School of Planning and Architecture
Established	1959
Type	Deemed to be a University
Location	New Delhi, Vijayawada, Bhopal, India
Website	Official website

School of Planning and Architecture vis. SPA, Delhi is a National Resource Institute of India. Currently SPA has 3 branches all over India, administered under the Government of India. Other than Delhi, there are 2 more SPAs that have started functioning from 2008 at Vijayawada and Bhopal. The SPA Delhi is a specialized university imparting education and research in the field of Planning and Architecture. The school is well recognized among domestic and international fraternity for its quality education and alumunus.

Contents 1 History 2 Campus 3 Library 4 Autodesk: Centre of Excellence 5 Life@SPA 6 Courses 6.1 Undergraduate level 6.2 Postgraduate level 7 Trivia 8 External links

[edit] History

School of Planning and Architecture (or commonly termed as SPA amongst professionals), had a modest beginning in 1941 as the Department of Architecture of Delhi Polytechnic. It was later affiliated to the University of Delhi and then integrated with the School of Town and Country Planning which was established in 1955 by the Government of India to provide facilities for training in Rural, Urban and Regional Planning.The School was subsequently renamed as School of Planning and Architecture, and was affiliated to the University of Delhi in 1959. Recognizing the specialized nature of the fields in which the School had attained its eminence, the Government of India, through the Ministry of Education and Culture, conferred on the School of Planning and Architecture the status of 'Deemed to be University'. This new status enabled the School to broaden its horizon by introducing new academic extension programmes, promote research and award its own undergraduate, post-graduate, and doctoral degrees. The location of the School in New Delhi, the national capital, offers opportunities for participation in the city's rich cultural life and for interaction with various national as well as international institutions, attracting students from all over India and from other developing countries.

Two more School of Planning and Architectures has been sanctioned to be built and set up in India by the Government of India in 2008. In accordance, School of Planning & Architecture, Vijayawada (AP) and SPA, Bhopal (MP), have started functioning. First batch of students were enrolled in these two centers of excellence in August 2008. Construction of dedicated campus and infrastructure is underway and the building project is supposed to be completed by 2012-13. The two new SPAs will offer graduate, post-graduate, doctoral and post-doctoral education in architecture and planning, while also fostering research of a high order in these areas. All SPAs are also socially responsible institutions for providing research feedback to the government for physical development of human settlements

[edit] Campus

The current SPA Delhi campus is housed near ITO in Indraprastha Estate in New Delhi. The SPA Residential Campus and Hostels is located in New Friends Colony, Delhi. A site of 20 acres (81,000 m²) has recently been acquired south of JNU for developing a new campus.

School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada is currently functioning in the premises of Acharya Nagarjuna University, while the dedicated campus is getting built. SPA Bhopal is similarly functioning from the premises of Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT) in Bhopal.

[edit] Library

The two libraries of SPA together house an invaluable collection of 66,000 books, built up over a period of five decades. This library is reputed to be Asia's finest specialised library dealing with the architecture, design and planning fields along with their allied disciplines. In addition to SPA's own faculty and students, the library is used intensively by a range of visiting research scholars from various cities in India and abroad.

The architecture campus and planning campus libraries are also noted for their collection of Thesis Reports, Seminar Reports, Dissertation Reports, Technical Reports of various expert bodies and commissions, Census Reports, and so on.

[edit] Autodesk: Centre of Excellence

The Autodesk: Centre of Excellence in the Architecture Building is equipped with 50 CAD workstations.

[edit] Life@SPA

Extracurricular activities are an integral component of the SPA life. CODA, Strokz, Zephyr, Spandan, Sankalp, Sepia are few dramatics, music and photographic clubs respectively which are run by the student successfully every year. Utopia and Expressions are part of the cultural activities organised by the students every year. The students also get actively involved in the activities of Spic Macay and Feat. Sports and games have a significant place in the SPA campus life with pooltable, badminton courts and other sports facilities. The courtyard in the MB hostel plays host to miniature versions of football(fuzzball) and cricket. Annual inter-batch sports meet "Athlos" during the months of February and March.

[edit] Courses

The School is a specialized university, only one of its kind, which exclusively provides training and education at various levels in planning, design and management of different aspects of human habitat and environment. The School has taken lead in introducing several academic programmes in various inter-related specialized fields at Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral levels, some of which are not available elsewhere in India.

[edit] Undergraduate level

In SPA Delhi and SPA Bhopal --

• Bachelor of Planning (4 years)
• Bachelor of Architecture (5 years)

In SPA Vijayawada --

• B. Tech - Planning (4 years)
• Bachelor of Architecture (5 years)

[edit] Postgraduate level

Currently the following are only offered in SPA Delhi.

Master's Programme in Architecture with specialization in

• Architectural conservation
• Industrial Design
• Urban Design

Master's Programme in Planning with specialization in

• Environmental Planning
• Housing
• Transport Planning
• Regional Planning
• Urban Planning
• Master's Programme in Building Engineering and Management
• Master's Programme in Landscape Architecture

The school also offers doctoral level programmes leading towards a Ph.D Degree.

[edit] Trivia

• Noted Writer and Activist Arundhati Roy is an SPA graduate
• The movie In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989) is based on and filmed in SPA. The First Movie of Shahrukh Khan in which Shahrukh Khan acted in a small role as an Ex Senior Student. For the movie contact Shri Shanti Swaroop(email s.swaroop@spa.ac.in).

[edit] External links

• SPA Talli - Alumni Bulletin Board
• Social networking - Kal aaj kal aur kal
• Archinomy - Architecture guide by SPA students.
• Nosplan - NOSPLAN(National Organisation of Students of Planning)unit website.
• SPA Delhi - Official Website
• Alumni - Official alumni web page
• [1] - School Prospectus 2007

Coordinates: 28°37′50″N 77°14′44″E / 28.63056°N 77.24556°E / 28.63056; 77.24556