The School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shenzhen University (SAUP, SZU) originated from the former Department of Architecture established in 1983. It has kept up with the pace of the development of Shenzhen SEZ and Shenzhen University. During the formative years, SAUP was supported by the Department of Architecture at Tsinghua University. Tsinghua’s distinguished Professor Wang Tan served as the first Head of the Department of Architecture, SZU. In 1996, the department passed theassessmentbyNational Board of Architectural Accreditation of China (NBAA) and provided an undergraduate program (five-year) for the first time. In the same year, it was qualified to offer a postgraduate program for architectural design and theory. In 2001, the division of urban planning major was established, meanwhile, the first batch of undergraduate students was enrolled. In 2002, the Department of Urban Planning was established. It began to provide the program for Master of Urban Planning and recruited students since 2003.

In August 2006, the School of Architecture and Urban Planning was formed after the adjustment of disciplines and departments. It had twodepartmentsofArchitecture andUrbanPlanning, offering four postgraduate programs in architecture and urban studies; In 2011, it began to offer the first-levelmaster program inUrban andRuralPlanning; In 2012, the major ofArchitecture passed the postgraduate teaching assessment and provided a program for Master of Architecture. In 2016, the Department of Architecture passed the undergraduate and postgraduateassessmentbyNBAA, with Excellent Level feedback for undergraduatedesignteaching.

In 2017, SAUP established the Department of Landscape Architecture and the Department of Urban Informatics. In the same year, it passed the undergraduate teachingassessmentofUrban andRuralPlanning. In 2018, SAUP was approved to provide a first-level PhD program inArchitecture. The post-doctoral research platform was founded in 2019.

During the historical evolution of SAUP, many well-known scholars participated in design teaching and discipline development: Wang Tan（汪坦）, a Tsinghua’s Professor of Architecture, was the first Head of the Department. He devoted to forming SAUP’s pedagogical characteristic of "the integration of learning, research and production"; Professor Xu Anzhi（许安之）, the former Head of the Department, built and cultivated the undergraduate and postgraduate program for architecture discipline; During the leadership of Dean Chen Yanping（陈燕萍）, she promoted the evaluation of SAUP’s master program for architecture and urban planning; Zhong Dekun（仲德崑）, a specially appointed professor and previous Dean of SAUP, introduced Academician Meng Jianmin（孟建民）and Academician Guo Renzhong（郭仁忠）,initiatedthe discipline system of human settlements and built-environment, and improved the level of school management; Current Dean Fan Yue（范悦）, a specially appointed professor, has further promoted the innovation ofdesignteaching and scientific research. The discipline construction at SAUP has entered the new level of orderly and steady development.

After the continuous cultivation for nearly 40 years, SAUP has become an influential and emergent architecture school in Southern China. The school now offers four undergraduate majors in Architecture, Urban and Rural Planning, Landscape Architecture and Urban Informatics. It has post-doctoral and first-level doctoral programsin Architecture, two first-level master programs in Architecture and Urban and Rural Planning, a second-level master program in Geographic Information and Smart City, and other related undergraduate programsfor four departments. SAUP has built a "Trinity" pedagogical system of human settlementsand built environment, with the coordination of urban informatics research. Architecture major has been successivelyrewardedas the key discipline in Guangdong province,thenationalfeaturedspecialty accreditedbythe Ministry of Education, andotherhonors.Architecture, Urban and Rural Planning have also been ranked as the national top-level disciplines in mainland China.

At present, led by two Academician teams, 157 faculty members at SAUP strive for constructing a comprehensive discipline supported by Architecture, Urban and Rural Planning, Landscape Architecture and Urban Informatics. The design pedagogy at SAUP has formed a pattern of integrated development of teaching, research and practice, presenting experimental, innovative and multi-disciplinary characteristics. With the vision of building harmonious and sustainable environments, SAUP aims to achieve the mission of making an international and dynamic architecture educational institution.