As a studio, LOT-EK is committed to ecologically responsible and intelligent methods of building. They have built a critical architectural practice through research into the adaptive reuse (“upcycling”) of infrastructural and industrial objects — most notably the standard 40-foot shipping container.^[1] They are recognized for initiating the concept of creating architecture with shipping containers and has successfully leveraged this construction technology with several award-winning projects.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]}

In addition to utilizing containers as building blocks for architecture,^[8][9] LOT-EK has upcycled other objects – including truck bodies, airplane fuselages, and reclaimed wood or steel doors – as structural interventions to design buildings and interiors.^[10][11][12] Their stated goal is to not only recycle an object, but to recycle the intelligence that went into the object’s development.

LOT-EK’s ongoing research has focused on man-made objects and systems and the way they proliferate, accumulate, overlap and interfere with the built, and natural, environment around the globe. LOT-EK’s sustainable approach to construction through the adaptive reuse of existing industrial objects and systems has been the basis of projects at all scales. Committed to ecologically-responsible, intelligent methods of building, LOT-EK’s focus is to bring new life to industrial objects, and to preserve and honor the intelligence and history that went into their development. They specialize in inadvertent elegance and unexpected beauty, in bringing together old and new, generic and specific, natural and artificial, local and global, familiar and strange, "we seek to show how the ordinary can be extraordinary".

Ada and Giuseppe traveled extensively throughout the United States upon finishing architecture studies in Italy. Inspired by the American landscape – both natural and urban – they won a scholarship to conduct post-graduate work at Columbia University. This allowed them to experience both the experimental academic environment of Columbia, as well as the urban complexity of New York City. The work they produced during that year was compiled in a book, which served as the foundation of the primary idea behind LOT-EK as a design studio.

After successfully submitting their dissertation in Italy, Ada and Giuseppe founded a studio in Naples. On the basis of their work, as well as introductions during their time at Columbia, Ada and Giuseppe began receiving commissions in the US. In 1995, they decided to open another studio in New York City, and secured a loft in the then raw and unglamorous Meat Packing District. This further established their practice as a hands-on, artistic investigation into the creative reclaiming of the industrial and man-made.

Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano each have a master's degree in Architecture and Urban Design from the Universita’ di Napoli, Italy (1989), and have completed post-graduate studies at Columbia University, New York (1990-1991). In addition to heading LOT-EK, they currently teach at Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in New York, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Graduate Department of Architecture, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

They also lecture at universities and cultural institutions in the US and abroad, and have presented at conferences and meetings about sustainability and the built environment, including the Holcim Forum on Sustainability 2010 (Mexico City), and the Kyoto Institute of Technology (Kyoto, Japan), among others.

Over the years, LOT-EK has collaborated with various artists, designers, and institutions to create spaces that blur the lines between architecture, art, and functionality. These collaborations have resulted in innovative installations and spaces that serve multiple purposes and engage with their communities in unique ways.

1. Whitney Studio (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City)
2. APAP OpenSchool (Anyang, Korea)
3. Puma City (Multiple global ports; planned installation in Boston, MA)
4. Sanlitun North (Beijing, China)
5. Sanlitun South (Beijing, China)
6. Weiner Residence (New York City)
7. Russell-Fontanez Residence (New York City)
8. Pier 57 (Winning RFP design; in-progress; planned completion in 2014)
9. Carroll House (in-progress; planned completion in 2013)
10. Mobile Dwelling Unit or MDU (Multiple locations in the US)

