about:
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. They’ve taught at Columbia University GSAPP since 2004 and have been practicing together since 1993.
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. Their projects cross continents and cultures, from their hometown of New York to Queensland, Australia, and from Huangshan, China to Johannesburg, South Africa.
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). Their 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’ second monograph, O+O: Objects + Operations, was published by The Monacelli Press.
exhibitions:
2013
Erasmus Effect
Rome, Italy
2019
STACK / CUT
Lower East Side, New York
2016
↑ THIS SIDE UP ↑
Lower East Side, New York
2024
THE CUBES
Queens, New York
2024
work in progress
MIT / Keller Gallery / Boston
2023
SPILL / from 1 to 29
Hosfelt Gallery
collections (institutional):
Museum of Modern Art,
New York
Guggenheim Museum,
New York
Whitney Museum,
New York
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,
San Francisco
The Bohen Foundation,
New York
Bloomberg LP,
New York
Weatherspoon Art Museum,
University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC, Brooklyn Museum,
collections (institutional):
Museum of Modern Art,
New York
Guggenheim Museum,
New York
Whitney Museum,
New York
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,
San Francisco
The Bohen Foundation,
New York
Bloomberg LP,
New York
Weatherspoon Art Museum,
University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC, Brooklyn Museum,
awards:
2025
Socrates Sculpture Park Honor
HEAVYWEIGHT 2025
2018
Objects and Operations
AIGA Award for O+O
2017
Award for Excellence in Design
NYC Public Design Commission
2011
AIA
Architecture Honor Award
lectures:
2024
MassArt Architecture, Boston
SOM Carbonella, NY
2022
Exactitude, Center for Architecture, New York
Summer School, SS Trinita’ delle Monache, Napoli
Univerity of Toronto, Prefab
Florida University
2021
Italiani all’estero, Milano
University of Chicago with The Black School
University of Chile, New Concepts of Housing
DISLOCAL, talk 06,
University of Cyprus, from 1 to 1000: UPCYCLE as Prefabrication
Un (Architetto) Italiano a …New York, curated by Laura Ragazzola
Universita’ di Napoli, Technological Design Course
Parsons Construction technology, curated by David Leven
Columbia University GSAPP, Prefabrication in the Public Realm
2020
Exactitude Symposium, UMass Amherst, MA
2019
Universita’ della Basilicata, Matera, Italy
Columbia University School of Professional Services, Master in Sustainability, New York
University of Washington, Seattle
2018
University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Asia Pacific Architecture Forum, Brisbane, Australia
2017
Taliesin West, Symposium: Refuge, Redefining Shelter
Center for Architecture, NY, African Modernism(s): Past/Present/Future
Politecnico - Universita’ Federico II, Napoli
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Graduate School of Architecture, University of Johannesburg
2016
PARSONS School of Design, Emerging Voices Pechakucha, NY
2015
STOREFRONT, Temporary Architecture Manifesto, NY
