Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning

For many years the University conferred a degree of Bachelor of Engineering in Architectural Engineering.  Students enrolled in the Faculty of Engineering and then took a variety of courses in Science and Engineering subjects.  The architectural subjects were taken in the Department of Architecture in the South Australian School of Mines and Industries, which was then affiliated with the University of Adelaide.  It was recognised, however, that the arrangements were not entirely satisfactory.  An appeal was made to the architectural profession in 1955, and sufficient funds were provided to establish a Chair.

The Chair of Architecture was established in 1956.  At first, the Department was set up within the framework of the Faculty of Engineering, and the students were those doing the combined Architecture-Engineering course in collaboration with the SA Institute of Technology. [1]

Rolf Arthur Jensen, who had been recruited as Foundation Professor of the School of Architecture and Planning, oversaw the introduction of a full-time five-year course devoted solely to architecture and leading to the Degree of Bachelor of Architecture.  The new course and the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, with Jensen as Dean, both commenced in 1958. [2]

The course needed the academic approval of the University, it had to satisfy the legal requirements of the relevant Act, and it required professional approval by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects.  There was an important innovation in the course, and that was the provision of teaching in a broad spectrum of building science. [3]

While at the University of Adelaide Jensen was involved with a number of studies related to city planning and renewal, housing, and traffic. In April 1959 he published a series of articles in the evening paper, the News, on the state of Adelaide’s main highways and how they could be modernised. He roundly criticised the Metropolitan Adelaide Transportation Study (MATS) released in 1968 because its proposed expressways threatened to tear apart some of Adelaide’s suburbs. He also opposed plans to build the satellite city of Monarto, calling it ‘a fundamental blunder’ and argued against a proposed petro-chemical plant at Redcliffs. These public comments had made him a controversial figure by the time he retired in January 1976. [4]

A course leading to the Degree of Master of Town Planning was instituted in 1962, and it was designed to run on a three-year part-time cycle.  It was the first interdisciplinary course to be established at the University; it admitted students who had majored in Law, Economics, Engineering, Geography, and other subjects, as well as those who had graduated in Architecture. [5]

From 1977 the name of the Faculty was shortened to the Faculty of Architecture and Planning, although it was sometimes referred to simply as the Department of Architecture.

In 1994 the title was changed to the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Design.

In 1999, the Faculty was dis-established and the School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design became part of the larger Faculty of Performing Arts, Law, Architecture, Commerce and Economics [PALACE]. [6]

Until 2008 the Architecture qualification at the University of Adelaide had been a three-year Bachelor degree followed by a two-year professional Bachelor degree.  From 2008 the three year Bachelor of Design Studies was introduced, with students able to then choose from three possible streams of postgraduate professional study from the Master of Architecture, the Master of Landscape Architecture or the new Master of Planning and Master of Planning (Urban Design).  A Master of Design (Digital Media) was also offered. [7]

In 2013 the School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design became the School of Architecture and Built Environment. [8]

References

1. The University of Adelaide, 1874-1974: A Statement of the Case for Supporting the University's Centenary Appeal.  1972.

2. Taken from Rolf JENSEN Collection, Architecture Museum, University of South Australia - https://unisa.edu.au/contentassets/8fabb302c15b465a9c917b32480dd2c5/jensen-2017.pdf - Accessed 30 January 2021.

3. The University of Adelaide, 1874-1974, op cit.

4. Rolf JENSEN Collection, Architecture Museum, University of South Australia, op cit.

5. The University of Adelaide, 1874-1974, op cit.

6. Taken from UAA Provenance Record UAR-047.

7. Taken from Lumen, Summer 2007 Issue.

8. UAR-047, op cit.

Professor of Architecture

• Professor Antony Radford, PhD (Syd), Dip TP (Edin), BArch (Hons) (Newscastle), FAIA, 1989-2011 (Emeritus Professor 2012)

Professor of Architecture and Town Planning

• Professor Rolf Arthur Jensen, Barch (Liv), FRIBA, FRAIA, FTPI, MInstRE, FRAPI, 1956-1976 (Emeritus Professor 1976)
• Professor David Arthur Lewis Saunders, MArch, DipTRP (Melb), DipArch (RMIT), FAIA, MRAPI, 1977-1986

For a further administrative history, refer to 50 years of design teaching : the School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design, University of Adelaide, 1958-2008. Rob Linn. 2008.