Demonstrate to future employers that you have a diverse skill set and impressive practical experience by interning at one of Cape Town’s leading architectural firms. We facilitate architecture internship opportunities in both commercial and residential projects as well collaborating with firms that focus on sustainable architecture and design.
The best architecture internships in Cape Town?
We think so. We pride ourselves on delivering customised internship placements and on the ground support that offer life-changing, valuable professional experiences.
Cape Town’s architecture reflects South Africa’s varied historical influences and it is an amazing place to gain hands on work experience whilst applying your education based knowledge in a practical way. We facilitate architecture internship opportunities in both commercial and residential projects as well as collaborating with firms that focus on sustainable architecture and design.
Some of the areas an architecture intern could be involved in are: restructuring of existing designs, creating models for new designs, conducting research on existing and potential new sites, technical documentation, tender documentation, service coordination, sourcing products and finishes, collaborating with construction teams, meeting new clients to discuss upcoming projects and liaising with interior designers.
Read on for a full overview of the best architecture internships in Africa.
Here's what you can expect from the programme in a nutshell!
Of course, the list is much longer - but these are the skills our intern alumni reported back that they grew in the most!
We managed to grab some detailed interviews from previous interns on this programme, you can click on them below.
What separates Bridging Gaps from every other company is there love for what they do and the city that they live in. They truly care for each of their interns and provide tremendous help and support through the entire duration of the internship.
What might your programme in this career field look like? Here's how it has typically shaped up for our alumni!
Arrival & orientation. Introduction to Cape Town, your accommodation and your internship host organisation and colleagues.
Get stuck into your Architecture internship placement and establish yourself with your organisation. Come to our free social events.
Enjoy a great work-life balance, getting out and about to see the sites alongside working hard on your internship.
Pick up more responsibility in your internship as you prove your capability. Enjoy regular activities in Cape Town outside of work. Come to another social!
Now you're flying (metaphorically) at work, you'll be more and more autonomous. Expect to pick up even more challenges!
Internship is going swimmingly, now go and do something crazy like swimming with some great white sharks or abseiling off of a mountain.
Regularly enjoy the benefits of Cape Town and at work, gather materials needed for portfolio (e.g. references from us and provider).
Putting the finishing touches to your internship and gathering feedback from us and your internship provider for use in your academic / career portfolio. Finalise paperwork for university (if needed)
Here's what others said when they applied. Some of these people came just for this career area, some mixed it with other career fields too...
What makes our internship programmes a worthwhile investment? Here's a swift overview of what you can expect!
We have two primary programmes to suit your needs. In some instances we also offer virtual placements.
You can come for as long as you need without paying any extra fees.You'll receive the same level of support.
We are 100% on your side. We guarantee every aspect of your trip with unrivalled promises.
Need to focus on a precise niche or two? No problem! Your programme can focus on your specialist areas.
We'll help you engage with the culture and personal benefits of being in a foreign country.
Save on travel and accommodation costs, pay a far lower fee. All while building your professional network.
We will handle all aspects of academic accreditation, including direct liaison with your tutors and academic staff.
We will write full reference letters for your placement(s) to optimise future employers' first impression of you.
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Here are some current or recent internship job opportunities in this career area. We do not publish all openings - so please contact us to hear about others.
Get in touch.
We have worked very hard to streamline our process to make your experience easy, fun and highly rewarding personally and professionally. Flick through the steps below, or read about our process in more detail.
Getting your dream internship all starts with you saying hello! Just pop your details into our enquiry form and we'll reach out to schedule a conversation with you that we call a 'discovery call'.
In your discovery call, you can ask us any questions you still have. We'll talk about your options in the career fields you've told us you're interested in to help you imagine your placement and decide if our service is right for you.
If everything sounds good to you, complete your application to put into words your dream programme. This forms the basis of the 'design' of your customised placement and will be the primary framework against which we validate potentially suitable opportunities.
We maintain a large and varied network of the best organisations in Cape Town. We will identify the best potential fits for your programme goals and preferences and reach out on your behalf to assess those organisations for suitability (learn about their current projects and initiatives).
Once you've confirmed which placement offer you prefer, we'll start helping you plan the rest of your trip. We'll book your accommodation, help with your travel arrangements and provide extensive advice and information on how to get ready for your time in Cape Town. Your Bridging Gaps mentor will be on hand to make sure you're fully prepared for your placement.
Finally, every member of our team will move mountains to make sure you get what you came for and MORE! It's essential to us that you're safe, you're learning and growing in confidence and developing the most important skills for your future career.
Our programme fees are shown below, for a full description of our service offering please click to view the programme or a side-to-side comparison.
Comprehensive support
Visa & travel assist
Accommodation assistance
Social events & excursions
... and lots more
We've answered some specific questions about this internship programme below.
There are many ways to go about getting an architecture internship abroad. The simplest and most popular is to go through an agency that can source the best opportunities for you and assist in the logistics of your internship planning. When choosing a provider it is important to look at their services, their fees affiliated with their programmes, the partners they work with and the success rate and reviews from their previous interns.
For most countries, the baseline requirement for becoming an architect would be to gain a bachelor's of architecture from an accredited institution. Courses you can expect to be covered include, architectural design, visualisation, history, environmental systems and calculus.
Architecture can be a very profitable industry to get involved with. As the qualifications are not easy to obtain, they are in high demand and entry-level jobs are relatively higher paying than other industries.
Since South African law prohibits any foreign nationals from doing any form of paid work in the country without a valid working visa, all architecture internship opportunities for international visitors are unpaid. Local South African's can get paid for an internship but paid opportunities are difficult to find. A lot of companies offer a small stipend to cover travel and other costs. The wage that architecture interns can expect to earn in other countries very much depends on the location and type of company they work for. Architecture interns will generally be offered a higher wage in places where the cost of living is higher.
Every country offers a unique internship experience and will attract people for different reasons. Cape Town was recognized as the World Design Capital in 2014 and the country's rich cultural heritage is showcased in contemporary new developments. The city is home to a wide range of dynamic architecture firms that work on residential, industrial and commercial projects, urban design and sustainable/green projects. Spain is also a popular country for architecture internships with its major cities boasting a mix of state of the art buildings alongside historical buildings which are famous for their incredibly unique design. Toronto, Canada and Tokyo, Japan have also been popular cities in recent years for architecture internships.
Interns can expect to be involved in a variety of projects and tasks during their internship including; liaising with clients at the start of a project, working on design briefs, sketching, office administration, site visits, collaborating with construction teams and engineers, liaising with local authorities, project management and technical documentation.
Not necessarily, however it is required that you have already embarked on an architecture course, or have been accepted to do so within the next year. A good understanding of maths, as well as an interest in design and drawing are also beneficial.
The internship organisation you work for depends on your own personal and professional goals, as well as your previous experience. We base our placement search completely on your interests and goals and then it is at the discretion of the local firms we contact, whether they offer you an internship or not. We work with a wide range of local architecture firms in Cape Town- some internationally recognised large firms, and some locally focused small firms.
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Hi, we're really sorry but we are no longer offering internship opportunities in this career field. However, we wish you the best with your search.