LOT-EK

this is not design, this is design / caring for the things we make and the ones we dismiss

Our talk is a two-voice cut through our thirty-year-plus practice, an attempt to share the work and the world of our studio, LOT-EK. Architecture projects, art installations, small objects, interventions in landscapes and cities, mobile buildings, community spaces, and drawings, all in dialogue with our UrbanScan, our research on the generic and invisible objects and infrastructures that surround us, and that inspire our work – sometimes directly providing our raw materials. Our talk is across scale and time, a visual performance to welcome you into our world.

LOT-EK is a studio working at the intersection of art and architecture. Our practice of upcycling is one of reimagining—we reclaim objects that our culture dismisses, finding beauty in the ordinary.

LOT-EK’s projects span multiple disciplines: from installations to houses and housing; from cultural spaces for communities, foundations and museums; from retail spaces to mobile projects. Our projects cross continents and cultures, from our hometown of New York to Queensland, Australia, and from Huangshan, China to Johannesburg, South Africa.

LOT-EK is a tight group of creatives, each bringing their voices, sensibilities, and heritages to a common project. LOT-EK’s founding partners are Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano—who live and work in New York and grew up in Naples, Italy. We have taught at Columbia University GSAPP since 2004 and have been practicing together since 1993.

LOT-EK awards include the United States Artists’ Booth Fellowship of Architecture & Design (2011), the Architecture League’s Emerging Voices Award (1999), and the New York American Institute of Architects (AIA) Honor Award (2011). Our work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and has been exhibited at multiple institutions including the Whitney Museum and The Venice Biennale. LOT-EK’s second monograph, O+O: Objects + Operations, was published by The Monacelli Press.

WE START WITH THE THINGS WE FIND, a feature-length documentary on LOT-EK, premiered in 2023. Directed by Thomas Piper, the film explores the design thinking behind how we bring the shipping container to life, our studio’s vision, and the soulful, lifelong partnership of the people behind the work.