Thesis Submission Deadline - Summer Semester 2025

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© DIA

We would like to congratulate our 2nd-Year DIA students on finishing writing their thesis!

Please remember that, based on the official documents you received from SSC, the submission date is today, June 25th.

DEADLINE:
Date: Wednesday, June 25th, 2025.
Time: 18:00 h. (6:00 pm.)

Best,
Your DIA Team.

“Typology and now?” a ‘Dessauer Gespräch’ with Bilyana Asenova

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© Dessauer Gespräche

Inaugural lecture: Professorship for Building Science and Design

Bilyana Asenova completed her bachelor's degree in architecture at the New Bulgarian University in her hometown of Sofia. She completed her master's degree in architecture at DIA, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, where she received a DAAD scholarship.

After working in various architectural offices in Berlin, she founded UNAS Studio in 2020 together with Ignacio Bóscolo and Saša Ciabatti. The basis of their work, they say, is the desire for simple, poetic and meaningful architecture. Each project seeks to unfold a story and enter into a conversation with its users and environment.

Bilyana Asenova has been a Studio Master at the DIA since 2021, and a professor of building theory and design at the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences in Dessau since 2024.

The lecture will be held in German and translated into English.
It starts at 6.30 p.m. in the Lecture Hall of Building 08.

Date: June 25th, 2025.
Time: 6.30 p.m.
Place: Lecture Hall of Building 08.

Further events in Summer Semester 2025:

July 09 Prof. Karin Berkemann, inaugural lecture professorship for Architectural History and Monument Preservation.

Urban Densification and New Residential Typologies - Lecture / Women in Architecture Festival

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© WIA-Festival

Women shape architecture: they design rooms, buildings, facades and entire cities. The WIA (Women in Architecture) Festival, which takes place nationwide, makes these creative processes visible and focuses on the work of female architects. 

Within this year's Festival, Prof. Ariane Wiegner will be giving a lecture today with the title „Urban Densification and New Residential Typologies“.

The lecture is in Dialogue with Prof. Bettina Kraus - both will present their architectural positions on this topic. These will be illustrated using selected projects on the subject of sustainability in the context of urban redensification. With different perspectives, yet in dialogue.

Date: 19. Juni
Time: 16:30 Uhr - 20:00 Uhr
Place: Solarlux Showroom Berlin / Am Spreebord 9, Atelier 5 /10589 Berlin

Further information: https://solarlux.com/de-de/unternehmen/events/25-06-women-in-architecture-sh.html

DIA Alumnus wins the Charité Special Prize of Architecture for Health Student Award 2025

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© ENAH

Our Alumnus, Aidar Aminov, won the Charité Special Prize of the Architecture for Health Student Award 2025 with his project „Universal Rescue Module“, developed in the Thesis Studio „Days After the Disaster“ with Eric Helter.

The Architecture for Health Student Award honors outstanding master theses on the theme of Architecture for Health. The prize is intended to promote work in the field of architecture & urban planning for health and to encourage students to engage in this important topic. In collaboration with the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the „Charité Special Prize“ is awarded to one student work with exceptional focus on sustainable hospital planning.

Aidar, who graduated from DIA in 2023, says about his project:

„…rescue medical services around the world still do not have a universal tool that could serve the world and be in the arsenal of the UN and the Red Cross and be sent to the disaster zone. There is no universal modular, transportable structure that could be delivered to the disaster zone in the shortest possible time to be assembled.  (…) The universal rescue module for medicine is delivered by a rescue team in the first 24 hours by air directly to the disaster zone both on water and on land, and immediately provides medical assistance. Its versatility lies in the fact that the module can be used on land as a hospital, as well as on the water becoming a rescue craft.“

The jury of the award praised the proposal as it „addresses a very relevant issue in the context of global disasters“.
„In this work, the jury particularly recognizes the examination of the humanitarian consequences of global disasters and the intensive examination of the question of how a contribution can be made to alleviating them. The fact that the design proposal also includes serial production and reusability is rated positively. Against this background and due to the great actuality and social relevance of the topic, the jury decided to honor the work with this year's Charité Special Prize.“

Congratulations to Aidar for this important achievement in his career.

Further information:
https://dieneue-charite.de/en/news/charite-sonderpreis-2025
https://www.enah.eu/charite-prize-aidar-aminov

C+ Culinary Culture - DIA INTERNATIONAL KITCHEN

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© C+

As part of the Studio „C+ Culinary Culture - Designing a Museum of Taste“ led by Huong Vu, the students are working on projects which have the culinary experience at it's center. 

Culinary culture is a universal language that connects people through traditions, innovation and shared sensory experiences. No form of immigration is as widely embraced as cuisine. Culinary fusion, shaped by complex historical encounters, has endured beyond colonialism, evolving into a cultural force that transcends borders and time.

