Dec 12, 2025
WE START WITH THE THINGS WE FIND
about:
LOT-EK is a team of designers, thinkers, and makers. We come together around our love for people, the objects we make, and the ones we dismiss. We focus on upcycling. We make sustainable, soulful spaces through the transformation of industrial infrastructural objects and systems. We work with the ordinary
our projects range from sculptural/functional objects; to installations with artists; to houses for families; to cultural buildings for communities, institutions, and museums. Our practice has developed projects from our hometown of New York around the world, from Queensland, Australia, through Huangshan, China to Johannesburg, South Africa
our team is a tight knit group of designers, we each bringing our voice, sensibility, and heritage to our common project. LOT-EK’s founding partners are Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano, we live and work in New York; grew up in Naples, Italy; have been practicing together since 1993; and teach at Columbia University GSAPP
our work has received awards and accolades, from the Emerging Voices from the Architecture League to the AIA Honor Awards, and it is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. LOT-EK’s latest monograph, in collaboration with Thomas de Monchaux, is O+O: Objects + Operations, published by The Monacelli Press
email:
New York:
620 East 9th Street / storefront
New York, NY 10009
USA
+1 (212) 255-9326
Napoli:
via Posillipo 66
80123 Napoli
ITALY
highlights:
exhibitions (solo):
2001
URBANSCANNER , Parsons School of Architecture / New York
2001
LITE-SCAPES, Henry Urbach Architecture Gallery / New York
1998
TV-LITE: modular television lighting system, Henry Urbach @ Chateau Marmont / Los Angeles
1997
SURF-A-BED: multi-screen surfing system, Henry Urbach @ Gramercy Art Fair / New York
exhibitions (group):
2024
CONTAINER: the global box, LWL Museums of Industrial Heritage / Waltrop, Germany
2023
DRAWING AS PRACTICE curated by Amanda Shields, National Academy of Design / New York
2020
ARCHITECTS FOR BEIRUT, Design Miami / Miami
2018
2018
WINNIPEG’S NUIT BLANCHE, Winnipeg Architecture Foundation / Winnipeg
2017
CONTAINER, Australian National Maritime Museum / Sydney
2012
MEDAGLIA D’ORO ALL’ARCHITETTURA ITALIANA 2012, Triennale di Milano / Milan
2011
RE-CYCLE, strategies for architecture, city and planet, MAXXI / Rome
2011
CONTAINER ARCHITECTURE curated by Jure Kotnik, NRW-Forum / Düsseldorf
2010
GEOGRAFIE ITALIANE, PAESAGGI DI ARCHITETTURA, MAXXI / Rome
2010
CONEMPLATING THE VOID, Guggenheim Museum / New York
2010
SCL2010, biecentannial of Chile, Santiago / Chile
2008
OUT THERE, ARCHITECTURE WITHOUT BUILDING curated by Aaron Betsky, Venice Architecture Biennnale, Italian PavilionVenice
2005
ESTRANAMENTE FAMILIARES: Diseño e Vida Cotia, MARCO / Vigo, Spain
2004
2004
STRANGELY FAMILIAR, Musee De l'Hospice Comtesse / Lille, France
2004
STRANGELY FAMILIAR, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art / Arizona
2003
SÃO PAULO ARCHITECTURE BIENNAL, American Pavilion, Parque Ibirapuera, São Paulo
2003
CONCEPTS FOR THE SNOW SHOW, VENICE ART BIENNALE / Venice
2003
CROSSED LINES, New Territories of Design, Center for Contemporary Culture / Barcelona
2002
NEW WORLD TRADE CENTER, curated by Max Protetch, Venice Architecture Biennale / Venice
2002
LIVING IN MOTION, Vitra Museum / Weil-am-Rhein and Berlin
2002
SYNTHETIC, Galerie Zürcher, Paris
2002
RE_IMAGINING GORUND ZERO, National Building Museum / Washington, DC
2000
EXPERIMENTS IN ARCHITECTURE, SF MoMA / San Francisco
2000
DESIGN TRIENNIAL: design culture now, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum / New York
1994
HELLO AGAIN! Recycling for the Real World, Museum at F.I.T. / New York
1993
TRANSIENT DÉCOR, curated by Saul Ostrow and Stuart Horodner , The Roger Smith Hotel room 311 / New York
publications (monogrpahs):
publications (books):
2010
2008
EX-CONTAINER, by Yasutaka Yoshimura / Graphic-sha, Tokyo
2003
2003
2003
METROPOLIS, 5th International Biennial of Architecture and design, catalog / Instituto de Arquitetos do Brasil, São Paulo
2003
THE SNOW SHOW VENICE, catalog, Zing LLC, New York
2002
2002
INTERNATIONAL 2002 , catalog / Livepool Biennial of Contemporary Art
2001
2001
publications (periodical):
2025
INTERNI, On a Journey by Antonella Boisi
2022
INVENTARIO, Sopraelevazioni by Fulvio Irace
2020
DWELL/November-December, True Believers by Anna Gibertini
2020
CORRIERE DELLA SERA/October 17, La Rinascita ‘smart’ di un container by Laura Ragazzola
2020
ARQUITECTURA VIVA, Reciclaje Social, Driveline Studios
2020
CASA BRUTUS, JR + LOT-EK, by David Imber
2020
ASHAI SHINBUN + CHUNICHI SHINBUN, LOT-EK exhibition reviews, L Gallery, Nagoya
2020
WA - WORLD ARCHITECTURE, Drivelines Studios
2019
BLAUVELT, International Urban Project Award 2019
2019
PLATFORM, Contemporary Drivelines by Concetta Tavoletta
2019
AMC, Drivelines Containers Habités by Christophe Hespel
2019
