Darin was immersed in construction at an early age developing an avid interest in tectonics and, subsequently, a tremendous passion for architecture. Now, he is SmithGroup’s Midwest Regional Design Principal for healthcare leveraging over 25 years of design, construction and project management experience across a variety of typologies. Darin’s design philosophy evolved out of personal experiences including hearing impairment which gave him a unique perspective reminding him constantly that successful design promotes a full sensory experience.
He also recognizes that recently an unfortunate trend toward extinction of symbolic and ritual design references stems in part from a habit of ignoring environmental, functional, natural and practical forces in the interest of creating ‘showpiece’ products.

Great architecture evolves from the balanced interaction that contemporary design seems to have divorced itself from – interaction with environment, economy, users, municipality, history, technology – to be utilized by the designer in the same way that a musician manipulates sound to produce a unique yet appropriate solution.

The best solutions:
marry conceptual design with construction
reflect on the past, function in the present and look to the future
consider all of the senses
respond to and respect economy, society, culture, politics and environment