Reminiscences: The Pretoria School of Architecture as remembered by early graduates, 1943-1953

Abstract

Teaching in Architecture and Quantity Surveying commenced at the Transvaalse Universiteitskollege (TUK)' with the appointment, on 18 April 1929, of H Bell-John as Head of the Department. It had been decided by the Secretary of Education, Dr S F N Gie, that the education of architects and quantity surveyors was to be a function of the universities (and not the technical colleges). The two courses were moved to the TUK with the understanding that education would take place in collaboration with the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). From the end of 1931, diplomas and degrees in Quantity Surveying were awarded by the University of Pretoria (UP) ' and those in Architecture by Wits. The wish to institute its own Chair in Architecture was raised by the Council of the University of Pretoria in 1940, but it was decided to honour the agreement with Wits until the end of 1942. At the beginning of 1943 the Department of Architecture and Quantity Surveying became an independent department within the Faculty of Mathematics and Science, and Mr A L Meiring was appointed the first Professor and Head of the Department (Ad Destinatum I 960: 142).