The Department of Architecture presents an undergraduate programme in architecture that explores the design of meaningful environments across varying scales, from intimate interior spaces to more significant interventions in landscapes. Specialised programmes in architecture, interior architecture and landscape architecture are introduced at the postgraduate level.

Our vision is to provide a learning environment that fosters critical and independent thinking, encourages ecosystemic accountability and inspires responsive and responsible problem-solving that contributes to the improvement of society and its environment. We engage with spatial design with academic rigour that is theoretically grounded and technologically informed, and our academic programmes are locally and internationally accredited.

What does the programme entail?

The curriculum for the BSc (Architecture) programme integrates knowledge from the humanities and the natural sciences to develop students’ spatial design skills, and aims to instil a culture of lifelong learning in graduates. Students attend classes in the following subject streams:

Design and Applied Theory

Architecture students attain half of the credits for every year of study in the significant module of design, which is presented in tandem with architectural theory to equip students with a pertinent vocabulary and theoretical underpinning. Design is a studio-based module in which projects over a range of scales and complexities are undertaken to encourage students to develop critical and independent design thinking, the ability to evaluate design within a social, cultural and ecological framework, and to explore imaginative and appropriate solutions. In the studio, design discernment is fostered through ongoing discussion, peer learning, and formal and informal assessment. The Department promotes design that is generative rather than stylistically or iconically driven, and students are encouraged to appreciate the universal (global) while engaging with the particular (local).

Community and Practice

Students participate in collaborative community projects that are directed by our research and initiatives in urban citizenship, as well as the Faculty’s community engagement module. In the third year of study, the focus turns to the management of a professional practice and the legal context of construction contract law.

Construction

The study of construction theory, materials and methods is presented as an extension of design to enable the designer to give tangible expression to built form and realisation to an architectural concept.

Design Communication

Design communication offers students the opportunity to develop skills in harnessing especially the digital tools that are essential to designers in the twenty-first century. It deals with visual communication, digital visualisation and representation, and the management of document and building information.

Earth Studies

Earth studies introduces students to ecosystemic accountability and systems thinking in order to guide them towards designing for well-being in the built environment from social, cultural and environmental points of view. It includes ecological themes that extend to approaches that underpin and inform inclusive, ecological, passive and responsive design.

History of the Environment

History of the environment prepares students to define their role in society and find meaning in history through the study of the self and the cultures of others. It investigates the context and meaning of cultural artefacts, including space and place, to relate form and order to the environmental, political and philosophical conditions that influenced their making. It culminates in a reading of southern Africa in the third year of study.

The BSc (Architecture) degree programme enables graduates to register with the South African Council for the Architectural Profession (SACAP) as candidate architectural technologists. The qualification is the first step to future registration as a candidate senior architectural technologist or a candidate architect.

• ?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 for the BSc – Extended programme

The Admissions Committee of the faculty considers applications of candidates who were previously registered for the BSc – Extended programme, on grounds of their NSC results as well as academic merit. Such students will only be considered for the four-year programme if they have passed all the prescribed modules and obtained a minimum of 65% in the Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry modules, respectively.

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

*  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.

A limited number of students are admitted to the Department annually. Admission is determined by a three-part selection process explicitly developed to level the playing field between students coming from different educational and cultural backgrounds. Please refer to click here for information on the selection requirements and process.

The Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology at the University of Pretoria is a leading source of graduates in the engineering, built environment and information technology professions. We achieve this by a focus on research to drive innovative and enquiry-led teaching for educating and positioning our students to be leaders in their professions. The Faculty has extensive and cutting-edge teaching, learning and laboratory facilities integrated with the excellent suite of facilities and services offered by the University. We facilitate access to our qualifications through our extended programmes but expect our students to excel and develop as future professionals through our programme offering. We invite you to consider enrolling in one of our programmes if you share our vision of excellence and want to position yourself as a leader in the professions that we support.

The Faculty is organised in four schools: the School of Engineering, the School for the Built Environment, the School of Information Technology and the Graduate School of Technology Management. The School of Engineering is the largest of its kind in the country in terms of student numbers, graduates and research contributions and offers programmes in all the major engineering disciplines with many specialisations also offered at undergraduate and graduate level. 

The University of Pretoria aims to be internationally competitive while also locally relevant.  Advisory boards at both faculty and departmental level promote alignment and excellence in our teaching and research activities. Where applicable and available our programmes are accredited by statutory and professional bodies at both national and international level.