The University of the Witwatersrand was founded in 1921. It is located on the edge of downtown Johannesburg, one of the largest modernist cities in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Department of Architecture was one of its first departments and soon established an international reputation through the work of Rex Mertienssen, who in 1933, published the seminal work, "Zero Hour" and introduced the modern movement to South Africa.

The department developed an architectural pedagogy firmly rooted in architectural design, theory and history. This was shaped by people who headed or taught in it, including John Fassler, Pancho Guedes, Peter Rich and Jo Noero, who have also been responsible for the design of some of the finest buildings in Southern Africa.



In 2001, the former departments of Architecture and Town and Regional Planning amalgamated to form the School of Architecture and Planning. Its architecture programme aims to become a centre for the study of architecture in the developing world. In addition to its historical status as a leading school in South Africa, it is transforming to foster the study of the architecture of the multi-cultural, multi-lingual African continent and to interrogate its rapidly urbanising post colonial, globalising context. Here the city of Johannesburg is its laboratory.



Architecture has a formal exchange relation with the School of Architecture, Urbanism and Design of the University of Cordoba, Argentina, as well as informal contact with a number of schools in Africa, Great Britain, Europe and the United States.