- Architectural professionals
- Each registered with SACAP
- Town planners
- Each registered with SACPLAN
- First consultation
- Free of charge; we reply within a working day
- Office
- 35 Fricker Road, Illovo, Johannesburg
Architecture and design
Drawings that start from your property’s rights
Where projects begin
- An extension, a second storey or a garage Building Plans Preparation
- Plans drawn and ready to submit Building Plans Submission
- A sale held up for want of approved plans Retrieval of Approved Building Plans
- Rooms or outbuildings built without approval Building Plans Preparation
- An approval that requires a site development plan Site Development Plans
- A design over the height or coverage limit Departures and Permissions
Glensburg’s architectural services in Johannesburg take a building from a brief to approved plans. We draw the plans, take them through the City’s approval, and find the plans it approved before, where they exist.
Each of our architectural professionals is registered with the South African Council for the Architectural Profession (SACAP). Every set of plans is signed by a person registered for that scope of work. Our town planners read the zoning before the first line is drawn, so the design starts inside what the scheme allows.
We prepare plans for houses, extensions and commercial buildings across Johannesburg, from Fourways and Bryanston to Melville, Kensington and Soweto, and submit them throughout Gauteng.
An example on this house
To add the two-storey wing, the owner would first need the house’s approved plans (part 3). The wing (part 4) is drawn inside the building lines and under the height limit (part 2). Its parking goes on the site plan (part 1), and the set then goes to the City for approval (part 5).
What a drawing set shows
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1. The site plan
Where the building stands and how cars enter and park. A larger site may also need a site development plan.
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2. The zoning limits
The building lines, height and coverage the scheme allows.
Services: Building Line Relaxation Departures and Permissions
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3. What is approved
The building as the City last approved it.
Services: Retrieval of Approved Building Plans
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4. The new work
Plans, sections and elevations of what is to be built.
Services: Building Plans Preparation
The sheet shows one house. Flats, offices and shops take the same five parts, on more sheets.
Four services
Our architectural services
A new building or an extension usually takes two of these: the drawings, then their approval. A property sale often needs only the fourth.
Building Plans Preparation
New buildings, extensions and alterations, drawn to the National Building Regulations and the property’s zoning.
When you build, add on or alter, or need as-built plans for work done without approval.
Building Plans Submission
The plans lodged with the City’s building control, its queries answered, and the set taken through to approval.
When the drawings are ready, or have come back from the City with comments.
Site Development Plans
The whole site laid out for the City’s planning department: buildings, access, parking, refuse and planting.
When your land use approval, or the scheme, calls for one before building plans.
Retrieval of Approved Building Plans
A building’s approved plans, traced in the City’s archive and copied.
When a buyer, bank or conveyancer asks for them, or an alteration must start from them.
When the rights come first
If the design needs more than the zoning allows, the planning application is decided before the plans are submitted.
Building Line Relaxation Departures and Permissions Rezoning Removal of Restrictive Conditions
Which drawings does your project need?
Send us the address or erf number and a line about what you want to build. Photographs or old plans help: email them to planning@glensburg.co.za.
From brief to occupation
How building plans are approved, and how long it takes
The National Building Regulations and Building Standards Act, 1977 governs the approval, the inspections and the occupation of a building. The land use scheme sets what may be built.
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Brief and survey
We measure what stands on the site and obtain the approved plans, if any exist.
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Zoning check
Coverage, height, building lines and parking are read from the land use scheme before design starts.
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Drawings
Plans, sections and elevations are drawn to SANS 10400, with the engineers’ designs where the work needs them.
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Submission
The City’s departments check the set. Once it is approved, building may lawfully begin.
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Inspections and occupation
The City inspects the work as it goes up, and issues an occupation certificate on request once the completion certificates are in.
Our working ranges, in weeks
From a complete submission to approval, and for archive copies from the request. They assume drawings that meet the zoning; each return for correction adds time. They come from our own work and are not undertakings.
Avoidable rework
Why building plans are refused, and what we check for
A refusal is seldom about the design itself. It usually comes from a requirement no one checked before the drawing began.
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Drawn beyond the zoning
Plans that exceed the coverage, height or building lines the scheme allows fail at the zoning check, however good the design.
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Gaps against SANS 10400
Fire separation, drainage, ventilation, structure and energy use are each assessed against the national standard.
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A condition on the title
A registered condition or servitude can bar a building the zoning would allow. The title deed shows it; a survey diagram may not.
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Rights not yet granted
Plans for a use or a size the zoning does not yet permit cannot be approved before the planning application succeeds.
Each of these can be found by reading the scheme and the title deed before design starts. That reading is the first thing our town planners do.
The practice
Who draws your plans, and where we submit them
The architectural professionals who sign your plans
They design the building, draw the set and answer building control’s queries, each within the scope of work their SACAP registration covers.
Town planners registered with SACPLAN
They read the zoning and the title deed, and run any application the drawings depend on.
Development advice
For a site not yet bought: how much the zoning allows on it, tested before anyone draws it.
Engineers and specialists we brief
Structural and civil engineers, fire and energy consultants, and land surveyors. We coordinate their work, and their fees are quoted apart from ours.
Where we submit building plans
To building control in Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Gauteng’s six other municipalities, and in eThekwini and Mahikeng. Each office has its own forms and checklists, and we work to each.
Questions
Questions about architectural services in Johannesburg
Not covered here? Call +27 10 442 5522.
These answers are general information on the law in October 2026. What applies to your property is confirmed at the first consultation.
When do I need approved building plans?
Before any new building goes up, and before a building is extended or its structure altered. A change in how a building is used often needs them too. Some minor building work needs only the City’s written permission, but that is still applied for before work starts.
How long does building plan approval take in Johannesburg?
Usually 4 to 8 weeks for a house, 8 to 12 for a commercial building, and 4 to 8 for a site development plan. We count from the day a complete set is lodged until it is approved. These are our own working ranges, not promises: a set returned for correction joins the queue again.
How much do building plans cost in Johannesburg?
Our fee for the drawings and their submission is one part. The City charges its own plan fee: by floor area for new buildings and additions, and by the value of the work for alterations. Engineers’ designs and certificates, an energy calculation and, for some buildings, a fire design are added if the building calls for them.
We quote in writing after the first consultation, once the brief is clear, and our fee is paid in stages as the drawings advance.
Do I need an architect, or can a draughtsperson draw my plans?
It depends on the building. Under the Architectural Profession Act, 2000, SACAP registers architectural professionals in four categories, and each may take on work up to a set level of complexity. A simple single-storey house can fall within a draughtsperson’s scope; larger or more complex buildings need a higher category. Our plans carry the signature of a professional whose category covers the building.
My house has no approved plans on record. What now?
We search the City’s archive first: plans are often on record even when an owner has never seen them. If there are none, or the house has changed since, it is measured and as-built plans are submitted for approval. Where the house exceeds the zoning, a planning application comes first.
Is a site development plan the same as building plans?
No. A site development plan shows the planning department how the whole site will be laid out; building plans show building control how each building is made. Where both are needed, the site development plan usually comes first.
Further reading: the scheme behind every drawing
What would you like to build?
The first consultation is free and carries no obligation. If your property does not need an application, we will say so.
What happens next
- TodayYou tell us about the propertyThe street address or erf number, and what you want to do.
- Within one working dayA planner replies
- First consultation, freeYou know where you standA first view of the drawings and approvals your project needs, then our quote in writing.