diff --git a/dockerfiles/Dockerfile b/dockerfiles/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..cfe70f8c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dockerfiles/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+# This is the base Dockerfile for creating a DarSIA installation.
+# The setup of the Docker image is under development and may change in the future.
+
+# Base the Docker image on the official Python image.
+# For more information, please refer to https://aka.ms/vscode-docker-python
+FROM python:3.12-slim
+
+# Keeps Python from generating .pyc files in the container
+ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1
+# Turns off buffering for easier container logging
+ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
+
+# Since using non-root users may lead to permission issues, we use root for now. See
+# https://code.visualstudio.com/remote/advancedcontainers/add-nonroot-user for more.
+
+ENV HOME /workdir
+ENV DARSIA_HOME=${HOME}/darsia
+
+# Create and move to code directory. This is where DarSIA will be installed.
+WORKDIR ${HOME}
+
+RUN apt-get update && \
+    # Install missing packages.
+    apt-get install -y git ffmpeg libsm6 libxext6 && \
+    # Fetch DarSIA from GitHub to code directory
+    git clone https://github.com/pmgbergen/DarSIA.git ${DARSIA_HOME}
+
+# Move to DarSIA sub-directory
+WORKDIR ${DARSIA_HOME}
+
+# Update pip, install dependencies and freeze pip
+RUN pip install --upgrade pip && \
+    pip install -e.[dev] && \
+    pip freeze && \
+    # Remove git
+    apt-get remove -y git python3-dev libssl-dev && \
+    apt-get autoremove -y
+
+# Add DarSIA home to the pythonpath. This may or may not be necessary.
+ENV PYTHONPATH $DARSIA_HOME:$PYTHONPATH
+
+# Run tests to check that everything works.
+# NOTE: When run as a GH action (presumably after a PR to the develop branch
+# was accepted, e.g., when the tests have already been run on GH), this should
+# only fail if the docker image itself is flawed.
+WORKDIR ${DARSIA_HOME}/tests
+RUN pytest
+WORKDIR ${DARSIA_HOME}
\ No newline at end of file