LOT-EK was commissioned to design a special architectural installation for the Whitney Museum of American Art. The Whitney Studio installation will be located in the Sculpture Court of the museum’s Marcel Breuer building on Madison Avenue. The studio will function as a gallery for special exhibits and will house activities for the museum’s education programs, including art-making classes for adults, teens, and families and informal lectures.

Known as the Whitney Studio, it will stay there until the museum moves to its new home in Manhattan’s meatpacking district in 2015. The design is singular — a 600-square-foot space composed of six black-painted shipping containers that form a 17-foot-tall studio space and storage mezzanine.

Known as the Whitney Studio, it will stay there until the museum moves to its new home in Manhattan’s meatpacking district in 2015. The design is singular — a 600-square-foot space composed of six black-painted shipping containers that form a 17-foot-tall studio space and storage mezzanine — and the idea is perhaps the most tangible example of what museum education is about these days.

The concept employs 6 shipping containers stacked on two levels to form a concise, minimalist cube. The Whitney Studio is specifically designed to fit the smaller area of the Whitney’s open moat, on the south side of the entry bridge. A diagonal and continuous band of fenestration runs along two sides and along the roof to provide natural light and offers a glimpse of activities to museum visitors. Operable windows allow for transfer of airflow when in use (as a supplement to HVAC). Inside, the studio offers a double height space and a triangular mezzanine for the production and display of art work.

To see an animation of this project, please watch below, the LOT-EK video.

CREDITS

Architects.- LOT-EK Architecture & Design.
Team collaborators.-Ada Tolla, Giuseppe Lignano.
Project manager.- Virginie Stolz.
Structural Consultant.- Robert Silman Associates.
Location.- Madison Av., New York City. USA.
Client.- The Whitney Museum of American Art.
Building Type.- Art Studio/Gallery.
Size.- 720 sf.
Dates.- Design.- 2011 / Completion.- 2012.

 

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LOT-EK is a design studio based in New York. Founded in 1993 by Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano, it has been involved in residential, commercial and institutional projects in the US and abroad, as well as projects for major cultural institutions and museums including MoMA, the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim and the MAXXI.

LOT-EK’s founding partners, Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano, have a degree in Architecture and Urban Design from the Universita’ di Napoli, Italy (1989), and have completed post-graduate studies at Columbia University, New York (1990-1991). They have been in professional practice together since 1993. 

LOT-EK is a unique and award-winning design studio that makes sustainable and soulful architecture through the transformation of industrial and infrastructural objects. Their practice is experimental, ecological, and technological. But they are also mindful, simple, practical, and personal in their approach to each project and each client. 

LOT-EK’s projects have ranged from collaborations and installations with artists; through interiors, townhouses, and houses for families; through cultural projects for such clients as The Whitney Museum of Art and The Guggenheim Museum; through commercial projects for such clients as Puma and Band of Outsiders; to institutional projects for such clients as Google and TK. 

LOT-EK has achieved high visibility in the architecture/design/art world for its sustainable and innovative approach to construction, materials and space through the upcycling of existing industrial objects and systems not originally intended for architecture.

Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano’s work has received awards and accolades—from the Emerging Voices Forum from the Architecture League of New York to The New York American Institute of Architects (AIA) Honor Awards. LOT-EK’s work is in included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

In December 2011, Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano were recognized as USA Booth Fellows of Architecture & Design by United States Artists (USA).
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