The Museum of Taste envisions a dynamic space where the history, social significance, and evolution of gastronomy come alive through immersive experiences. Unlike traditional museums focused on visual and textual narratives, this museum engages all senses—especially taste and smell—transcending conventional restrictions and regulations of museography. It functions more like a living organism, akin to fermentation, rather than merely preserving artifacts.

Inspired by this idea, the Studio has organized a communal cooking and dining event aimed at connecting students from the English and German Master's programs in Architecture, bringing people together through food — not only as a concept in architectural design but also as a lived experience.

Information about the event:
Date: Thursday, June 19th.
Place: VorOrt (Wolfgangstraße 13, 06844 Dessau-Roßlau).
Time: 5:00 pm.

“Urban finds - perspectives on the existing and the future” a ‘Dessauer Gespräch’ with Julia Köpper

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© Dessauer Gespräche

„Urban finds - perspectives on the existing and the future“ inaugural lecture professorship for urban development and structural change a ‘Dessauer Gespräch’ with Julia Köpper

Julia Köpper is an architect and urban planner. She plans, teaches and researches in the area of ​​tension between spatial design and social issues.

After studying architecture in Berlin and Paris and urban studies in Weimar, she worked in various architecture and landscape architecture offices, including Christian de Portzamparc (Paris), Topotek1 (Berlin) and Gehl Architects (Copenhagen). In parallel to teaching and research at TU Berlin, TU Braunschweig and LU Hannover, she has been running the architecture collective Octagon in Leipzig with four other partners since 2015. As part of the collective, she works at the interface between built objects and urban space. Her passion is to research urban space with its dynamics and to design according to these findings - whether in urban development, through urban intervention or as a participatory process.

From March 2024 to March 2025, together with her office partner Henry Fenzlein, she held the professorship for urban planning and design at the Technical University of Nuremberg.

Since October 2024, she has been professor of urban development and structural change at the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences in Dessau and head of the master's program in sustainable urban development.

The lecture will be held in German and translated into English.
It starts at 6.30 p.m. in the Lecture Hall of Building 08.

Date: June 18th, 2025.
Time: 6.30 p.m.
Place: Lecture Hall of Building 08.

Further events in Summer Semester 2025:

June 25 Prof. Bilyana Asenova, inaugural lecture professorship for Building Theory and Design.

July 09 Prof. Karin Berkemann, inaugural lecture professorship for Architectural History and Monument Preservation.

"Material as a co-creator - future-oriented construction" a ‘Dessauer Gespräch’ with Fabian Onneken, KO/OK Architektur Leipz

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© Dessauer Gespräche

KO/OK Architektur was founded in 2016 by Jan Keinath and Fabian Onneken in Leipzig and Stuttgart. Together with their team, they plan and realize projects in the areas of architecture, interiors and furniture.

With a special focus on materialization and craftsmanship, they design lively and characterful new construction, conversion and renovation projects of a wide variety of stripes in a joint process with their clients.

https://ko-ok.cc

The lecture will be held in German and translated into English.
It starts at 6.30 p.m. in the Lecture Hall of Building 08.

Date: June 11th, 2025.
Time: 6.30 p.m.
Place: Lecture Hall of Building 08.

Further events in Summer Semester 2025:

June 18  Prof. Julia Köpper, inaugural lecture professorship for Urban Development and Structural Change.

June 25  Prof. Bilyana Asenova, inaugural lecture professorship for Building Theory and Design.

July 09  Prof. Karin Berkemann, inaugural lecture professorship for Architectural History and Monument Preservation

SAVE THE DATE: Campus Fest 2025!

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© DIA

On Friday, July 11th, we'll celebrate our traditional Campus Fest in Dessau.
It will be a day to visit exhibitions and see academic projects from different programs, a day to enjoy good music and good food, a day to celebrate our DIA graduation ceremony (more information coming soon), and to share with all your Dessau colleagues and friends.

If you're interested in having an active participation, we're looking for:

• Bands / musicians who can play during the festival on one of the stages. You require previous inscription.
• People interested in making henna tattoos (The uni also provides the materials)
• People interested in painting children's faces/ doing artistic makeup for kids. (The uni also provides the materials)
• People interested in selling their art (illustrations, ceramics, paintings, embroidery, etc.)
• People interested in selling their food.

If you would like to participate, please email me: mauricio.sosa-norena@hs-anhalt.de

We're looking forward to your messages!

Procedere for Blue Keys

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Dear All,

The procedure for blue keys for this summer semester has been updated again. If you still need a Blue Key, please proceed as follows.

1) Fill out the application for a Blue Key (available here), signed by your studio professor

2) pay a deposit of 50 EUR to the following account;

Deutsche Bundesbank

BAN: DE69 8100 0000 0081 0015 09

BIC: MARKDEF1810

Reference: 9210 4402 01 + Name_First Name

3) To pick up your blue key for Building 8, please submit the application and the payment receipt to Mr. Emir-Han Aslan, Building 8, Room 185.

