Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano both studied at the Universitá di Napoli, where they met, before moving to New York to complete post-graduate studies at Columbia University. In 1993, they founded their architectural firm LOT-EK, which is known for the adaptive reuse and up-cycling of infrastructural and industrial structures, most notably the standard 40-foot shipping container, but also airplane fuselages, oil truck tanks, and cement-mixer drums. Tolla and Lignano both teach at Columbia University.