Naomi Darling, AIA

Naomi Darling teaches design studio courses with a sustainable lens focusing on climate, culture and materiality at Mount Holyoke College and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In all of Darling’s studios, students are given design problems to learn the tools of visual communication through analog and digital drawing and fabrication, with the goal of nurturing students’ individual voice and passions.  Darling holds a Bachelor of Science and Engineering in Civil Engineering and Architectural Design from Princeton University, a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia and a Master of Architecture from the Yale School of Architecture.  

Darling’s research and professional practice, Naomi Darling Architecture LLC, develop projects at all scales in terms of size, time and permanence, and students are often engaged in real sites and programs.  Permeating all projects is a dimension of environmental stewardship, social responsibility and the role of architects as agents of change.  Current projects include a Bandshell for the Amherst Green and several park structures for the Town of Sunderland (with Ray Mann), several residential projects, and Nitobe Memorial Hall, a museum, library and community center in Sapporo, Japan. 

Previously, Darling taught courses in environmental design at the Yale School of Architecture, and in the Urban Studies Department at Brown University and prior to founding her practice, Darling worked in the offices of Kengo Kuma and Associates in Tokyo, Japan and Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects in Seattle, WA. 
 

RESEARCH AREAS

• Sustainable design at the intersection of climate, culture and materiality
• Developing design studio practices that integrate building science;
• Japanese Tea Houses;
• Design/Build Pedagogy;
• Bridging Liberal Arts and Pre-professional Architectural Education;
• Social and Environmental Equity through Design;

EXHIBITIONS
Solar Time – Naomi Darling & Darrell Petit
XTCA:Cross Town Contemporary Art exhibition, University Museum of Contemporary Art
University of Massachusetts Fine Arts Center Plaza: July 1 – November 1, 2018

Wayfinding – Naomi Darling & Bill Brayton
Kern Center, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA: September, 2016 – 2018.

Proposals for Nitobe Memorial Hall
Sapporo Train Station Chika-Ho Exhibition Space, Sapporo, Japan: May 27, 2014.

Architecture Boston Expo 2013
AIA New England 2013 Design Awards Exhibit, Boston, MA: November 2013

AIA New England 2013 Design Awards Exhibit: Taking Design to Heart
DCU Center, Worcester, MA: October 2013

EP:2011: 2nd annual exhibit of the work of emerging architects
American Center for Architecture, Washington D.C.: February – March, 2011

PUBLICATIONS

Darling, Naomi and Garth Schwellenbach. “Embodied Carbon Calculations as a Design Tool in the Adaptive Reuse of a Campus Building.” Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Structures and Architecture, Antwerp, Belgium. July 8-11, 2025, Mario Rinke and Marie Frier Hvejsel, ed.: pp 446-453. [Blind peer-reviewed paper]

Darling, M.N. et al. “Case Study of an Adaptive Reuse Project using Embodied Carbon Visualizations as part of a Holistic Design Process.” In Empowerment through an Architecture of Performance, Proceedings of the 2025 Building Technology Educators’ Society Conference, T. Boake, Editor. Chicago, IL: Chicago Architectural Center, 2025. [Blind peer-reviewed paper – forthcoming]

Darling, Naomi, Robert Williams et al., “Small Footprints: Lessons from Three Years of Low Carbon Small Home Design-Build Projects.” Proceedings of the ACSA 113^th Annual Meeting: Repair. New Orleans, LA. March 20-22, 2025, pp 25-29. [Blind peer-reviewed paper]

Williams, Robert, Naomi Darling et al., “Designing for Embodied Carbon and Operational Carbon Impacts: A Case-Study of a University-based Design-Build Project.” Proceedings of the 2023 ACSA/AIA Intersections Research Conference: Material Economies. Amherst MA. October 19-21, 2023, pp 164-169. [Blind peer-reviewed paper]

Mann, R. and N. Darling. “Bridging the Ethical and the Aesthetic,” Proceedings of the 2023 ACSA/EAAE (Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture/European Association for Architectural Education) Teachers Conference, “Educating the Cosmopolitan Architect.” Reykjavik, Iceland.  June 22- 24, 2023, pp 450-459. [Blind peer-reviewed paper]

Darling, N. and E. Kim. “Cross Institutional Vertical Studio Collaboration during the time of Covid-19.” Proceedings of the 2021 Building Technology Educators’ Society Conference, Out of Bounds. [Blind peer-reviewed paper]

Brause, Caryn, Peggi Clouston and Naomi Darling, editors.  Proceedings of the 2019 Building Technology Educators’ Society Conference, Integration and Innovation. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts, 2021. 

Darling, N and R. Mann. “Riffing on Kuma: culture-based sustainability via pattern and layering,” Architectural Research Centers Consortium 2019 Proceedings, “Future Praxis: Applied Research as a Bridge Between Theory and Practice.” Toronto, Canada, pp.208-217. [Blind peer-reviewed paper]

Darling, N. & S. Darlington. “Interdisciplinary Collaboration for Cross-Cultural Placemaking.”  Proceedings of 49^th Environmental Design Research Association Conference, “Social Equity by Design.” Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 2018. [Blind peer-reviewed abstract]Blander, Akiva.  “Further into the Follies,” The Architectural League of New York, January 18, 2018.  (https://archleague.org/article/further-into-the-follies/)

Darling, Naomi. “The Potential for the Sustainable Urban Factory” in Design for Manufacturing, edited by Nina Rappaport and Robert Lane.  Routledge, 2018. (forthcoming)

Darling, N. & S. Darlington. “Interdisciplinary Collaboration for Cross-Cultural Placemaking.”  Proceedings of 49^th Environmental Design Research Association Conference, “Social Equity by Design.” Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 2018.