Office hours:

Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

For the other buildings (2 and 3), you will receive an email from Mr. Patrick Lehretz informing you that you can pick up your key at the Security Center/Post Office in Building 4 once your key has been programmed.

All keys must be returned by July 31, 2025. Please hand in your key together with the completed return form (available here)) to Mr. Emir-Han Aslan in Building 8, Room 185.

The deposit will be refunded upon return. Workstation keys that are not returned on time will be invalidated and removed from the system; the deposit will then not be refunded but used to obtain a new key. After 31.7.2025, all workstation keys will be reprogrammed and will then be available again for the following semester.

Best regards

Heike

Midterm Presentations: Studio Huong Vu

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© Huong Vu

You're all invited to attend the midterm presentations from Studio „C+ Culinary Culture - Designing a Museum of Taste“ with Huong Vu on Thursday, May 22nd.

Guest: Tuan Dung Nguyen (IKE- TU Braunschweig).
Place: Room 03/103
Time: 10:30 am - 12:00 pm. / 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm.

Midterm Presentations: Studio Förster

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© DIA

Studio „Come Together“ with Prof. Catharina Förster will be presenting their Midterms today.

Guest: Pastor Grötzsch from Christuskirche Dessau Ziebigk.
Place: Room 08/152
Time: 10:00 am. - 2:00 pm.

Midterm Presentations: Studio Lee + Wilms

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© Lee + Wilme

Tomorrow, 22nd of May, we'll have the Midterm Presentations of Studio: „ETA: ADAPTIVE REUSE: RETHINKING DOMESTIC SERVICES AS A HEATSHIELD“ - Jolene Lee and Malte Wilms

Guest: Arina Yanovych, RRRArchitecture

Program:

09:00 Introduction

09:05 Presentations

13:00 Lunch Break

14:00 Presentations

15:00 Group Discussion

Date: 22.05.2025, 09:00-15:30
Room: 08/155

DIA 1st-Year Studio Midterm Presentations

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© DIA

This week, we continue with our DIA Midterm Presentations.

1st-Year Studios will present on May 21st-22nd and May 28th.

Place:

Studios in Building 08, rooms 152, 153 and 155

Building 03 - Rooms 103

Time: Starting at 9:00 am.

You're all cordially invited.
For further information on rooms and times, please check the schedule, or our Incom account, where we'll publish more detailed information.

24 Days - 16 People - 4 Designs | Architecture Workshops at aac Academy for Architectural Culture, Hamburg

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© aac

Apply to the acc workshop in Hamburg.

In three and a half weeks (24 days), you will work intensively in four international groups of 4 students each (16 participants in total) on a contribution to a future-relevant architectural topic (4 designs in total). Supported by your own tutor and under the guidance of a gmp partner, you will be able to develop your design in discussion with prestigious architects.

**Costs:
**aac candidates can apply for two main benefits. The first is the gmp Foundation scholarship, which covers the tuition fees for the course in Hamburg and the excursion location, including all working materials. The second is free accommodation in Hamburg (shared room) during the workshop and at the excursion site, provided by aac. More information: www.aac-hamburg.com/education/apply/

aac autumn workshop 2025
Date: 03 September – 26 September
Application deadline: 10 June 2025

Further information: https://www.aac-hamburg.com/education/next-courses/ 

Text: aac / gmp Stiftung

Saxon University Sports Festival

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© LHS

Dear students and staff,

On 13th and 14th of June, the Saxon University Sports Festival will take place at the Police University in Rothenburg. Teams from all of Saxony's universities will be meeting up over the weekend.

Various competitions are on offer, including the Neisse Adventure Race on Friday 13th of June. This involves a 6 km run, a 5 km boat trip and a short obstacle course.

There will also be an archery duathlon on Saturday 14th of June. A team of two will cycle and run alternately to the shooting range and do archery there.

Experience has shown that there will also be an evening event.

There are still places available for the Neisse Adventure Race. If you are interested, please contact Christian Pfütze [Christian.Pfuetze@hs-anhalt.de](mailto: Christian.Pfuetze@hs-anhalt.de)

Accommodation would take place in a tent on the grounds of the police academy.

For further information, please visit: https://www.lhs-shsf.de  

Text: Christian Pfütze

Conference: Contested Spaces Researching Heritage, Identity & the Politics of Urban Development

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© Karan Saharya

You're all cordially invited to today's talk by Karan Saharya organised by  COOP Master's Program.

