LOT-EK Transforms Humble Cargo Containers into a Retail Oasis

Part of the pleasure of experiencing a LOT-EK building firsthand stems from the craft-like care with which the firm transforms ordinary objects of industrialized mass production into thought-provoking works of architecture. Since the early 2000s, partners Giuseppe Lignano and Ada Tolla have focused on one particular object in their practice—the ISO intermodal freight container—and their design for the Bal Harbour Shops Access Pop-Up in West Palm Beach, Florida, reflects more than two decades of research into the constructive potential of standardized cargo infrastructure.

The temporary retail and dining facility hosts such luxury brands as Tiffany & Co., Balmain, and Dolce & Gabbana in an assemblage of 28 40-foot shipping containers designed to be easily relocated seasonally across the southeastern United States. The project was commissioned by Whitman Family Development, which opened its historic Bal Harbour Shops mall in Florida in 1965. The Bal Harbour Shops Access Pop-Up was launched in November 2023, in Raleigh, to expand the high-end shopping center’s reach. It has been set up in four subsequent locations in the Carolinas and Florida, and is currently open in West Palm Beach through January 12. The client and design team sought to reproduce the experience of Bal Harbour in miniature, which meant replicating the open-air shopping mall’s lushly planted courtyards and intimately scaled boutiques using components that could be easily shipped and reassembled.