Ada Tolla & Giuseppe Lignano, LOT-EK

LOT-EK is an award-winning architectural design studio based in New York and Naples, Italy. Founded in 1993 by Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano, LOT-EK has been involved with commercial, institutional, and residential projects globally. In addition, they have conceived and executed exhibition design and site-specific installations for major cultural institutions and museums, including MoMA, the Whitney Museum, the Walker Art Center, and the Guggenheim. They have achieved high visibility for their sustainable and innovative approach to construction, materials, and space, through the adaptive reuse ("upcycling") of existing industrial objects and systems not originally intended for architecture.

Their sustainable approach to construction through upcycling has been the basis of structural projects at all scales. They are committed to ecologically responsible and intelligent methods of building. To that end, they leverage the technological properties of existing industrial objects to create architecture. Their goal is to not only recycle the objects themselves, but to recycle the intelligence that went into their development. Beyond the inherent sustainability of their design methodology, they are committed to researching and implementing innovative ways to conserve materials and energy. Their projects have long been considered ground-breaking and innovative. LOT-EK's first monograph, Urbanscan, was published by Princeton Architectural Press in February 2002. LOT-EK Mixer was issued by Edizioni Press in 2000, and MDU: Mobile Dwelling Unit, published by DAP, was printed in June 2003.

Founding Partners at LOT-EK, Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano have Master's Degrees in Architecture and Urban Design from the Universita' di Napoli, Italy (1989). After graduating, they completed post-graduate studies at Columbia University, New York (1990-1991), as Visiting Scholars.

They founded LOT-EK in Naples, Italy, in 1993 and opened up LOT-EK's New York design studio in 1995. Besides heading their professional practice, they also teach at Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation in New York, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's School of Architecture and Planning in Cambridge, MA.

Ada and Giuseppe speak regularly at major international universities, cultural institutions, and symposia. Their work has been exhibited and acquired by international cultural institutions worldwide from the MAXXI in Rome and the Venice Biennale, to MoMA, the Guggenheim, and the Whitney Museum in New York.

They are the authors of Urbanscan, published by Princeton Architectural Press, Mobile Dwelling Unit, published by DAP, and Mixer, published by Edizioni Press. They are now working on O+O (Objects and Operations).

In December 2011, they were recognized as USA Booth Fellows of Architecture & Design by United States Artists (USA).