Walter Hermann Peters, born in Durban in 1948, has distinguished himself over the full spectrum of architectural achievement: scholarship, research, teaching, practice and dedicated service to the profession.

A merit student at the Deutsche Schule Hermannsburg, Walter Peters went on to study Architecture at the University of Natal, graduating with a B Arch degree in 1972.  He proceeded to Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University to study Environmental Conservation, graduating with the M Sc degree in 1974; and then crowned his academic pursuit with the degree Dr-Ing from the University of Hannover, Germany, in 1981.

As a Professor of Architecture at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Walter Peters has maintained and advanced the reputation set by his distinguished predecessors at the School of Architecture in the study of architectural history, and that of Southern Africa in particular.  He has been instrumental in the realm of architectural and urban conservation, in which fields of study he has authored and edited several books and numerous publications.  By dedicating himself in these spheres of architecture, he has made a scholarly contribution to the documentation and preservation of South African architecture.

As general editor of the quarterly and latterly triennial KZ-NIA Journal, Walter Peters has for over 21 years, made a prodigious and sustained contribution to the prestige of the architectural profession, not only in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal but nationally and also internationally.  Through the Journal he has become an emissary for promoting South African architecture and at the same time, he has maintained an exceptional record of readability, topicality and editorial excellence.  The Journal reaches out to a wide readership, and its contents has nurtured a greater appreciation of architecture in the public domain.

By the medium of the KZ-NIA Journal, and his involvement over many years on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of the South African Institute of Architects, Walter Peters has upheld and enhanced the standing, role and cultural status of South African architects and their architecture.

The Medal of Distinction of the South African Institute of Architects is made to Walter Hermann Peters in recognition of his dedicated and ongoing commitment to the profession to the benefit of the members of this Institute.