BSc Architecture

The BSc Architecture degree explores the design of meaningful environments across varying scales, from intimate interior spaces to more significant interventions in landscapes. It is a three-year, full-time studio-based study programme, which is presented through a hybrid blended learning model that provides for facilitated, independent, peer and online learning.

The programme cultivates creative and critical design thinking, and exposes students to complex, social, cultural and environmental problems at multiple scales. It prepares graduates for advanced and specialised professional employment, and is accredited by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) as a professional degree. It also serves as a gateway to the professional honours and master’s programmes that are required for registration as a professional architect, landscape architect of interior architect, as well as further post-professional design or research specialisations, both locally and internationally.

Prospective students who wish to pursue interior architecture or landscape architecture at postgraduate level will first need to obtain the BSc Architecture degree, which incudes components of interior architecture and landscape architecture. 

A limited number of candidates can be admitted to the programme. Admission to the programme entails a comprehensive, four-step selection process to identify the strongest prospective students for admission.

To enable graduates to create a smart, sustainable and healthy built environment, the Department harnesses the power of technology and exposes students to the latest digital tools to map, plan, design, manage and visualise the built environment. The curriculum includes studio-based projects that explore resourceful and appropriate approaches to a variety of problems and the inter-relationship between context, end-users, appropriate technologies and meaningful spatial design. The programme’s Design and Theory projects are complemented by various modules that range from Community and Practice to History of the Environment, Design Communication, Construction and Earth Studies, and Theory of Structures. The curriculum also integrates knowledge from the humanities and the natural sciences. 

The programme benefits from the Department’s interdisciplinary focus, and national and international collaborations. It aims to instil a culture of lifelong learning in its graduates, who are highly regarded in academia and practice, both locally and abroad.