In this interview, Neil Denari discussed developing his architectural approach at the height of postmodernism without subscribing to it. Inspired by Peter Cook’s Experimental Architecture and the work of James Stirling, Richard Rogers, and Norman Foster, he became interested in British High Tech. While studying at the University of Houston in the late 1970s, he encountered the influence of the New York Five and interpreted Le Corbusier through a machine-oriented lens. By the mid-1980s, Denari, Wes Jones, and others were developing “machine architecture,” which emphasized movement, exposed structures and services, and buildings seemingly freed from the ground.
This approach emerged amid a broader turn away from corporate postmodernism. After Michael Rotondi encountered his work in a New York exhibition, Denari moved to California to teach at SCI-Arc, where his architecture acquired a noir, dystopian sensibility associated with Los Angeles. In the 1990s, he became an early adopter of digital representation while continuing to use analogue media. As director of SCI-Arc, he oversaw its digital transition and relocation. He later taught at UCLA while steadily developing his architectural practice.