the disclaimer regarding qualifications and degree names.
Code Faculty Department
12132018 Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology Department: Architecture
Credits Duration NQF level
Minimum duration of study: 3 years Total credits: 390 NQF level:  07

Programme information

Architecture entails the design of buildings and the spaces between those buildings. Art and science are employed to create liveable environments, that contribute towards the spiritual and material prosperity of the country. Architects are often innovative, critical thinkers that lead and form part of consultant teams. Although they are employed by organisations involved with development, investment, research, marketing, the industry or even education, many architects prefer to be independent consultants and entrepreneurs.

BScArch is regarded as an exit level that enables the graduate to register as a candidate architectural technologist, and BArchHons as candidate senior architectural technologist, at the South African Council for the Architectural Profession. A architectural technologist is a professional person registered by the SACAP in terms of the Act on the Architectural Profession (Act 44 of 2000). Such practitioners provide assistance in the practices of the disciplines of architecture, interior architecture, landscape architecture and urban design where their responsibilities would be the documentation of projects, project administration and site management.

Students are advised to work in the offices of an architect to gain practical experience during the university recesses and during a year out after completion of the BScArch degree.

A graduate wishing to become a professional architect must apply for, and pursue, a further two years of full-time studies in the professional degree programme. The Master of Architecture (Professional) degree is recognised by the South African Council for the Architectural Profession as qualifying the graduate to register as a candidate professional architect in terms of the Act on the Architectural Profession (Act 44 of 2000).

Admission requirements

  • This is a selection programme. BSc (Architecture) will only be considered as first study choice.
  • The closing date is an administrative admission guideline for non-selection programmes. Once a non-selection programme is full  and has reached the institutional targets, then that programme will be closed for further admissions, irrespective of the closing date. However, if the institutional targets have not been met by the closing date, then that programme will remain open for admissions until the institutional targets are met.
  • The following persons will be considered for admission: Candidates who are in possession of a certificate that is deemed by the University to be equivalent to the required National Senior Certificate (NSC) with university endorsement; candidates who are graduates from another tertiary institution or have been granted the status of a graduate of such an institution, and candidates who are graduates of another faculty at the University of Pretoria.
  • Life Orientation is excluded when calculating the APS.
  • Grade 11 results are used for the conditional admission of prospective students.
  • A valid qualification with admission to degree studies is required.
  • Minimum subject and achievement requirements, as set out below, are required.
  • All lectures at the University of Pretoria are presented in English only.

Transferring students

Candidates previously registered at UP or at another university

The faculty’s Admissions Committee considers applications of candidates who have already completed the final NSC examination and/or were previously registered at UP or at another university, on grounds of their NSC results as well as academic merit. Candidates who were dismissed from other faculties or universities will not be considered.

Candidates previously registered at a teacher’s college or university of technology

The faculty’s Admissions Committee considers the application of these candidates on the grounds of their NSC results as well as academic merit.

Qualifications from countries other than South Africa

  • Citizens from countries other than South Africa and South African citizens with foreign qualifications must comply with all the other admission requirements and the prerequisites for subjects/modules.
  • In addition to meeting the admission requirements, it may be expected from candidates to write the TOEFL, IELTS or SAT, if required.
  • Candidates must have completed the National Senior Certificate with admission to degree studies or a certificate of conditional exemption on the basis of a candidate’s foreign qualifications, the so-called “Immigrant” or “Foreign Conditional Exemption”. The only condition for the “Foreign Conditional Exemption” that is accepted is: ‘completion of the degree course’. The exemption certificate is obtainable from Universities South Africa (USAf). Detailed information is available on the website at click here.

University of Pretoria website: click here

Minimum requirements

Achievement level

English Home Language or English First Additional Language

Mathematics

Physical Sciences

APS

NSC/IEB

AS Level

NSC/IEB

AS Level

NSC/IEB

AS Level

5

C

4

D

4

D

27

*  Cambridge A level candidates who obtained at least a D in the required subjects, will be considered for admission. Students in the Cambridge system must offer both Physics AND Chemistry with performance at the level specified for NSC Physical Sciences in the table above.

*  International Baccalaureate (IB) HL candidates who obtained at least a 4 in the required subjects, will be considered for admission. Students in the IB system must offer both Physics AND Chemistry with performance at the level specified for NSC Physical Sciences in the table above.

Additional requirements

Please Note: Students wishing to transfer to other programmes in the Department of Architecture must obtain written consent from the admissions committee.

Other programme-specific information

Concurrent presentation

In the third year of study Design, Construction, Design communication, Environmental studies and Earth studies must initially be examined in the same year.

The degree is awarded to those students obtaining all the prescribed credits for the programme modules.

