High Desert Retreat : Aidlin Darling Design

Epitomizing Aidlin Darling Design’s commitment to creating soulful environments, this beautiful monograph illuminates the design process for High Desert Retreat, a residence tightly nestled into a constellation of boulders on a bluff overlooking the Coachella Valley in Southern California.

"...an immersive analysis from the very conception to the completion of the project." — Attitude Portugal

Starting with the question “How to create a residence within this beautiful desolate site while also creating a respectful compliment to the existing ecology”, Aidlin Darling Design created a soulful environment on a bluff in the high desert. Overlooking the Coachella Valley, the resulting structure nestles tightly into a constellation of existing boulders. The residence is a composition of three fundamental elements: a floating roof plane, a collection of wooden volumes, and a pair of concrete anchor walls. The stunning result is testament to the ethos of the firm to design for all the senses. The home became a framing device in which the sensuality of the surrounds is highlighted, and the boulders, Pinyon Trees and the distant mountain ranges became sculptures and paintings to be appreciated from within. The design is exceedingly crisp in its geometry, providing an intentional contrast to the organic forms of the desert. This book takes the reader through the journey from design conception to the realization.

Joshua Aidlin and David Darling began their partnership crafting furniture together in a San Francisco wood shop in 1998 before setting up Aidlin Darling Design. Today, this history of craft and passion for shared making anchors the firm’s collaborative process. At Aidlin Darling Design, design is considered as a sensory art, where the way a space feels is as important as how it looks. As a multidisciplinary firm, this ethos remains the guiding principle across projects of any scale, use, or purpose. The approach to each project is client and site specific, and includes open communication among clients, consultants, fabricators, and builders. Aidlin Darling Design has received many industry accolades, including the prestigious Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award.