
Currently on display at The Sonoma Valley Museum of Art (SVMA) is “Sites and Senses: The Architecture of Aidlin Darling Design”—the first solo exhibition by the multidisciplinary San Francisco-based architecture firm. The exhibit offers a glimpse of the Aidlin Darling design process, which is shaped by a multi-sensory experience.

The core of the exhibition is C-Chassis, a site-specific 55-foot-long installation piece made from charred or stained cedar. The show also features a variety of media, such as material palettes, models, sketches, renderings, full-scale mock-ups, photographs, and videos.
“In our fast-paced world, we can have a tendency to ignore our environment—that’s why we often camp out on-site and spend days observing both tangible and intangible qualities of the site before we start to design. It is our hope that this exhibit prompts the public to realize how good, thoughtful design can not only awaken the senses, but re-connect us to place and to ourselves,” said co-founder and partner David Darling, AIA, in a press release.

Aidlin Darling won an AIA Honor Award last week for Interior Architecture for its design of Bar Agricole in San Francisco. In 2013, the firm won an AIA COTE Plus award for a mixed-use project and a Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in the interior design category—to name a few.
The exhibit is open at SVMA through March 2.
