Architecture (DIA)

Overview

Course content and objectives

The focus is on strengthening the knowledge in design expertise and methodology. Another focus is on the analysis of current questions related to culture and social sciences as well as to the humanities. Also the latest insights into research and development, new procedures, technologies and materials are highlighted.

Welcome to the DIA, the Dessau International Architecture Graduate School!

At the Architecture (DIA) program from Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, we are proud to offer a kind of architecture education that you won’t find anywhere else in Germany. In a unit system focused on intensive work in small studios — run by a great variety of professionals both from within the university and from architecture offices all around the world — we offer a design-oriented curriculum, leading to an internationally accredited Master of Arts Degree.

In almost twenty years, the DIA has established itself as a lively architecture school of international acclaim. Founded as the Dessau Institute of Architecture in 1999, the DIA quickly grew into Germany’s largest English Language Graduate programme in architecture. To reflect this while sticking with its original label, the DIA was later dubbed Dessau International Architecture Graduate School.

Today, with more than 200 students in its two-year programme, the DIA offers an inspiring atmosphere to study architecture. In a community that is truly international, young people from over 50 different countries meet in Dessau. They all join to study architecture in a place that is unique — and has a great legacy. The Bauhaus, to the west of our campus, still lures thousands of people to Dessau. With the DIA, Dessau once more is home to an architecture school, attracting young talents from all over the world. Again, Dessau is the place to explore topical questions, just as the Bauhaus did in its day, and probably would do if it was still there today.

Once more, the question is: What should the world that we live in be like? How does it look? How does it feel? And once more, the focus is on design education. We firmly believe that architects are responsible for providing society with the forms it needs. Hence, we design. We believe our knowledge ought to be in form.