Promotion to next study year

A student is promoted to a subsequent year of study after acquiring all the prerequisite module credits of the preceding year of study.
A student is deemed to be in the year of study for which he or she is registered in Design.
If the student is not registered for Design the highest passed year of Design determines the year of study.

Please Note: Students not promoted to the next year of study must obtain the approval of the programme coordinator and the relevant head of department to register for modules in the subsequent year of study. Students must re-apply for admission to the Department of Architecture in instances where:

  1. a student is not promoted to the second year of study;
  2. a student after repeating any year of study, is not promoted to the following year of study.

Pass with distinction

The degree is conferred with distinction on a student who, at first registration, passes all modules of the final year of study with a weighted average of 75%. The degree must have been completed within the minimum prescribed time and no supplementary/special examinations may have been written.

Minimum credits: 124

Fundamental modules

Core modules

  • Module content:

    Introduction to ecosystemic and systems thinking, ecology, natural resources and stress on the environment; social ecological systems and wellbeing; ecological design principles.

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  • Module content:

    Introduction to natural materials, their basic properties and transformation for application in the built environment.

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  • Module content:

    The context of architectural technology and the relationships between technology, theory, structure and materials.  Drawing conventions.The typical city site. The construction and materials of a single storey dwelling with masonry walls and a pitched roof, from preparation for building work to substructure, retaining walls and floors.

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  • Module content:

    Continuation of the construction and materials of a single storey dwelling. Superstructure: walls, opening, roofs, finishes and services.

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  • Module content:

    Visual communication, digital visualisation and representation tools, basic computer aided space modelling and drawing conventions to support design and construction projects.

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  • Module content:

    Introductory contextualisation of twentieth century artefacts within the framework of history from Antiquity to Modernity. Building types as artefacts of material culture. Approaches and guidelines to the study of history of the environment. Understanding of the process of endemic construction and its monumentalisation, settlement and urbanisation of various ages and environments. An interdisciplinary investigation of living spaces as shapers of social interaction. The history of the environment of the Mediterranean Antique, Bronze Age, Classical and Biblical societies.

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  • Module content:

    The history of the environment of and the link between North-Europe and the Mediterranean area, the Arabic peninsula and the Indies, from the fall of Jerusalem up until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD. Tao, Shinto and the landscape of the Far East.

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  • Module content:

    Introduction to design and integration with supporting modules. Design principles, skills and techniques. Small-scale design projects and environmental influences (physical, social, cultural, historical), space requirements and creative interpretation. Acquisition of skills in design communication through imagination, intuition and conceptual thinking. Relation of internal to external space. Anthropometry and ergonomics; visual literacy (visual media, analysis and interpretation) and criticism. The designer as visual thinker. Perception; ideograms. Development of a vocabulary to describe and illustrate the discipline of design. Pertinent theory that informs and supports the design process. Students may from time to time be required to undertake experiential learning/practical work, community engagement, or data collection activities related to on-site research in socioeconomically underprivileged areas.

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  • Module content:

    Introduction to the theory of structures: forces, moments, stresses, strains and structural components.

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Minimum credits: 134

Core modules

  • Module content:

    Designing towards wellbeing within the built environment: responsive and passive design in natural and mesoscale environments.

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  • Module content:

    Designing towards wellbeing within the built environment: inclusive design, health and user comfort in interior environments.

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  • Module content:

    This module is integrated into all undergraduate academic programmes offered by the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology. Main objectives: execution of a community project aimed at achieving a beneficial impact on a section of a socio-economically underprivileged community located in socio-economically deprived areas our society; awareness of personal, social and cultural values and an understanding of social issues; and development of life skills.

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  • Module content:

    Double-storeyed buildings: reinforced concrete, steel and timber-framed structures. Offshutter concrete. Load-bearing masonry. Low-pitch roofs and waterproofing, other pitched-roof finishes. Lightweight partitioning. Glass. Joinery. Small precast elements.

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  • Module content:

    Soil mechanics: foundations, basement construction and waterproofing. Site structures: geotextiles and geomembranes, stairs, walls, retaining walls, fences, ramps, gabions, prefabricated retaining blocks. Built planters, lapas, braais, pavilions, decks.

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  • Module content:

    Visual communication, digital visualisation and representation tools. Communicating the complexity of projects in design and construction.

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  • Module content:

    The history of the environment and the link between North-Europe and a newly discovered world from the time of the circumnavigation of the southernmost Cape Point of Africa till the Industiral Revolution.

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  • Module content:

    History of the environment of Western societies and their dominions from the Industrial Revolution up to the intellectual questioning of Modernism. Southern African housing typologies and Western artefacts as manifestation of socio-political realities since 1488 AD.

