The Architecture Course was founded by Miguel Navarro Canizares in the year 1877, along with the foundation of the Academy of Fine Arts. The operation in this first phase was full of struggles and difficulties. Soon after the installation of the Academy, the architect José Nivaldo de Alieno organized the architecture course, which was initially installed at Solar Janotas Abato, at Rua 28 de Setembro - Centro. In 1937, Professor Osseo dos Santos took over the direction of the School of Fine Arts and reorganized the architecture course. However, this one still did not have national recognition and the acceptance of the professional practice of the architect was questioned.
The course was federalized in 1949, from the incorporation of the School of Fine Arts to the University. This recognition was given through the amendment No. 21 of the Law Project No. 494. Federalization assured the architects the full right to practice their profession throughout the country and would cause a future correction in the legislation of December 11, 1933, which assured civil engineers, almost all the professional fields of the architect, except: "essentially artistic and monumental works" and "great architectural decorations".
The successive competitions for the faculty animated the School and gave to the course of architecture a higher degree, within the university community, by the qualification of its professors.
In 1959, the School of Architecture separated from the School of Fine Arts, establishing itself in the building where the Library of the Education Secretariat was located, at Avenida Sete de Setembro, no. 377 - Vitória. Dr. Leopoldo Afrânio do Amaral took the direction, provisionally, and the first director elected was Professor Walter Velloso Gordilho, who was also the first representative at CREA. The curriculum of the architecture course was formulated, based on the concepts of the architect Lúcio Costa and the principles established at the Congress of the International Union of Architects, held in Lisbon in 1959: "To develop the plastic sensibility, the notion of space, the imagination, the visual memory, the sense of man and character. " In 1961 the Federal University of Bahia created the University Campus, seeking to transform this space into the great cultural center of the city. This center was settled in the neighbourhood of Federação and Ondina, being the Faculty of Architecture located at Rua Caetano Moura, no. 121 - Federação.
In 1962, the construction of the temporary pavilions that would serve as a college facility began. In 16th August 1963 the School was transferred from Vitória to Federação, but the works for the new headquarters did not begin until 1965. The project was elaborated by a commission composed by the professors Diógenes Rebouças, Américo Simas and Oscar Caetano Silva. The year of 1970 was marked by the implementation of the University Reformation, and the course subjects were grouped in 5 departments. In 1973, the portico and auditorium were completed. In the 1980's the School created goals to invigorate cultural activities, enabling the improvement of conditions for the development of research and graduate studies.