BOB MAGAZINE, Clipping Drivelines Studios by Joonyong
2019
ABITARE, Metropoli Novissima by Fondazione Annuali dell’Architettura e della Citta’
2018
PASAJES ARQUITECTURA, LOT-EK [Selected Projects]
2018
SCHÖNER WOHNEN, Upcycling in Keilform, Carroll House
2017
CAMERA CRONICA #16, In Defense of The Vele, A Visit, Ada Tolla
2017
CONCRETE QUARTERLY, Flooring It, Irving Place Carriage House
2016
À VIVRE, Coleurs En Bias by Nadége Mevel
2016
BOB magazine , Irving Place Carriage House
2015
KNACK WEEKEND, Container Als Thuishaven, by Mien De Vriendt
2014
BEAUX ARTS , C-Home, Ecolo-Chic by Celine
2014
2014
ARCVISION, Women and Architecture
2014
CASA BRUTUS/January, Band of Outsiders Tokyo by Mika Yoshida & David Imber
2013
OCULUS/Winter, A Tale of Two Piers by Jonathan Lerner
2013
VOGUE France/November, Glamour en douce by Carole Sabas
2013
DBZ/August, Modulares Bauen
2011
ABITARE/January, Le case di marca by Lucia Tozzi
2011
MARK/December-January, Point Me In A New Direction by Yen Ping Chua
2011
FRAME/March, Turkey
2011
DWELL/May 19, Sneak Peek at LOT-EK's Pier 57 by Jamie Gross
2011
CASA BRUTUS/August 2011, Window on the World; New York by Mika Yoshida
2011
OCULUS/Summer, Honor Award; APAP OpenSchool
2011
ARCHITECTS NEWSPAPER/January, Watch Out, Swimsuit Models by Isadora Mullion
2011
DWELL/November, Tunnel Vision by Miyoko Ohtake
2011
OCULUS/Fall, The Lure of Pop-ups by Claire Wilson
2010
ARCHIWORLD/October, APAP Open School
2010
FRAME/November-December, The Great Indoors: Re-Use APAP Open School
2010
WIRED/April, Felici e Container by Chiara Alpago-Novello
2010
DWELL/April, Village people - Weiner Townhouse by Geoff Manaugh
2010
ARQA/January-February, LOT-EK transportavel "Puma City", Portos do Mundo
2010
X-KNOWLEDGE HOME/No. 14, Keishke Nibe 'Puma City-LOT-EK
2010
CASA BRUTUS/March, LOT-EK Sink Wall by Mika Yoshida & David Imber
collections (institutional):
Guggenheim Museum,
New York
Whitney Museum,
New York
collections (private):
Leonardo Bonanni / Tyler Brule’ / Amy Cappellazzo + Joanne Rosen / Norman Dubrow / William Floyd / Beverly Foster / Jacqueline + Steven Frankel / Stephen Gamson / Ann Hatch / Sara Meltzer / Steven Miller / Agnes Gund / Catherine Gund / Tom Healy + Fred Hochberg / Massimo Lauro / David Leiber / David & Bella Macmillan / The Rubell Family Collection / Beth Rudin DeWoody / Mayer Rus / Maurice Russell + Jorge Fontanez / Michael Rush / Gilbert & Lila Silverman / Manon Slome / Mr & Mrs Jerome Stern / Sherri Wolf
awards:
2012
Premio Medaglia d’Oro all’Architettura Italiana (finalist), Triennale di Milano
2009
International Architecture Award, IAA
1991
Visiting Scholar , Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture
talks:
2026
DRURY UNIVERSITY, Springfield, MO
2026
GSAPP Kenneth Frampton Symposium, Recycling, Repurposing, Reuse
2026
PRATT Institute lecture
2025
Columbia University GSAPP Open House lecture
2025
Columbia University GSAPP Fitch Colloquium
2025
Napoli, Universita’ Federico II, Italy
2025
NJIT, Newark, NJ
2024
MassArt Architecture, BostonSOM Carbonella, NY
2023
FOAN Napoli, Italy
2022
Exactitude, Center for Architecture, New YorkSummer School, SS Trinita’ delle Monache, Napoli
2022
Univerity of Toronto, PrefabFlorida University
2021
Italiani all’estero, Milano
2021
University of Chicago with The Black School
2021
DISLOCAL, talk 06,University of Cyprus, from 1 to 1000: UPCYCLE as Prefabrication
2021
University of Chile, New Concepts of Housing
2021
Un (Architetto) Italiano a …New York, curated by Laura RagazzolaUniversita’ di Napoli
2020
Exactitude Symposium, UMass Amherst, MA
2019
Universita’ della Basilicata, Matera, Italy
2019
Columbia University School of Professional Services, Master in Sustainability, New York
2019
University of Washington, Seattle
2018
University of Technology Sydney, Australia
2018
Asia Pacific Architecture Forum, Brisbane, Australia
2017
Taliesin West, Symposium: Refuge, Redefining Shelter
2017
Center for Architecture, NY, African Modernism(s): Past/Present/Future
2017
Politecnico - Universita’ Federico II, Napoli
2017
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
2017
Graduate School of Architecture, University of Johannesburg
2016
PARSONS School of Design, Emerging Voices Pechakucha, NY
2015
STOREFRONT, Temporary Architecture Manifesto, NY
academic:
2003-present
adjunct professors, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, GSAPP (Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation), New York
2012
visiting professors, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) - Graduate School of Architecture, Cambridge, MA
2005
visiting professors, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY, School of Architecture, Syracuse, NY
2000-2003
adjunct professors, PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN, Architecture Department, New York
1990-1991
visiting scholars, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, GSAPP (Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation), New York
team:
