Faculty History

The idea to establish the faculty of design and architecture in UPM originated with a proposal paper entitled “Proposed Establishment of the Faculty of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture.”, which was submitted to the Faculty Agriculture in 1976. However, the proposal was never brought up for further consideration by the Faculty’s administration. Nevertheless, a group of teaching staff in Landscape Architecture was recruited in 1980 to teach “landscape subjects” in both the diploma and bachelor of agriculture programmes. The first landscape course was offered in 1984. It was a 3 credit course entitled “AGRO 472 – An Approach to Landscape Design”. It became a popular course and managed to attract many agricultural students who later graduated and continued their studies in landscape architecture at the undergraduate and graduate level overseas. Many of these early graduates have since returned and assumed successful practice or became professors at several institutions of higher learning in the country.

In 1991, the Faculty of Engineering, UPM proposed to offer the Architecture programme in UPM. However, the idea mooted never materialised until the Faculty of Agriculture was given the task by the University’s management to look into the feasibility of offering both landscape architecture and architecture in UPM. A committee was formed in the Faculty of Agriculture 1994 and in 1995 a report was sent to the then Vice Chancelor proposing the setting up of a new faculty offering courses in design and the creative arts. With the strong support of the University’s management the Faculty of Design and Architecture was approved by the University’s Senate, Board of Directors and the Ministry of Education.

The new faculty was officially established on 26 June 1996 and began its operation with the offering of the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture programmes under the new Department of Landscape Architecture. Subsequently, the Department of Architecture was established in 1999 and later the Department of Industrial Design in 2002. Operating from a few wooden temporary buildings on a former horticultural nursery site, the faculty today is a complex of stylish buildings to house the faculty and students and an up to date learning facilities and equipments. The faculty began with an enrolment of 40 students. Today, it has expanded rapidly offering five programmes with an enrolment of more than 400 students at the undergraduate, master and doctoral levels.

Updated:: 19/04/2024 [uswahhasanah]