Key Facts

Vienna
founded 1993
4 partners
40+ team members
100+ built projects in EU, China, USA, South America & Middle East

Specialized in

Cultural, Educational, Exhibition, Greenhouse, Healthcare, High Rise, Hotel & SPA, Industrial Design, Infrastructure, Interior Design, Landscape Design, Mixed Use, Office, Refurbishment, Residential, Retail & Urban Design

Delugan Meissl Associated Architects (DMAA) is an international architecture office based in Vienna, Austria.
The office addresses the social and ecological issues of today, in defiance of routine responses and with a passionate and relentless focus on the new and the unconventional.
Their vision: Creating spaces that meet the individual, social and cultural needs of people in their regional context. With their passion and love for experimentation, combined with professionalism, they have spent many years developing surprising and versatile high-quality architectural solutions. These are exemplified by flagship projects as the EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart and the Festspielhaus Erl.

DMAA was founded in 1993 by Elke Delugan-Meissl and Roman Delugan. They have run the office together with Dietmar Feistel and Martin Josst since 2004. DMAA is made up of an international team of over 40 architects, 3D engineers and other creatives. Their latest projects are being realised in Europe, China, Middle East and USA.

Places for People.
Engaging, empowering.

History

Storming into architecture

The history of the office begins with a jump into the deep end: The first buildings are already large-scale projects. Two towers, which are realised not far from one another in a residential area close to the UNO City in Vienna, illustrate creative flexibility: one design explores classical verticality, while the other reinterprets the residential tower as a horizontal beam.

The office achieves just as much creative freedom with a series of residential buildings. DMAA finds a wide range of answers on the subject of individuality: it piles two-storey apartments on top of each other in a way that generates a rich variety of interior spaces and façades. On another occasion, the floor plans are identical but the different positions of the windows vary the perception of the individual spaces widely. The climax is represented by a housing project, in which 47 multi-storey apartments interlock like the pieces of a 3D puzzle. Each apartment has its own individual floor plan and spatial character. With their remodelling of the roof level of a building in 1995 they make another powerful statement in the international architectural landscape.

BEAM, Austria, 1995

Shaping a position

In the 2000s, the office begins to be active beyond the Austrian borders. DMAA wins competitions with spectacular designs for cultural landmarks and attracts international attention. The emphatically contextual way of working, in which the building is very precisely positioned vis-à-vis its surroundings, shapes their architectural language. In Festspielhaus Erl this approach consolidates into a tectonically dynamic external form with sculptural qualities. The building is both a rock and a resonating body. The entire concert hall brings music to life, its wooden walls vibrating like those of a musical instrument.

At the eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, reflections on the functions of the cinema lead to a redefinition of the relationship between the screen and the entrance area. The design interprets the generous facility as a spacious arena and the cinema as a place of communication that offers an excellent visitor experience.

A further key project of this period is Porsche Museum Stuttgart. Close to the production facilities in the heart of an industrial zone, DMAA makes an emotional statement.

Carried by just three supports, the huge building volume detaches itself from the ground, freeing up the view of its surroundings. The entrance of visitors into the Porsche universe is precisely choreographed. The gentle inclination of the entrance area accelerates them as they move towards the demonstration workshop. From here, an escalator rises into the open air and then, abruptly, through a funnel-shaped opening into the heart of the extensive exhibition space.

PORSCHE MUSEUM, Germany 2008

New Horizons

In 2015, Elke Delugan-Meissl is appointed Commissioner of the Austrian contribution to the Architecture Biennale in Venice. As the movement of migrants towards Europe reaches a peak, DMAA and Liquid Frontiers develop a collaborative project that investigates the question of what architecture can contribute to society. Three teams are invited to realise temporary projects in three locations in Vienna, that are designed to improve the living conditions of the involved migrants. The presentation of the concrete results in the Austrian Pavilion vividly demonstrates the close relationship between physical spaces and social issues.

This respectful preoccupation with available space and its unused potential as a high-quality alternative to new-build projects is becoming increasingly important in the work of the office. This is exemplified by the former Kellogg’s production facilities and silos on the Port of Bremen. Here, the minimal architectural interventions reinterpret rather than override the existing. Precise interventions reinforce the established atmosphere of the place.

The past few years have witnessed the development of a close relationship with the Chinese Region that is illustrated by both new types of project and the new scale of the resulting buildings, which are designed in line with visitor numbers that are unlike those seen in Europe. The significant issues readdressed by such projects include the role of public space and our ecological awareness and appreciation of interrelationships in the natural world.

