School of Architecture (SA) was established in 1966 within the walls of the Kazakh Polytechnic Institute named after V.I. Lenin, based on two departments: “Urban Planning” and “Descriptive Geometry.” However, the first enrollment in the architecture program took place in 1961.
The founder of the national architectural school is Toleu Kulchamanovich Basenov, the first Kazakh scholar-architect, a graduate of the Leningrad School of Architecture, and a student of Professor V.L. Hoffman and Academician A.V. Shchusev. T.K. Basenov was the first Chairman of the Union of Architects of Kazakhstan, established in 1936, a Candidate of Architecture, a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Architecture and Construction of the USSR, and an Honored Builder of the Kazakh SSR. He made significant efforts in creating a center for architectural training at KazPTI.
In 1980, based on the engineering and construction, architectural, and sanitary-technical faculties of KazPTI and the All-Union Engineering and Construction Institute (AUECI), the Almaty Institute of Architecture and Civil Engineering (AIACE) was established, with an enrollment of over 3,000 students. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of the teaching staff, it was transformed in 1998 into the Kazakh State Academy of Architecture and Civil Engineering, later becoming the Kazakh Leading Academy of Architecture and Civil Engineering.
Leading educators such as B.A. Glaudinov, B.Kh. Shakerbai, V.D. Kakorin, S.R. Bukeykhanov, A.Z.. Abilov, M.I. Reshetnyev, B.U. Kuspangaliyev, S.G. Kosmeridi, A.T. Tulebiev, K. Sarbagisov, Z.M. Chivazov, G.K. Sadvokasova, N.Z. Kozbagarova, G.R. Iskhodzhanova, and G.S. Abdrasilova played a crucial role in revitalizing the training of specialists in the field of architecture and construction.
Over the years, the Faculty of Architecture at KazGASA has made a tremendous contribution to preparing highly qualified architects for Kazakhstan and the CIS countries.