That includes the modernist furniture, the kitchen stacked with sleek gadgets, and even the Jackson Pollock replica on the wall. “We chose an eclectic range of mid-20th century designs I think that are classic and everlasting,” says Digby, describing Nathan as a man who collects things, whether artifacts from around the world or ideas from employees like Caleb. “I don’t think he feels that things have to be up to date, it just has to be beautiful design.” Though Ex Machina is clearly set in a near future in which artificial intelligence is possible, it rarely feels explicitly futuristic; aside from some biometric keypads and computer programs, nearly everything in the house aside from robot Ava could exist today. “You need people to engage—they have to feel that they could be there and it could happen,” Digby explains. “We thought very hard about that.”

Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) and Nathan (Oscar Isaac) on the deck outside the Juvet Landscape Hotel. Courtesy of A24.

The clean lines of the furniture, gleaming windows, and spectacular views make Nathan’s home incredibly appealing, as if the placid and tasteful surface is there to distract you from something dark roiling underneath. “We have to be slightly on edge about the perfection and purity and brilliance of it all,” Digby explains. “We wanted it to be slightly at odds with comfort.” Which makes it all the more surprising when, in one of the film’s most talked-about moments, Nathan’s concrete-walled lounge transforms into a disco, of all things.

How did Digby install disco lights in the walls that we, and Caleb, wouldn’t notice? “With difficulty,” he says. In the concrete walls of the room Digby added a criss-cross pattern, behind which he and his team could hide flashing disco lights. “We needed this party environment, but did he have a separate party room? It needed to be something structural, something artistic, that would then turn into a disco environment. And disco environments are all about light.”

Nathan flips the switch for the disco wall. Courtesy of A24.

Like any good sci-fi film, Ex Machina is rich with metaphors, mining Caleb and Nathan’s fraught relationships with the robot Ava to explore humanity’s tenuous relationship to nature and technology. The production design is rich with those metaphors, too, including several spaces in which the wild forest surrounding the house is incorporated within the walls. “We want a constant reminder [of that] conflict for the audience and for everyone, including Caleb and Nathan,” Digby says. “The man-made, and the natural environment. Which is what is happening with Ava—she is man-made, but of nature.”