With a shared interest in exploring design across a wide range of scales, programs, and disciplines, partners Joshua Aidlin and David Darling started Aidlin Darling Design around a woodshop in 1997. With an emphasis on designing for all of the senses they have cultivated a diverse and collaborative studio that acts as the creative hub for an extended network of builders, fabricators, artists, engineers, chefs, and other collaborators. The firm’s work explores a closely held conviction that design can enlighten the human spirit by engaging all of the senses. This notion is reflected in a diverse range of projects including a restaurant in the new SFMOMA, a 160,000 square foot LEED Gold brewery in San Leandro, and Stanford University’s Windhover Contemplative Center - a non-denominational art chapel that serves as a refuge for students and faculty. Recent work includes projects as far away as Doha Qatar and Hong Kong, and as diverse as a high school in Santa Rosa, a Cultural Arts Center in San Francisco, and several wineries that push the boundaries of sustainability in agriculture and building.

In recent years, the firm has garnered over 100 regional, national, and international awards including the Smithsonian’s Cooper- Hewitt’s 2013 National Design Award for their body of work, a James Beard Award, five American Architecture Awards from the Chicago Athenaeum, two International Civic Trust Awards, and several regional and national awards from the AIA, IIDA, and ASLA.

Aidlin Darling Design

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