Submission by Unknown Works Ltd.
Being a good ancestor
Practice
1. Do you have a clearly stated purpose aligned with the planetary emergency? We’re looking for a bold ambition here, and a culture which recognises the need for long-term thinking.
Over the past year, Unknown Works has moved from regenerative design as a project ethos into regenerative design as public infrastructure, cultural memory, health equity and national transition. We published the first book on Rwanda’s Model Villages and the co-design research behind them; developed VIPI, an off-grid preventative health and community plug-in; completed CooperVision’s 10,000sqm, 400-person Vision Centre in Southampton; began design work for Aegis Energy’s clean multi-energy freight hubs; advanced sustainable venue thinking through Sanctuary with Greenpeace; and started work on the new Migration Museum. Together, these projects show a practice moving beyond mitigation towards architecture as civic, ecological and social infrastructure. Our Architects Declare commitment, Passivhaus expertise, carbon tools and previous RIBA Sustainable Development Award remain important, but this year’s work demonstrates how those principles now operate at greater social and systemic scale.
2. Do you have a clearly stated purpose aligned with the planetary emergency? We’re looking for a bold ambition here, and a culture which recognises the need for long-term thinking.
Unknown Works is shaping succession as a gradual transfer of responsibility, knowledge and values rather than a single future transaction. Our in-house research clusters give team members ownership of themes such as circular construction, health infrastructure, cultural projects, housing research, workplace wellbeing and low-carbon tools. These groups sit across project teams, allowing younger staff to lead research, test methods and influence practice strategy. We are also exploring inclusive ownership and leadership models that can protect the studio’s founding commitments to environmental responsibility, community engagement, international collaboration and design experimentation. Open project reviews, shared research libraries, peer mentoring and transparent decision-making help future leaders grow from within. The aim is that Unknown Works’ legacy is not held by its founders alone, but carried by a wider team able to evolve the practice while protecting its ethical and environmental direction.
3. Do you share research and knowledge for the benefit of society and the wider world?
Research is most valuable when it becomes useful beyond the studio. This year we published the first book on Rwanda’s Model Villages and the co-design research undertaken with residents, village leaders, housing authorities and academic partners. That work now informs VIPI, a Rwanda Village Integrated Health Plug-in combining AI-enhanced preventative healthcare, community gathering, internet access, public charging, solar energy, rainwater harvesting and locally appropriate construction. Our in-house research clusters translate such findings into design tools, briefing methods and material guidance that can be reused across projects. We also share learning through workshops, institutional presentations, post-occupancy evaluation and peer exchange with organisations including The Thousand Year Trust, