Mark Digby

As we’ve seen with many Films and Television Shows, architectural space is incredibly multidimensional. Alex Garland, writer and director of the critically-acclaimed Ex Machina and Annihilation has been able to imagine these dimensions on various scales. In the case of his new show, Devs, there are several very unique architectural elements at play which exist in the same area.

The show, which is set in the Silicon Valley at a tech campus, includes some of the most fascinating architectural spaces and has some of the best Production Design that has been shown on Television in the last 10 years.

In an exclusive interview with Interiors, we spoke with Mark Digby, who is the Production Designer for Devs.

INT: First off, we were curious how the opportunity to do the show, Devs, came about? What was it about it that made you want to work on it?

MD: Myself and Michelle Day, set decorator, have collaborated with Alex Garland and his producers Andrew MacDonald and Allon Reich over many years (approximately 20) and several projects, so it was not too strange that they would contact us about Devs. Our interest was cemented by the extremely engaging, tight script and subject matter coupled with the variety of design opportunities that it presented from San Francisco, to the Silicon Valley Campus, all the way to the unique and secret Devs Facility, not to mention the Quantum Computer. We were confident that they would support us in aiming for a high level of design integrity and aesthetic.

INT: The show takes place in the San Francisco Bay Area and features a fictional tech company, Amaya, which is based in the Silicon Valley. In terms of Production Design, what was your mindset when figuring out what this Tech Campus would look like? Did you pull from any existing Silicon Valley Campuses (Apple, Google, Facebook) as a form of inspiration?

MD: A constant approach to our design is reference, so yes we did research what current Silicon Valley sites looked like and what they offered to their workers. But we had always wanted to bring our own take on how Amaya, the company, would look and function and where it sits in the visual language of Silicon Valley working environments. We wanted Amaya to be familiar as a Silicon Valley company but be fresh and have moved slightly from the playground and highly stylised settings that is the current perception of these types of company.

It needed to remind us of its importance as a successful Science/Coding/Software based company and also to constantly remind us of the focus of Forest, its owner and founder and especially Amaya, the girl. It had to be imposing and somewhat overbearing in its corporate presence amongst its workers. The script required it to be in close proximity to woodlands and cleared grassland where the Devs facility was built and partly hidden.

Our original ideas did go in the direction of a newly built, highly architectural and modernist structure, but in truth we found it hard getting significant access to any of those buildings so we headed down a different direction. We thought it plausible that Forest's company would have been existing architecture and it would have expanded with purchasing nearby buildings as the company grew. Hence the campus is made up of a variety of styles and ages but very much of similar geometry and engineering and all in one vicinity. That it is surrounded by Redwoods is a serendipitous bonus, visually in terms of strong vertical lines to marry with the geometry of the buildings but also in that it placed the buildings definitely in the California (Silicon Valley) area. And it added another dark imposing aura to the world’s ambiance.

INT: The Devs Facility is absolutely remarkable in terms of Production Design. Everything from the architectural exterior (Faraday Cage), the breathtaking interior space and the numerous design details (gold pillars, vacuum-sealed spaces, glass elevator, etc.). What was the process like designing this space? How developed was this Facility when it was first described to you? Were there any references (Literature/Cinema) that you took from as you were planning?

MD: The task (to design this world) was intensely challenging and scary to start with but also very rewarding and exciting (in its challenge). The actual process was the same as for all our work - reference, research, science, art, character, legacy, script, integrity and collaboration. It continually brought new levels of satisfaction as we explored and achieved more and more ideas. The process is a very collaborative one, with Alex Garland involved right through, with all sides feeding ideas that we take and push on from, always wanting to go to the limits but hauling it back just to the edge of achievability.

Amongst other areas, our inspiration involved and came from the worlds of math, coding and science. The cube is based on a Menger Cube or sponge - a three dimensional mathematical model, and we tried to stay as true to those parameters as possible, even though it presented many practical, spatial anomalies especially in the interior areas for us. Its pattern and openings presented large glass window areas. We married this with glass walls inside the office area so that nobody was working out of sight of each other and total transparency for all the coders - nothing to hide or steal!

The glass partitions had the advantage of making the “boxed in” office give more depth and reflections and always allowed a potential view of the Quantum computer, reminding us of its importance. The central quantum computer was based on the real components of the few existing Quantum computers already built, albeit enlarged and enhanced in our design. It was to be grand, sculptural, and artistic as well as technical.

The interior furnishings - aluminum desks with fixed monitors and CPUs were designed with simplicity, focus of task and security in mind. Nothing to be added or taken from it. The Facility was well described by Alex particularly in its physicality and mechanics (outer building thick concrete walls, floating in a vacuum, etc.) but the detail of design, shape and texture came along through the journey of collaboration, research and brainstorming and was somewhat led by the script requirements. Since the building needed  to be protective of its interior components (secret coders and a fragile but powerful computer) then how it was constructed fed into how it looked. Concrete, lead, gold mesh, topography, vacuum, flotation all to restrict and interfere with anything that could do harm - electromagnetism, geological movement, light waves, sound waves, photography, etc.

We also decided that it was something that Forest had put a lot of resources into and that it needed to be visually special, awe-inspiring and imposing . A visual architectural progression from urban San Francisco to the designed Amaya Campus to the Devs floating golden cube.

INT: The interior of the Devs Facility was built on a soundstage and did not rely on computer generated effects. From a Production Design standpoint, what are some advantages that a practical set allows you to do? Also, were there any challenges during the process? 

MD: The Devs cube set is very different to many others because it is a particular environment and design that would be hard to find as a location but in general during the prep and build it gives us the scope, access and time to build, dress and alter at our own timescale, flexibilities, requirements and responsibility. We can get to the level of design and detail unhindered and fully controllable that even the most accommodating of locations would limit us with. We are able to insert/hide wires, tech and mechanics that we would not be able to achieve in the timeframe or cost on a location.

For shooting it allows us the flexibility to move walls and ceilings, etc. for different shooting angles and access.

Mark Digby is a Production Designer and has worked on various Films and Television Shows.
Andrew Whitehurst is the Visual Effects Supervisor for Devs and has worked on various Films and Television Shows.
FX on Hulu - All episodes of Devs are available to stream now exclusively on FX on Hulu in the US.
BBC - Devs is available on BBC iplayer in the UK.