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  • Module content:

    The process and product of design through the integration of supporting modules. Spatial design as response to tectonic and contextual influences. The production of space and the reading of place as central concerns in the design disciplines. The design of residential and simple public spaces and buildings with the emphasis on planning, plan-making, structure and economy as design determinants. Skills: programming, site analysis, time management, advanced graphic and reprographic techniques. Pertinent theory that informs and supports the design process in architecture. Students may from time to time be required to undertake experiential learning/practical work, community engagement, or data collection activities related to on-site research in socioeconomically underprivileged areas.

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  • Module content:

    Introduction to structural engineering concepts like design, analysis, sizing and planning of structures. Introduction to Newton’s laws, equilibrium, free body diagrams. The application of equilibrium in solving reactions of statically determinate structures. The principles of determinacy and stability of structures. The application of Newton’s laws in determining the internal forces in common structural systems like cable structures, trusses, frames and beams. The fundamental principles of weight and forces and how forces are transmitted through structural members and load tracing.

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  • Module content:

    Introduction to material science in structural engineering. Concepts like stress, strain, elasticity, stress-strain diagrams, elasticity modules, strength and deformation as applied in structural engineering. Cross-sectional properties of structural elements. Types of stresses, and their transmission in structural elements. Introduction to the relationship between stress and strain (deflection) in beams by Coulomb's theory. Introduction to the analysis of compressive structural elements by means of Euler’s theory.

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Minimum credits: 132

Core modules

  • Module content:

    Ecosystemic thinking for the designer in terms of culture, science and environment. The designer as critic; analysis of precedents. Application of principles of sustainable development and ecological design including energy demand and efficiency and energy dissipation. Students may from time to time be required to undertake experiential learning/practical work, community engagement, or data collection activities related to on-site research in socioeconomically underprivileged areas.

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  • Module content:

    An introduction to the principles of construction contract law and an overview of standardised conditions of contract for the built environment.

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  • Module content:

    Roads: design and construction, materials and finishes, kerbing. Water features: design and construction. Street furniture. Construction equipment. Site and building services: water lines, sanitary plumbing and pipe systems above ground and indoors, underground sewer systems, electricity and gas. Electrical lighting: light, lamp types, luminaires; lighting requirements. Design application.

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  • Module content:

    Integration of the foregoing coursework. Introduction to construction norms and standards, technical drawing practice and specifications. Cost estimates, feasibility and payability. Advanced materials: ceramics, polymers, adhesives, paint, metals, glass.  Human transportation systems: types, applications. Design of a small commercial building/landscape/interior space (in DESIGN) and the preparation of its construction drawings.

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  • Module content:

    Advanced digital visualisation and representation tools to support design projects. Document and building information management.

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  • Module content:

    History of the environment of African societies between the tropics within global context until the present.

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  • Module content:

    History of the environment of Southern African societies from the old Stone Age until the present.

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  • Module content:

    The process of design through the integration of supporting modules. Lateral thinking and ritual as design informants. 
    The design of a mixed-use project in an urban context with a complex programme developed to construction drawings in the Construction modules. Statutory requirements, feasibility and payability studies. Theory of normative positions and the relationship between global intellectual movements and the local debate. Appraising the state of current design production and the establishment of identity through design. Students may from time to time be required to undertake experiential learning/practical work, community engagement, or data collection activities related to on-site research in socioeconomically underprivileged areas.

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  • Module content:

    Management of an architectural practice and architectural project from inception up to local authority submission.

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  • Module content:

    1. Concrete Structures.
    • Loads on concrete structures, Limit-states design principles.
    • Bending, shear and punching: Design of beams, slabs and footings.
    • Compression members: Design of columns.
    2. Load bearing brickwork.
    • Limit-states design principles. Effective length and width of compression members.

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  • Module content:

    1. Timber structures
    • Loads on typical timber structures, Limit-states design principles
    • Bending, shear and deflection: Design of flexural members without and with axial loads
    • Tension members: Tension members in roof trusses
    • Compression members: Design of compression members in trusses and as support members for trusses
    • Bracing systems
    2. Steel Structures
    • Loads on typical steel structures, Limit-states design principles
    • Bending, shear and deflection: Design of flexural members without and with axial loads
    • Tension members: Tension members in roof trusses
    • Compression members: Design of compression members in trusses and as support members for trusses
    • Bracing systems

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The information published here is subject to change and may be amended after the publication of this information. The General Regulations (G Regulations) apply to all faculties of the University of Pretoria. It is expected of students to familiarise themselves well with these regulations as well as with the information contained in the General Rules section. Ignorance concerning these regulations and rules will not be accepted as an excuse for any transgression.

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