the super-production of LOT-EK
By Leopoldo Sguera

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When the Deitch Projects gallery in Soho announced that it would host an installation of a series of photographs of Madonna fashion photographer Steven Klein, the art, fashion, and celebrity worlds collided. The installation, a makeshift small theater of sorts, was to be set up by the architectural studio, LOT-EK, run by two dark-haired Neapolitans. And that was when LOT-EK, already respected in architectural circles, acquired celebrity status. The installation was a haunting combination of still and moving images reminiscent of the experience of visiting an Italian Baroque church; here, however, the traditional Caravaggio paintings in the Italian church were replaced by Klein’s photos of Madonna. Viewers found themselves mesmerized by the makeshift theater and the space it inhabited.

	LOT-EK Website

Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano, the principal partners of LOT-EK, are getting used to this kind of attention. When they first graduated from Columbia University, they had no connections in the architecture world and set up their own studio to implement their ideas. Known for their creative re-use of old materials, they’ve made a name in the cross-fertilization of industry and architecture that is absolutely unique and unprecedented. For example, a typical and now very famous example of LOT-EK’s work is the M.D.U., or Mobile Dwelling Unit. Constructed out of shipping containers, the containers are put together to make a home. The containers can be pulled out to create hallways that connect the different units/rooms and then fit back together for ease of transportation.

It seems a far cry from the old beautiful architecture of their hometown Naples. But to Tolla and Lignano, it was precisely the burden of the architectural history of Italy that was relieved when they came to America. According to Tolla, “In Italy, you look at this amazing stuff that’s been done in the past and you think, ‘this is it.’ All you do is look at that history.” Adds Lignano, “In Italy, Modernism was always being criticized. It was like ‘everything after the war sucks and we should be ashamed of it.’ So the two, friends from University of Naples, came to study to New York when they were offered research fellowships at Columbia University in 1990. Immediately, they were enraptured by America. “We spent an entire month in New York and then went to California, Chicago… We absolutely fell in love with the whole environment—American urban environment, suburban environment, and the wide open [spaces],” remembers Lignano.

“Now in their mid-thirties, the pair remains fascinated by America’s industrial landscape even after being here for over a decade. Having moved from one port city to another, Naples to New York, one of the things that constantly caught their attention was shipping ports and containers. They began to use them as a recurring building component in their architecture. But Tolla and Lignano are eager to stress that it is creative re-use of components, as opposed to recycling of components, that drives their design. LOT-EK says that it is inspired by the inventiveness of cities like Naples: “very much a city where there is an extension between third world and first world, in which people use ingenuity to create new kinds of architecture from existing industrial leftovers,” says Tolla. “It’s the philosophy of the ready-made bricolage, of improvising, of using your intuition, the makeshift kind of things,” she concludes reflectively.

But LOT-EK’s love of using industrial goods goes beyond just an interest in how they can be remodeled together. They share a genuine, childlike fascination with super-production and industrial goods. “I feel like a kid in a candy store if I go to a container site in New Jersey or a cemetery of airplanes, or even a hardware store in America,” laughs Lignano. When you walk into a hardware store, according to Tolla, “You look at all these pieces and they’re good and big and strong, and you’re like, ‘I want to do stuff.’” That kind of inspiration and awe has been key to the variety of solutions they’ve come up with.

LOT-EK’s experimentation was on display in the Morton Duplex residence that the duo constructed in New York’s West Village in 1999. A petroleum trailer tank was used to create two bathrooms and two sleeping beds in the residence. One section was divided into two sleeping pods, each of which could be covered with a lid for privacy. This sleeping area was hoisted onto the second floor of the duplex, whereas the second section of the tank was placed vertically from floor to ceiling and contained two bathrooms stacked on top of each other.

“Petroleum trailer tanks and shipping containers may seem very heavy duty for some people but the way they are used by LOT-EK lends another layer of usability to the object without losing the sense of history it has. Lignano says, “We’re very attracted by the ingenuity of these objects and the heavy-duty production aspect to them. We see things as possibilities and we see it as very muscular and strong. It’s not about these cute little things.”

In a world which is increasingly filled with objects, LOT-EK has found an inspired and energetic way to use industrial goods. As Lignano says, “You go to New Jersey, there are thousands of containers stuck in a very organized but also random way. It’s something that spoke to us very much of our moment… We started noticing artificial nature—everything that is man-made has become a second nature—we are so surrounded by it and it’s so strong, it’s as strong as a hurricane or a jungle.”

Photographs
[top] Ada Tolla[left] and Guiseppe Ligano photographed in their studio in Manhattan. Photograph by Dominic Sidhu
[middle] Morton Residence, West Village, NY. A petroleum trailer tank is devised to encapsulate private areas within the aprtment. Photograph courtesy LOT-EK
[bottom] TV Tank. TV-Tank transforms a petroleum trailer tank into a set of floating sections suitable for lounging and watching television. Photograph courtesy LOT-EK