about:

LOT-EK is a team of architects, 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 architecture through the transformation of industrial infrastructural objects and systems. We work with the ordinary.

LOT-EK’s projects range from installations with artists; through houses for families; through cultural projects for communities, institutions, and museums. Our practice has developed work from our hometown of New York around the world, from Queensland, Australia, through Huangshan, China to Johannesburg, South Africa.

LOT-EK’s 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.

LOT-EK’s work has received awards and accolades, from the Emerging Voices from the Architecture League to The New York American Institute of Architects (AIA) Honor Awards, and it is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. LOT-EK’s second monograph, in collaboration with Thomas de Monchaux, is O+O: Objects + Operations, published by The Monacelli Press.

team:

architect

ada tolla

architect

giuseppe lignano

architect

virginie stolz

architect

reza zia

designer

tala salman

architect

hector song

development and marketing

manuel-alexandre freneix

marketing and content

maya luthra

contact:

620 E 9th street / storefront
New York, NY 10009

212 255-9326

exhibitions:
publications:
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
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
collections (private):

Leonardo Bonanni / Tyler Brule’ / Amy Cappellazzo & Joanne Rosen / Norman Dubrow / 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 / Michael Rush / Gilbert & Lila Silverman / Manon Slome / Mr & Mrs Jerome Stern / Sherri Wolf

awards:
2017
Excellence in Design, NYC Public Design Commission
2014
Lawrence Israel Prize, Fashion Institute of Technology
2011
USA Booth Fellow, Architecture & Design, United States Artists
2009
International Architecture Award, IAA
2009
International Architecture Award, IAA
2009
Honorable Mention for Best Environments, I.D. Magazine
2009
T+L Best Retail, Travel + Leisure
2009
Lumen Award, Illuminating Engineering Society of America
2008
Second Cycle , WA Award
1999
Emerging Voices, Architectural League
1991
Visiting Scholar , Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture
lectures:
2024

MassArt Architecture, Boston
SOM Carbonella, NY

2023

FOAN Napoli, Italy

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

academic:
2003 - present

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation GSAPP

2012

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT - Graduate School of Architecture

2005

SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY, School of Architecture

2000 - 03

PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN, Architecture Department

Feb 10, 2026

Inside an NYC Townhouse Made From 18 Shipping Containers

Inside an NYC Townhouse Made From 18 Shipping Containers

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Dec 12, 2025

We Start With The Things We Find

We Start With The Things We Find

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