2023-24 SPILL/ from 1 to 29, Curated by Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco
2023 CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE BIENNIAL 2023,This is a Rehearsal, Curated by Floating Museum, Chicago
2019 TRIANGLE STACK #2,Installation at the Domino Sugar Factory in collaboration with artist JR
2017 HI-LIGHTS, Permanent public art installation, Gold Coast, Australia
2010 SOUND-MONOLITH,Installation for Italia150, Torino, Italy
2008 GREEN-ENERGY GEL BULB, Installation in the courtyard of the Ca Granda, Milano, commission: Interni
2005 TOLEDO ART FIELD, permanent light installation, commission: Toledo Arts Commission with Inbar Barak
2004 RED ICE WALLS, For the Snow Show, Kemi, Finland - commission: Lance Fung and Culture Minister of Finland
2004 CONTAINER STRIP, Permanent public art installation, PR22 Arecibo, Puerto Rico
2001 INSPIRO-TAINER, Work/relaxation module for Worksphere, commission: MoMA, New York for Worksphere
2001 WELCOME BOX, Info box for the Liverpool Biennial, commission: Liverpool Biennial
2001 LITE-GATE, Light/surveillance device Hochberg-Healy residence, commission: Fred Hochberg and Tom Healy
2001 MIXER, Media cocoon for Henry Urbach Gallery, New York, collection: Guggenheim Museum, New York
2000 VISION-TUBE, At the Rockefeller Center for the Whitney Biennial, commission: Whitney Museum, New York
2000 SUMMER'S WARM UP at PS1, Summer leisure at PS1 – commission: PS1, Queens, NY
2000 VIDEO-BOX, Video info box for Design Triennial – commission: Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York
1998 TV-TANK, Television lounging tube for Deitch Projects and Henry Urbach Gallery, commission: Deitch Projects, NY
1997 SURF-A-BED, multi channel television system for Gramercy Art Fair, commission: Henry Urbach Gallery, NY
1996 FIT VIDEO-THEATER, Recycle exhibit, New York

2018 AIGA Award For O+O, Objects And Operations. 50 Books | 50 Covers Of 2017
2017 PDC Planning Design Commission, Annual Award For Excellence In Design, The Cubes At Socrates Sculpture Park
2014 Lawrence Israel Prize, Fit, NY
2013 Architizer + Award, APAP Open School
2012 Premio Medaglia D’oro All’architettura Italiana (Finalist), Triennale Di Milano
2012 Excellence In Structural Engineering Award – Outstanding Project – Van Allen Books
2011 USA Booth Fellow, Architecture & Design
2011 NY AIA Architecture Honor Award 2011, APAP Open School
2011 American Architecture Award 2011, APAP Open School
2009 International Architecture Award 2009, Sanlitun South
2009 International Architecture Award 2009, Puma City
2009 I.D. Magazine 2009 Honorable Mention For Best Environments, Puma City
2009 T+L Design Award, Best Retail, Puma City
2009 Illuminating Engineering Society Of America, Lumen Award Of Merit ‘Puma City’
2008 National Design Award. Architecture Finalist, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
2008 World Architecture Community. WA Awards Second Cycle “Sanlitun South”
2005 I.D. Annual Design Review. Best Of Interactive Design Category (With Inbar Barak)
2002 National Endowment For The Arts Grant. Funds For The MDU Prototype
2002 American Center In Paris Grant. Funds For The MDU Prototype
2001 National Design Award. Environment Design Finalist, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
1999 Emerging Voices. Architectural League, New York
1991 Visiting Scholar Position, Columbia University, Graduate School Of Architecture

• 2003-current, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, Graduate School of Architecture
• 2012, MIT Graduate School of Architecture
• 2005, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY, School of Architecture
• 2000-05, PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN, Architecture Department

• We start with the things we find, Documentary Film by Thomas Piper, 2023
• LOT-EK: Objects + Operations, essays by Thomas de Monchaux, 2017. ISBN 1580934838
• LOT-EK: UPCYCLE, 2012. ISBN 978-1-105-96793-1
• LOT-EK:MDU Mobile Dwelling Unit, essays by Aaron Betsky, Robert Kronenburg, Henry Urbach, DAP, 2003. ISBN 1-891024-68-X
• LOT/EK URBANSCAN, essays by Philp Nobel, Princeton Architectural Press, 2002. ISBN 1-56898-300-X
• MIXER by LOT/EK, essay by Mark Robbins, Edizioni Press, 2000. ISBN 0-9662230-9-8

• Official website