The School of Planning and Architecture had a modest beginning in 1941 as a Department of Architecture of Delhi Polytechnic. It was later affiliated with the University of Delhi and integrated with the School of Town and Country Planning which was established in 1955 by the Government of India to provide facilities for rural, urban and regional planning. Recognizing the specialized nature of the fields in which the School had attained eminence, in 1979, the Government of India, through the then Ministry of Education and Culture, conferred on the School of Planning and Architecture the status of “Deemed to be a University ”.
The School is a specialized University, the only one of its kind, which exclusively provides training at various levels, in different aspects of human habitat and environment. The School has taken the lead in introducing academic programmes in specialized fields both at the Bachelor’s and Master’s levels, some of which are even today not available elsewhere in India.
Human habitat and environment being the basic concern of the School, the spectrum of academic programmes is being continuously extended by providing programmes in new fields and emerging areas for which facilities are not available, as yet, anywhere else in the country. The School, in striving for excellence, has always been in the lead in extending education and research to new frontiers of knowledge.
Vision
The vision of SPA, already internationally known, is to make it into a distinguished centre of research, innovation, learning, capacity building and scholarly inquiry to become a globally competitive institution by 2025. To position SPA as an internationally reputed institution with a competitive edge in the field of human settlement planning, design, research, training and consultancy.
Location
The current SPA Delhi campus is located near ITO in Indraprastha Estate in New Delhi. The SPA Residential Campus and Hostel are located at Maharani Bagh, New Friends Colony, New Delhi and a girls hostel at Indraprastha Estate. A site of 20 acres has been acquired south of JNU by the school adjacent to Hotel Grand for the development of a new campus.
Courses offered
School offers planning, architecture and design courses both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. While the Bachelor of Architecture course is one of the oldest in the country, the highly successful Bachelor of Planning course was started in 1989. Besides, the School offers 10 postgraduate programmes and 2 undergraduate programmes along with the doctoral programmes run by all the departments of studies. Undergraduate Degree Programmes Bachelor of Architecture Bachelor of Planning Postgraduate Degree Programmes Master of Planning with specialization in Urban Planning Each department of studies has a Departmental Research Committee and the Head of the Department of Studies is its chairperson.
The academic policy is decentralized to the extent that each department of studies has the Board of Studies, which makes proposals on department-related academic matters. The Chairperson of the Board of Studies is the Head of the Department of Studies.
(Architectural Conservation) Master of Planning with a specialization in Environmental Planning, Regional Planning, and Urban Planning (Landscape Architecture) are the courses offered in the postgraduate department.
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