Darling, N. & R. Mann.  “Cultural Precedents and Historic Artifacts as a Springboard for Beginning Design.” Proceedings of the 34th National Conference on the Beginning Design Student, “Time” at the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 2018. 

Sustainable Heritage Tourism Endorsement Programme, OAS, 2017.

Darling, N. “The Kern Center at Hampshire College – Beauty and Spirit in a Living Building.” Proceedings of Poetics and Pragmatism, Building Technology Educators’ Society Conference 2017, Des Moines, IA, 2017, pp 71-78.

Darling, N. & R. Mann.  “Integrating Cultural Research into the Design Studio.” Proceedings of the 105^thAssociation of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Annual Meeting, Detroit, MI, 2017.

Darling, N. “Integrating an Ethos of Service into the Beginning Design Studio.” Proceedings of the 105^thAssociation of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Annual Meeting, Detroit, MI, 2017.

Darling, N. “Tea House Design Build: Integrating History and Cultural Studies into the Design Studio.” 1:1,Proceedings of the 32nd National Conference on the Beginning Design Student, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA, 2016, pp. 577-584.

Darling, M.N. “Teaching Principles Governing Energy Usage in Foundation Design Studios.” In Intersections & Adjacencies, Proceedings of the 2015 Building Technology Educators’ Society International Conference, E. Carraher, J Gines & J. Galarza, Editors. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah, 2015, pp. 324-325.

Darling, Naomi. “Pilgrimage to Nitobe Inazo Museums in the Tohoku Region,” in The World of Inazo Nitobe, Translation by M. Tokita.  Volume 25, September, 2016, pp 145-155. (published in Japanese)

“Nitobe Memorial Hall Concept Design Proposals exhibited at CHIKA-ho,” Hokkaido Shinbun, May 28, 2014, Pg 24.

“50 Domestic and International submissions for Nitobe Memorial Hall Concept Designs,” Hokkaido Construction Shinbun, March 25, 2014

AWARDS

2024     AIA Western Massachusetts Merit Award: Mandel Studio

2024     AIA Western Massachusetts Citation Award: Sunderland Kayak Kiosk and Restroom Renovation

2024     Forbes Magazine Architecture Department: invited to submit projects for consideration for publication in “Top 200 Architects of the American House” – finalist

2023     International Diversity in Architecture Award: 1 of 27 International Nominees, 1 of 3 in N. America

2022     AIA Western Massachusetts Honor Award: Maier-Camerlenghi Addition

2020     AIA New England Merit Award: Takahashi-Harb Loft and Library 

2020     AIA Western Massachusetts Merit Award: Takahashi-Harb Loft and Library 

2020     AIA Western Massachusetts Citation Award: Solar Time – Temporary Installation 

2018     Amherst Bandshell Competition: Winner, with Ray Mann. Project projected to be built in summer 2020. 

2018     AIA Western Massachusetts Merit Award: Kernan Photography Studio 

2017     Folly/Function Notable Entry: Kasa Pavilion, with Ray Mann. 

2014     Nitobe Memorial Hall International Design Competition: 1^st place.  Project to be built in Sapporo, Japan with               completion date in 2020 - ON HOLD. 

2013     AIA New England Regional Award – AIA Citation Award for Kernan Tea House

2011     AIA Center for Emerging Professionals: Washington D.C.  - Kernan Tea House selected for inclusion in EP:2011, the second annual exhibition of work, art, and designs of emerging architects 

GRANTS

2024     Gladys Brooks Foundation Grant for 0 Park Street - $100,000 toward the interior finishes and furnishings of the “Phoenix” at Mount Holyoke College. Student Research Assistants – supplemented by DoF office for 0 Park St Adaptive Reuse Project Design and Embodied Carbon Calculations and Visualizations

2018     Roddenberry Grant for Curricular Initiatives in Sustainability

awarded for: Designing for Life – year-long course with Prof. Sue Darlington

2017    Hampshire College Faculty Development

Project: Kasa Pavilion – Build a prototype                       

2016    Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation Travel Grant

Project: Investigating Wood in Finnish Architecture through the work of Aalto    

2014     STEAP (Small Town Economic Assistance Program) Grant - State of CT

Project: Old Saybrook Great Park 

Town awarded $500,000 to realize Phase 1 – construction to start in 2015

2013     Mellon Mutual Mentoring Team Grant - Creative Production Group                    

Project: Creative Production Group

Co-Investigators: Caryn Brause, Carey Clouse, Naomi Darling, Benjamin Jones

2012     University of Massachusetts Amherst Faculty/Staff Internationalization Grant     

Project: Develop a joint graduate level architecture design studio between University of Massachusetts Amherst and Hokkaido University

2012     Boston Foundation for Architecture       

Project: Grant for exploratory phase of the Five College Holyoke Design Center 

Co-Investigators: Gabriel Arboleda, Naomi Darling

2011     The Hines Research Fund for Advanced Sustainability in Architectural Design, 

Yale School of Architecture

Project: To develop a sustainable framework for the Plattus China Studio and to work with the studio in its implementation and further development

COURSES RECENTLY TAUGHT

Arch 403 – Design 5 (UMass)
Arch 225 – Environmental Principles in Design (MHC)
Arch 205 – Sculpting Space – Foundation Design Studio (MHC)
HACU 282 – Tea House Design Build (Hampshire College)