Boogertman + Partners

Boogertman + Partners was established in 1982 and has grown into one of the largest architecture, interior design, urban design and graphic design studios operating in Africa, with offices in Johannesburg (Waterfall City), Pretoria, Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Durban, Nairobi and London, and a portfolio of major public and commercial projects across South Africa, the wider continent and the Middle East. Its work spans stadiums, airports, corporate headquarters, retail and mixed-use developments, and large public infrastructure, giving the firm a prominent public profile in South African architecture well beyond its size as a private practice, and its principals and associates are active in South African professional bodies such as the South African Institute of Architects. The studio's growing footprint in Nairobi and London also reflects a deliberate push over the past decade to build a presence beyond South Africa's borders, as major clients increasingly commission work across multiple African markets from a single design team.

The firm's bursary programme is explicitly framed around transformation of the architecture profession itself, which remains one of the more racially and economically exclusive built-environment disciplines in South Africa because of the length and cost of the qualification path - typically a bachelor's degree followed by an Honours or Master's professional qualification before registration. Boogertman + Partners states the bursary's purpose as addressing the historical inequalities of South Africa's past by giving previously disadvantaged students who could not otherwise afford it the chance to complete an Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Interior Design or Urban Design qualification, rather than treating it as a generic marketing or recruitment exercise. Architecture in South Africa also remains a financially demanding pipeline even before full professional registration is reached, since most students must complete periods of practical training alongside or after their studies - a further barrier a bursary alone cannot solve, but which the firm's own internship structure is designed to fold directly into supervised, structured work experience rather than leaving graduates to find a placement on their own.

In return for funding, the firm requires successful bursars to complete an internship at Boogertman + Partners equal in length to the number of years the bursary was paid for - a confirmed work-back obligation, structured as practical in-house experience rather than a cash repayment or a separate fixed-term employment contract. Applicants are required to submit a completed application form along with two testimonials, one from their high school headmaster and one from their tertiary institution's Head of Department, sent to the firm's dedicated bursary email address, reflecting a fairly hands-on, relationship-based selection process compared to some of the larger corporate bursary schemes on this site.

Because the firm operates across six cities on two continents, its bursary intake is not tied to a single regional office, and successful applicants may complete their required internship at whichever Boogertman + Partners studio best matches their specialisation and the firm's project needs at the time.