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UPCYCLE
LOT/EK is especially known for its innovative work with the standard ISO Shipping Container. We are the original shipping container architects. We have a quarter-century of experience exploring and adapting this incredible, durable, flexible, and sustainable object to architectural applications. This is a form of adaptive reuse called upcycing: extending the lifecycle of already-manufactured objects, expanding the potential of existing systems, exploring the futures of legacy platforms. Although we are experts in the shipping container, we have made and proposed architecture out of cement mixers, airplane fuselages, and more. That drawing of ours in MoMA is made out of a cardboard box.
In the name LOT/EK, you can hear the words low and technology. We are low in the sense that we are humble because we are always curious; but we believe in the dignity and ambition of our clients. We are low in the sense that we are thrifty and crafty; but we never compromise on comfort and performance. We are low in the sense that we are environmentally low-impact and the ethic of our practice is grounded in adaptive reuse; but we are also playful and powerful in our architecture—regardless of where its components come from. Our experienced and energetic team is deeply collaborative with our partners and stakeholders—from fabricators and manufacturers, to clients and collectors. We are interested in objects and operations, in technology and ecology, because we care even more about places and people.
