Interior Architecture 16th Annual Distinguished Designer Lecture
David Darling, FAIA, NCARB, IIDA

David Darling co-founded Aidlin Darling Design with Joshua Aidlin in 1998, with a shared interest in exploring design across a wide range of scales, programs, and disciplines including institutional, commercial, and residential architecture, as well as furniture, landscape, interior, and product design. Founded on a closely held conviction that design can improve the human condition by engaging all of the senses, he has cultivated a cross-pollenated approach to design that explores the relationship between human sensibilities, place, and cultural context. This trans-disciplinary exploration is evident in the diversity of his practice and his keen interest in the connection between food, wine, art, and community. It is propagated through his involvement with the AIA, IIDA, and ASLA, through teaching, and through his involvement with numerous organizations including the James Beard Foundation, Culintro, Slow Food USA, the Italian Innovation and Culture Hub, Design Leadership Network, and SF Cinematheque. In 2019, Mr. Darling served as program author and jury chair for the National Lyceum Fellowship Program.

Mr. Darling’s interest in the phenomenology of space and how it can engage all the senses is reflected in the diversity of his firm’s work, which includes projects as far away as Doha Qatar and Hong Kong. Recent work includes the Contemplative Center at Stanford University, the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia, a waterfront pavilion for the new Expedia Headquarters in Seattle, and a re-envisioned Robert Mondavi Winery in Napa California that pushes the boundaries of sustainability in agriculture and architecture.

Since its founding, his eponymic firm has garnered more than 300 regional, national, and international awards including the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum’s National Design Award for their complete body of work, Contract Magazine’s “Designer of the Year,” 2 James Beard Awards for restaurant design, 33 Chicago Athenaeum Awards, 3 International Civic Trust Awards, and most recently, induction into Interior Design Magazine’s Hall of Fame.