Source: 📖 Django for Professionals ch4 p51

Using a project-level templates folder

By default, Django looks for a templates folder inside each app. It is easier to manage you templates if they are kept in one place, a project-level folder. You can do this by updating TEMPLATES in settings.py.

# settings.py

...

TEMPLATES = [
	{
		...
		'DIRS':[str(BASE_DIR.joinpath('templates'))],
		...
	}
]

...

We are telling Django to append join templates to the BASE_DIR (BASE_DIR/templates, and to look for template files in that folder.

Updating DIRS means that Django will look for templates in the specified path as well as, not instead of, a local app templates folder.