Collaborative models of practice serve as an important outlet for Lott to maintain the theoretical component integral to his work. Collective-LOK, a collaboration he cofounded in 2013, provides an additional mode of architectural exploration, complementing his work with PARA. Collective-LOK’s latest project, Heart of Hearts, the winning submission of a public art competition curated by the Center for Architecture, is currently on view in Times Square. The installation acts as a reflective alternative pavilion, dissolving boundaries between viewing and performing.

Since forming PARA, Lott has taken on a variety of projects ranging from residential and educational work to gallery spaces and master planning. One of PARA’s recent built works, Haffenden House, is a writing studio located in a suburb of Syracuse, New York. The house makes use of a translucent silicon impregnated fabric skin for a light-filled writing room and references Gianni Pettena’s 1972 Ice House as a void-like presence breaking up the repetitive image of the suburban house typology.

While PARA’s projects are guided by the specific needs and curiosities of a diverse clientele, the practice also strives to raise important disciplinary queries, taking interest in the advantage of the profession’s generalist position. “The work is a way to ask questions about what we’re doing rather than just purely serving a solution,” said Lott. “I think that the speculative quality is really key to the firm.”