The history of School of Architecture and Urban Planning, which currently owns three undergraduate majors - architecture, urban planning and landscape architecture, can be traced back to the late 1950s. The first two majors were founded in 1959 and due to the adjustment of national policy in 1960, urban planning was incorporated into architecture. Undergraduate education was suspended after the graduation of the first undergraduates in 1963. The university began again to enroll urban planning undergraduates in 1979 and architecture undergraduates in 1984. The Department of Architecture was established in 1985. In 1993 the art and design undergraduate major was opened, which was later split to form the Department of Art and Design in 1999. In July 2004, the Department of Architecture was renamed as School of Architecture and Urban Planning.
The school has 112 staffs, 100 of whom are professional teachers including 19 professors and 27 associate professors. Eighty-five percent of staffs have master's or above degree, including 17 doctors and 17 candidate doctors. There are a number of high-level talents including national distinguished teachers, national excellent teachers, State Council Expert for Special Allowance, members of National Urban Planning Professional Guidance Committee and National Architecture & Urban Planning Professional Assessment Committee, experts with outstanding contributions to Shandong province, and Shandong teaching experts in the school.
In cooperation with the Auckland Institute of Technology in New Zealand in 2006, the school began to enroll 4+1.5 architecture undergraduates. The school set up solar building integration major in collaboration with Linuo Group in 2007. In 2009 the school opened landscape architectural design major which was renamed as landscape architecture in 2010. The majors of architecture and urban planning respectively passed national professional education assessment in 2000 and 2004, both of which were first in their kinds in Shandong province. Urban planning passed the six-year-validity assessment in 2008, which made Shandong Jianzhu University the 9th university which passed the assessment in China. In 2012 the major of architecture passed the seven-year-validity assessment, which made the major reach the national leading level. The major of architecture was approved as the first-class characteristic major by the Ministry of Education in 2007, and in 2009 the major of urban planning was recognized as a brand major in Shandong province. The school has two national and three provincial excellent courses, and two provincial teaching teams.
The major of architectural design and theory has been a provincial key discipline since the 10th Five-year Plan period, and the major of urban planning and design has been an intensively supported discipline in Shandong province during the 11th Five-year Plan period and a characteristic key discipline during the 12th Five-year Plan period. Both majors have teachers from the Taishan Scholar program. In 2006, the major of architecture was authorized to grant master's degree. After adjustment of national first-level disciplines in 2011, the majors of architecture, urban & rural planning, and landscape architecture were all authorized to grant master's degree. In 2012 the majors of architecture and urban & rural planning were authorized to grant professional master's degree. The school owns Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Energy-saving Technologies in Building and a key laboratory of renewable energy technology in buildings jointly by the province and the Ministry of Education. The school is currently undertaking a number of high-level programs including National Science & Technology Pillar Program during the 12th Five-year Plan Period and programs sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The research funds amounted to more than 30 million yuan. The school has published more than 50 scholarly works and textbooks, 400 articles of which more than 100 were published on core journals. The school has won more than 40 awards of provincial level or above on science & technology, teaching and design. Besides, the school has completed more than 100 urban planning and architectural design projects, making important contributions to the urban construction in Shandong Province.
In recent years, students of the school have won more than 100 awards in national students' architectural design works evaluation, national planning and design competition of university students and social practice survey report contest. Students have made impressive achievements in international solar building design competitions. The rate of employment of graduates has been maintained above 95%, and graduates from the school have made outstanding contributions to the urban construction in China earning good reputations.
Over the past five decades, the school, with great efforts of generations of people, has cultivated more than 3000 professional and technical personnel, who have made huge contributions to local economy and urban construction. The school has become a high-level undergraduate education school with complete master's degree granting rights in the field of human settlement environment. Also, the school's discipline building is leading in the province, and its characteristics and influence are recognized nationwide. The school is the most important talent cultivation base in the field of urban construction in Shandong province.