EXPO CULTURAL PARK SHANGHAI GREENHOUSE GARDEN, China, 2024

Network

Structural Engineering

Bollinger+Grohmann
Vasko+Partner
StructureCraft
Wh-p Ingenieure
Spirk + Partner

Energy Design

Transsolar
KlimaEngineering
Cody Energy Design
Weatherpark

Landscape Design

swa group
AgenceTer
Yiju Ding
Valentien + Valentien
rabe landschaften
rajek barosch landscape
YEWO landscape
DnD Landschaftsplanung

Mobility Design

Redas engineering

MEP

CES
Clean Energy Solutions

Signage Design

büro ueble
visuelle kommunikation
grafisches Büro, Vienna
buero bauer

Visualisation

Toni Nachev
EXPRESSIV
zoomVP

Clients
135 Porsche Museum Iwan Baan 005 exterior view 23
Porsche Museum
Germany
  • Cultural
  • Mixed Use
  • Built
143 eye film institute netherlands iwan baan 019 terrace
Eye Film Institute
Netherlands
  • Cultural
  • Built
257 Hyundai Motorstudio Goyang Katsuhisa Kida 047 detail facade
Hyundai Motorstudio Goyang
South Korea
  • Exhibition
  • Mixed Use
  • Office
  • Built
182 Festival Hall Erl bg 001
Festival Hall Erl
Austria
  • Cultural
  • Built

next to others:

6B47
Adidas
ARE
ATLANTIC Hotels
BIG
Deschamps-Braly
EYE Filmmuseum
Festspielhaus Erl
GEWOFAG
GARBE Immobilien

Hyundai
Land Baden- Württemberg
Landeshauptstadt München
Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart
Klaus Meier_Überseeinsel Bremen
Miba
Ministry of Landscape China
NEOM
Novartis
Pohl+Partner
Porsche

Rutter Immobilien
Signa
Sozialbau AG
Sparkasse
Stadt Karlsruhe
SÜBA
STC
Walkerhill SPA & RESORT
Zumtobel

Awards
Publications
DMAA NON ENDLESS SPACE cover office
DMAA 360 Magazin English b
DMAA ZOOM English b
Places for People La Biennale di Venezia Austrian Pavilion b
DMAA DESIGN PEAK 08 b
DMAA 360 cover office b
DMAA HG MERZ Porsche Museum Springer Wien New York 1 b
DMAA daab b
DMAA in TENSE repose b
  • NON ENDLESS SPACE, published Birkhäuser – Publishing for Architecture, Basel, 2023, ISBN 978-3-0356-2591-2
  • 360°, published by Delugan Meissl Associated Architects, Vienna, 2018, Order: communication@dmaa.at
  • ZOOM, published by Delugan Meissl Associated Architects, Vienna, 2018, Order: communication@dmaa.at
  • PLACES FOR PEOPLE, published by Elke Delugan-Meissl, Commissioner of the Austrian Pavillon, Sabine Dreher and Christian Muhr / Liquid Frontiers, Co-Curators, Vienna, 2016
  • DELUGAN MEISSL ASSOCIATED ARCHITECTS 08 DESIGN PEAK, published by Equal Books, Seoul, 2011, ISBN 978-89-962904-7-6, 978-89-962904-0-7(set)
  • VOL. 1, DELUGAN MEISSL ASSOCIATED ARCHITECTS, published by Delugan Meissl Associated Architects, Vienna, 2010, ISBN 978-3-9502979-0-4
  • Porsche Museum Delugan Meissl Associated Architects HG Merz, published by Springer-Verlag, Vienna, 2010, ISBN 978-3-211-99738-3 (German), ISBN 978-3-211-99736-9 (English)
  • Delugan Meissl Associated Architects, Realized projects, Current projects, Competitions, published by Daab GmbH, Cologne, 2006, ISBN 978-3-937718-87-3
  • DELUGAN MEISSL ASSOCIATED ARCHITECTS inTENSE repose, published by Aedes Verlag, Berlin, 2006, ISBN 3-937093-63-X
  • DELUGAN MEISSL 2, Concepts, Projects, Buildings, published by Birkhäuser – Publishing for Architecture, Basel, 2001, ISBN 103-7643-6557-9 (German, English)