Welcome to the School of Architecture, Planning & Geomatics

The School of Architecture, Planning & Geomatics is uniquely situated in the context of Sub Saharan Africa Universities, as it is the only one offering such a wide variety of programmes. With over 500 students and 27 full time academic members of staff, the school itself potentially represents the global south metropolis in miniature. Within this richly diverse context, students learn to define themselves as they progress through the curriculum, working towards ever greater levels of independence in their research, writing, and design. Beyond the School, Cape Town provides the inspiration and the test ground for our work, allowing students to learn in the context of one of the continent’s more complex metropolises.

Building upon a long history of social engagement, the School is uniquely positioned to nurture critical thinkers and challengers of the status quo, as it engages with the transformation of South Africa. Indeed, the University of Cape Town is an epicentre of passionate energy that presents us with the unprecedented opportunity of demonstrating how, through the creative, social, and intellectual project of the School, we proactively engage with social justice.

We welcome you to discover how the School’s programmes and staff are working hard to make sure all our students are exposed to the best possible team-based, cross- disciplinary, design-research oriented forms of teaching and learning architecture, conservation, landscape, city and regional planning, surveying and urban design. Our mission is to craft and deliver a student-centred education that is able to critically reflect on social impact, and its confrontation with a plurality of cultural values.

As the institutional home to the African Centre for Cities and the Zamani project, the School offers unparalleled access to leading expertise and passionate scholarship, which investigate the lack of clear alternatives that urbanisation and development phenomena in the continent and the global South face us with. Our research led curriculum is constantly developing, and our public initiatives offer multiple opportunities to engage.

We invite you to follow us as the School evolves, and claims its active role within higher education as a public good in XXIst century South Africa.