Description
The New York-based architectural firm LOT/EK (pronounced “low-tech”) has made a distinctive mark on the architectural landscape through a series of seemingly whimsical projects that make a point of using prefabricated industrial materials in unexpected ways. In their hands, a shipping container can be transformed into a mobile working unit, a museum, or a restaurant. In the process, they question our relation to the industrial environment and the artificiality of the urban landscape. LOT/EK: Urban Scan, the first and only monograph on the firm, is organized categorically and alphabetically. Twenty-three projects are presented in detail, including American Diner (a restaurant in a container), the InspiroTrainer (created for the Museum of Modern Art), Mixer (a cement mixer-cum-video immersion unit), the Meltzer Gallery, the Boon boutique, the MDU (Mobule Dwelling Unit), and the Goree Memorial and Museum. It also includes more than 1,000 photographs of infrastructural objects–everything from air conditioners to water tanks–that serve as the raw material and inspiration for this creative practice.
