Program Overview
BSc in Architecture
Programme Overview
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.
Programme Information
The curriculum for the Bachelor of Science in 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
- Community and Practice
- Construction
- Design Communication
- Earth Studies
- History of the Environment
- Theory of Structures
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.
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 introduce 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.
Theory of Structures
Theory of Structures equips students with the theoretical knowledge and practical understanding required to analyse, plan, and design critical structural components such as beams, columns, and trusses from a structural engineering perspective, using timber, steel, concrete, and other materials.
Career Opportunities
The Bachelor of Science 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.
Faculty Notes
All modules will only be presented in English, which is the University's official language of tuition, communication, and correspondence.
Admission Requirements
- Achievement Level:
- English Home Language or English First Additional Language: 5
- Mathematics: 4
- Physical Sciences: 4
- APS: 30
- Life Orientation is excluded when calculating the APS.
- Applicants currently in Grade 12 must apply with their final Grade 11 (or equivalent) results.
- Applicants who have completed Grade 12 must apply with their final NSC or equivalent qualification results.
- Please note that meeting the minimum academic requirements does not guarantee admission.
Selection Process
A limited number of students are admitted to the Department annually. Admission is determined by a four-part selection process explicitly developed to level the playing field between students coming from different educational and cultural backgrounds.
Selection Criteria
Selection for admission to the undergraduate programme of the Department of Architecture is based on four elimination rounds:
- Academic Merit: Assessment for Round 1 is based on academic performance in order to determine whether an applicant's results meet the minimum requirements for admission.
- Homework Assignments: The outcomes of Rounds 2 and 3 are assessed according to a scoring guide that evaluates language and reasoning skills, visual communication skills, research and representation skills, and job-shadowing and motivation.
- Selection Tests: The selection test is taken without resources and in limited time. The critical outcomes assessed in this round are the ability to use language and reasoning skills, curiosity and general awareness, independent thinking, creative and problem-solving thinking aptitude, spatial and visualisation abilities, and time management and efficiency.
- Interviews: Applicants shortlisted for Round 4 are invited to interviews during which applicants are given the opportunity to reflect on their previous submissions in discursive format.
Minimum Duration
3 years, full-time
Closing Dates
- South Africa: 30/06/2025
- International: 30/06/2025