ARCO SBAGLIATO, our reinterpretation of Castiglioni’s iconic lamp, honors its dimensional perfection while translating it through upcycling and our material language—industrial fragments become functional sculpture
ARCO SBAGLIATO begins with S18, a fragment from one shipping container that we cut into pieces as a sort of exorcism against the object we use all the time, its global shipping network impact and contamination.
Our shipping container base is heavy, held on the ground by the ‘corner casting’, the steel piece that makes the container intelligent and transportable—we see it as our contemporary equivalent of the Carrara marble block.
Our base tapers, it wants to hold something else. Rebars of different gauges, emulating the telescopic metal segments of the original and only, are fastened to each other and can be loosened again for transportation.
The lamp shade is still a bowl, though we now have LED and can work with something visually solid and more tender to replicate its shape. Naturally the electric cable is colored and exposed.
Our inspiration is open and declared – the lamp is an homage to Castiglioni’s ARCO, a true icon. We bring it to right now, to the less-perfect world we inhabit, to the things we make and the ones we dismiss. We bring it to our own design effort and concerns. But also, to the playfulness that transformation offers, when things mundane take different shape and use, when they bring us surprise, when they make us question, wonder, smile.
A project by
LOT-EK
LOT-EK is a studio working at the intersection of art and architecture. Our practice of upcycling is one of reimagining—we reclaim objects that our culture dismisses, finding beauty in the ordinary.
LOT-EK’s projects span multiple disciplines and includes art installations, houses and housing; cultural spaces for communities, foundations and museums; retail spaces, and mobile projects. Our projects cross continents and cultures, from our hometown of New York to Queensland, Australia, and from Huangshan, China to Johannesburg, South Africa.
LOT-EK is a tight group of creatives, we each bring our voices, sensibilities, and heritages to a common project. LOT-EK’s founding partners are Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano—we live and work in New York and grew up in Naples, Italy. We’ve taught at Columbia University GSAPP since 2004 and have been practicing together since 1993.
LOT-EK’s awards include the United States Artists’ Booth Fellowship of Architecture & Design (2011), the Architecture League’s Emerging Voices Award (1999), and the New York American Institute of Architects (AIA) Honor Award (2011). Our work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and has been exhibited at multiple institutions including the Whitney Museum and The Venice Biennale. LOT-EK’ second monograph, O+O: Objects + Operations, was published by The Monacelli Press.
WE START WITH THE THINGS WE FIND, a feature-length documentary on our work, premiered in 2023. Directed by Thomas Piper, the film explores the design thinking behind how LOT-EK brings the shipping container to life, our studio’s vision, and the soulful, lifelong partnership of the people behind the work.