How can we analyse spatial transformations in places that are shaped by deep cultural histories and contemporary political contestations? Drawing on years of research at the intersection of heritage and urbanism, this talk explores how grounded, site-based inquiry can open up new ways of thinking about space and architecture. Insights from ongoing doctoral work in Varanasi, India will be presented, where different research methods, from spatial mapping, textual analysis and ethnography, are used to understand sacred and contested sites. The lecture will also reflect on how to design, structure and effectively communicate a research project – from framing questions, to forming methodologies, and working with diverse sources. The session is especially relevant for students developing their graduate thesis projects or contemplating further research.

Speaker Bio

Karan Saharya is an architect from New Delhi, based in Berlin. He is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Architecture & Urbanism, Bauhaus-Universität in Weimar, on a DAAD Doctoral Research Scholarship. His current research focuses on contested religious spaces, heritage and urban displacement. He is also an Associated Researcher with the DFG Graduiertenkolleg 2227 ‘Identity & Heritage’ at Technische Universität Berlin, and teaches at the DIA Hochschule Anhalt in Dessau.

Previously, he was affiliated with the City Science group at MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, taught at the Faculty of Architecture at CEPT University in Ahmedabad, and consulted with UN-HABITAT in Nairobi. Karan received a Master in Design Studies with Distinction from Harvard University, where he was awarded grants from the South Asia Institute, the Best Thesis Prize, and the Gerald M. McCue Medal which is the highest honour for academic excellence at the Graduate School of Design.

Place: Bauhaus Studio (2nd Floor, Bauhaus Building, Gropiusallee 38, Dessau)
Time: 5:00 PM

Interested guests are welcome, but space is limited - there’s also a meeting link below for online participation.

Contact: [elke.beyer@hs-anhalt.de](mailto: elke.beyer@hs-anhalt.de)

Meeting-Link:

https://hs-anhalt.webex.com/hs-anhalt/j.php?MTID=mf7657d1af9f36d4df1fb49be4750c86d

Meeting-Number: 2741 607 4881

Meeting-Password: 57reN4hgA8i

Midterm Presentations: Studio "Cultural sustainability at the old dockyards, Ghent"

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© Fredrik Skåtar

You're cordially invited to attend tomorrow's Midterm Presentations from Studio “Cultural sustainability at the old dockyards, Ghent” - Fredrik Skåtar.

Please check the poster for further information.

Co-Op! Young architecture - What's possible? Discussion forum and exhibition. Berlin - Hamburg

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© BDA

BDA Berlin and BDA Hamburg are presenting the joint exhibition Co-Op! as a critical statement on current professional practice.

Young architects have a special innovative power to think outside the box, are not afraid to take unconventional paths and enter into diverse co-operations. This gives them an opportunity to survive in a difficult market and make an important contribution to the urban community and building culture. What paths are young offices taking today to successfully obtain commissions, and what role do co-operations play as a strategic instrument?

The co-operations initiated by young colleagues that are the subject of the exhibition are exemplary and can be a stimulus for all architects to reflect on the conventional architecture business. After all, these young people often take paths that lie outside the canon of rules and demonstrate that new perspectives can be opened up despite the many regulations and guidelines.

From conventional planning to ecological process thinking. A contribution about shifting roles, shared thinking, and new perspectives. At the center: landscape architecture as a unifying force. A collective design – open, ecological, future-oriented.

The exhibition will open on May 16th at 7 pm at the BDA Galerie Berlin with presentations by the participating offices followed by an open discussion.

The exhibition will be on show at the BDA Galerie Hamburg from September 2025.

Further Information: https://www.bda-berlin.de/events/co-op-berlin/

Midterm Presentations - Studio "Density: The Beauty and the Agony"

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© Roger Bundschuh

You're cordially invited to attend today's Midterm Presentations from Studio „Density: The Beauty and the Agony“ - Roger Bundschuh.

Please check the poster for further information.

PROMPT–Counter-narratives for Tempelhofer Feld, Berlin

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© Architects4THF

Together with Arts of the Working Class, Architects4THF is launching a call for contributions to a flipside of September 2025 Issue № 38, “Choreography”—presenting counter-narratives for the future of Tempelhofer Feld

This is not just about Berlin. It is about land, power, public space, climate and the future of our cities. This is about us.

We are looking for 10–15 contributions—completed works or abstracts—that respond critically to the following themes:

• Public Green Spaces
• Land and Building Market
• Climate and Ecology
• Policy Instruments

Let us use this moment to reflect and resist. Let us shape the conversation from the ground up—starting with 75,000 copies on the street, shared by those most affected by the housing crisis.

Every copy sold will directly support the vendor—100% of the proceeds go to them. Your contribution makes that possible.

We invite everyone to contribute—architects, planners, writers, artists, researchers, activists, and critical thinkers. Be part of this international, multilingual publication.

Submit your contributions to prompt@architects4thf.com by 23 May 2025 23:59.

Download poster here.

For more information, please visit our Instagram or Website.

Text: Architects4THF