The Dundee Institute of Architecture, Science and Art was founded in 1884 before the RIAS. At that time, Membership of the DIA was open to wives (there were no female Architects in Dundee at that time) and it was a learned Society that organised lectures, commented on plumbing and drainage works in the City - until the early 1930’s - as well as establishing standards for practice and education of Architects.
The first President of the DIA was James MacLaren RIBA, who went on to become President of the RIAS. On the founding of the RIAS in 1916, Dundee Institute of Architects became the umbrella organisation for those Architects in the larger Tayside, Angus & North Fife area, an administrative arrangement that continues to this day. From 1927 until 1989, the DIA was administered by the Solicitors firm of Robertson & Wilkie of Bank Street, Dundee (latterly Gray, Robertson & Wilkie). From that date, the posts of Secretary and Treasurer were drawn from the Membership on an unpaid basis.
The first register of practising Architects in the DIA showed a membership of less than 40 (excluding non-practising) and in 2020 that number has increased to over 200. Although membership was mandatory in the inception years, the legal requirement to register with the Architects Registration Board gave architects a choice to minimize their participation in professional recognition and with that, their ability to choose whether or not to be a Chartered Architect by subscribing to the RIAS.
The archive of the DIA is held by Dundee University which includes the minute books and early principle records. A further and more detailed history of the DIA is included in the publication “Architects and Architecture on Tayside” published in 1984 on the centenary of the DIA, written by Sinclair Gauldie.