New Year’s Sale: Get 20% off Dwell with promo code YEAR20
SubscribeSign In
Collection by Aaron Britt

Neil Denari: Sustainability at All Scales

We are thrilled to welcome Los Angeles architect Neil Denari principal of NMDA to Dwell on Design on Friday, June 21st for the conversation Sustainability at All Scales. Denari, one of LA's biggest architectural stars, bills his firm as practicing "design at all scales," and we'll be asking him about how he finds ways to incorporate green design into his work, whether a house in Venice or the massive Keelung Harbor Service Project in Taiwan, a commission he won last year.

I first heard Denari speak with architect Thom Mayne about the work of the late illustrator Lebbeus Woods. I was impressed with his candor, sensitivity, and intellect and I knew that we had to have him on the Sustainability Stage at Dwell on Design. In our conversation later this week we'll touch on how to scale up ideas of sustainability, how far architects can really push clients, cities, and utilities, and how to code thinking about green design into the DNA of an architecture firm. We'll talk about the HL23 tower that he designed over the High Line in New York City as well as the branding and feel of Peach Airlines, one of Japan's first budget airline. You'll get a first-hand glimpse of one of LA's most exciting architects working today as just another reason to come to Dwell on Design at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

View 6 Photos
The clients for this the Alan-Voo house renovation and extension from 2007 are a couple with three daughters. The scheme—a 1,000 square foot addition to a 1,000 square foot house—leaves half of the house for the daughter’s bedrooms and incorporates the other half plus new extensions in front and back into a public zone and a private bedroom for the parents. This strategy amounts to a new 16-foot wide linear house being inserted into the existing house. Multi-toned, bright colors accentuate the new pieces which suggests a graphic expression representative of the family’s interests. Photo by Benny Chan courtesy of NMDA.
The clients for this the Alan-Voo house renovation and extension from 2007 are a couple with three daughters. The scheme—a 1,000 square foot addition to a 1,000 square foot house—leaves half of the house for the daughter’s bedrooms and incorporates the other half plus new extensions in front and back into a public zone and a private bedroom for the parents. This strategy amounts to a new 16-foot wide linear house being inserted into the existing house. Multi-toned, bright colors accentuate the new pieces which suggests a graphic expression representative of the family’s interests. Photo by Benny Chan courtesy of NMDA.
A huge undertaking, the Keelung Harbor Service Project gets underway this year with the first phase of construction dedicated to a new terminal at the Taiwanese port of Keelung. Other building types to come over the multi-phaes project include a police station, a weather station, a boardwalk, and office space.
A huge undertaking, the Keelung Harbor Service Project gets underway this year with the first phase of construction dedicated to a new terminal at the Taiwanese port of Keelung. Other building types to come over the multi-phaes project include a police station, a weather station, a boardwalk, and office space.
Airbus is one of many companies in the UK that are using their engineering expertise to produce ventilator parts.
Airbus is one of many companies in the UK that are using their engineering expertise to produce ventilator parts.
Located near the intersection of Highland and Melrose in Hollywood, STREET is celebrity chef Susan Feniger's first solo restaurant, offering a pan-cultural menu of urban tastes. The interior is conceived as a single surface of wood that references vernacular materiality and urban abstraction. As the street is a surface, so too is this STREET. Photo courtesy of NMDA.
Located near the intersection of Highland and Melrose in Hollywood, STREET is celebrity chef Susan Feniger's first solo restaurant, offering a pan-cultural menu of urban tastes. The interior is conceived as a single surface of wood that references vernacular materiality and urban abstraction. As the street is a surface, so too is this STREET. Photo courtesy of NMDA.
For the MUFG PBO bank in Nagoya, Japan, a new idea location for banking, we have proposed a slightly reflective black metal panel façade that is installed over the existing 1970’s office building behind. The color black refers to an elegant, simple aspect of Japanese aesthetics, and reminds one of seriousness and stability, something that should be projected from a bank. From there, we have shaped and perforated this black surface in new and modern ways, from the smooth, three dimensionality of the entrance to the escalator hall, to the laser cut pattern that makes a screen for the second floor windows. Photo courtesy of NMDA.
For the MUFG PBO bank in Nagoya, Japan, a new idea location for banking, we have proposed a slightly reflective black metal panel façade that is installed over the existing 1970’s office building behind. The color black refers to an elegant, simple aspect of Japanese aesthetics, and reminds one of seriousness and stability, something that should be projected from a bank. From there, we have shaped and perforated this black surface in new and modern ways, from the smooth, three dimensionality of the entrance to the escalator hall, to the laser cut pattern that makes a screen for the second floor windows. Photo courtesy of NMDA.