Naomi Darling

she/her

  • Five College Associate Professor of Sustainable Architecture
Naomi Darling

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 architectural design from Princeton University, a master of sculpture from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia and a Master of Architecture degree 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 park in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, several residential projects, a farm stand and seed library in Nan, Thailand 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. 

Education

  • M.Arch., Yale University
  • M.F.A., Monash University
  • B.S.E., Princeton University

Happening at Mount Holyoke

Recent Campus News

Naomi Darling, faculty in sustainable architecture at Mount Holyoke College, is working with student assistants to plan a carbon-neutral future for the home of the building nicknamed “the Phoenix,” home to the nation’s first all-female fire brigade.

Mount Holyoke professor Naomi Darling discussed using reclaimed building materials with the Christian Science Monitor.

Mount Holyoke’s Naomi Darling’s architecture combines cultural influences with a foundation in sustainability.

Recent Publications

Darling, N. (2021) A Performative Regionalist View on Site. In Andrea Kahn and Carol Burns, editors, Site Matters - Strategies for Uncertainty Through Planning and Design, 2nd ed., (pp. 269). New York, NY: Routledge.

Recent Awards

Naomi Darling Architecture was awarded two AIA awards in December from the Western Mass AIA Chapter.    Takahashi-Harb Loft and Library was awarded a Merit Award. This was a conversion of a ground floor walk-out basement and garage into a one bedroom loft-style apartment and library in Milford CT.   Solar Time was awarded a Citation Award. The project was a collaboration with Darrell Petit, and was part of the XTCA - Cross Town Contemporary Art Exhibition organized by the UMass University Museum of Contemporary Art.

Naomi Darling Architecture LLC received an AIA (American Institute of Architects) New England Merit Award for Design Excellence for Takahashi-Harb Loft and Library Project in Milford CT. The Takahashi-Harb Loft and Library is an interior renovation and conversion of an existing ground floor walk-out basement and two-car garage into one-bedroom loft-style mother-in-law apartment and separate library workspace. The project enables three generations to live together, and apart, enabling the many social and economic benefits of an intergenerational household.  

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