Programmes offered

The Doctoral Programme at the school is conceived to encourage independent and interdisciplinary research that has relevance to the present needs of social, cultural and environmental sustenance. To keep pace with the expanding horizons of knowledge, the progamme provides a research environment that has strong theoretical grounding and looks for application of knowledge to develop solutions that focus on issues relating to settlements and habitat.

Master of Architecture (Urban Design)
Indian cities with uncontrolled and chaotic development, loss of coherence, character and decreasing quality of urban life, sadly lack the clarity and cohesion of urban form and structure. The masters programme at the school aims to address the urgent need for enhancing the lived experience of cities. The primary focus is on investigating the role of urban form in shaping our cities using innovative design approaches and theoretical research. It is a two year postgraduate programme leading to the degree of Master of Urban Design.

Master of Architecture (Landscape)
The Master of Landscape Architecture programme at SPA Bhopal aims to educate the students for ultimate leadership in the landscape architecture profession. This mission requires the development and exercise of both intellect and sensibility. The Programme has the dual objectives of providing students with a core of design and technical skills in combination with experiences in pure and applied research. This duality prepares students for problem solving in the profession through design and research, and it is a programme focus. The Programme prepares the students to enter in private, public, academic, and research organizations. An interdisciplinary setting is provided to learn and think critically and creatively in addressing environmental issues so that the future landscape architects graduating from SPA Bhopal, shall certainly be versatile in the various aspects of practice typifying the profession, including environmental ethics, design development, project management at multiple scales, communication, emerging technologies, ethical conduct, as well as relevant areas of research.

The programme is of four semesters (two years) duration, leading to a degree of Master of Landscape Architecture.

Master of Architecture(Conservation)
India is a country with rich natural and cultural heritage. The variation in heritage is due to geographical locations, Time Periods, Builders, Architectural Styles, different sizes and scales of cultural heritage, existing traditional knowledge systems, continuity in traditional practices, and different categories of built heritage ranging from Prehistoric, Historic and Archaeological Sites and different typologies from a building to large cultural regions. Apart from the 3600 Centrally Protected Monuments, and 5000 State Protected Monuments, large numbers of monuments are protected by various religious bodies, organizations and owners. The requirement for a qualified conservation professional is more demanding as with technological advancements the society is drastically changing and it is important to understand the meaning of heritage in the present society.

The location of SPA Bhopal is in central India near two World Heritage Sites including a Cultural Landscape that provides a unique opportunity to use heritage as pedagogical resource. The Conservation programme is devised in training the students towards theory and philosophies in conservation, process and techniques necessary for maintenance and management of heritage, appropriate use of standards of practice. This training shall facilitate informed decision making and application of acquired skills and techniques.

Master of Design
The Master of Design programme in design at School of Architecture and Planning, Bhopal offers user-centred design learning approach through various possible streams of design. In this approach, opportunities will be provided to explore and understand complex socio-cultural-environmental problems and design products and process that respond to core elements for the well-being of individual and societies, like economic growth, social inclusion and environmental sustainability.

Design in the present society is a complex process and is no more just limited to the design of everyday objects. It is consistently breaking the boundaries of theoretical domains and combining different approaches to knowledge cultures to promote interdisciplinary studies, techniques and practices. In this perspective, subjects from different disciplines are structured along four semesters of this design programme with a part to the whole approach, where object-oriented design learning will come at the initial stages, and system-oriented design learning will come at the later stages. In this way, students can understand the essence of objects within a system and their relationships with others.

The Master of Design Degree programme is offered for a duration of two years and consisting of four academic semesters with six to eight weeks of compulsory Industry internship between two years at School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal.

Master of Planning (Urban and Regional Planning)
In India, growing needs of increasing population coupled with a very fast pace of urbanization is resulting in depletion of natural resources, stressful work conditions, polluted environment and changing social-structure. The two year postgraduate programme leading to the degree of Master of Planning (Urban and Regional Planning) at the school aims to produce professional planners who are equipped to assist communities, organizations and policymakers in addressing the present day problems of settlements and developing new ways of improving cities and regions.

Master of Planning (Environmental Planning)
SPA, Bhopal announces introduction of a new Master of Planning Programme in Environmental Planning (MPEP) from the academic session 2013-14. Given the growing importance of environmental planning and the consequent demand for environmental planners, the course on MPEP is designed so as to equip the students with necessary knowledge and skills essential for comprehending an environmental problem, examining the correlated issues in order to generate agreeable and pragmatic solutions. The course shall endeavour to develop an understanding of various aspects of environmental planning and management by introducing an array of subjects, namely, environmental economics, environmental monitoring, environmental policies and legislation, environmental impact assessment, natural management, bio- diversity, climate changes, etc.

The curriculum, MPEP, is spread across four semesters with each semester having a studio exercise based on the theoretical inputs provided during the semester. The first semester shall aim at building foundation of planning where students would be introduced to the basics of planning for a human settlement. The program will be supported by well equipped GIS and Computer labs for carrying out spatial and non spatial analyses incorporated in the curriculum. In addition to the normal lecture sessions, students will be encouraged to join research projects, workshops, competitions and other knowledge exchange programmes to enlarge their domain of experience and learning.

Master of Planning (Transport Planning and Logistics Management)
Master of Planning (Transport Planning and Logistics Management) is offered by the Department of Transport Planning as a two year post graduate programme. It is proposed to be introduced in the institute in July 2018.
In India, the share of the urban population is expected to increase to 40 per cent of total population by the year 2021. There is a tremendous increase in the personalized mode of transport in urban areas. With increase in population and number of private vehicles, issues in urban areas are also taking different dimensions. Transportation issues are one of the severe issues faced in many of the Indian cities. Lack of land use transport integration, coordinated planning, manpower, etc., leads to congestion, increase in accidents, pollution and wastage of national resources.
Sustainable urban transport, seamless public transport availability and provision for NMT are the objectives of National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) 2014 where people become centre stage. These objectives can be met only by creating specialized experts in academic, research and various implementing agencies including private and government agencies.
Transport & logistic Planners play a key role in ensuring that transport systems are efficient and equitable. For this, they need to understand the core principles, techniques and concepts that underpin the discipline. Compulsory modules ensure that all students, whatever their background, have a solid foundation including policy, economics, planning, modeling and data analysis. Optional modules then allow for specialization and expertise in specific areas. The focus of this programme is on planning and engineering solutions to transport issues, particularly how the design of systems determines the nature of flow of people and goods being transported. Students learn how to use planning aspects to meet the challenges of integrating different modes of transport and make it more sustainable.
The programme aims to address the complexities faced in the domain of transport and logistics planning in regions and develop innovative approaches to improving cities and regions.Emphasis has been laid on integrating theory and studio contents and application of theoretical inputs in the studio.

Bachelor of Architecture (Five Year Degree Programme)
As part of the school charter and mission, the architecture department of the school is providing a vibrant design culture, ensuring that its graduates are not only valued by the architectural practice, but are also able to make a critical contribution to the future of the profession. The school has put efforts in the development of an open studio culture, in which students at all levels can learn from each other, how the innovative ideas are generated and developed as well as develop an in-depth practical knowledge through independent and original research.

Bachelor of Planning (Four Year Degree Programme)
After the implementation of the 74th Constitution Amendment Act, 1992,which has empowered urban local bodies significantly to undertake developmental works, the need for qualified planners at all levels has increased significantly. The B. Plan. course is an endeavor to bridge this gap of planning professionals in the country. In a country where urbanization has been on a steady rise since independence, and escalated significantly in recent years; planning professionals need to be trained in handling the myriad problems which come along with urbanization.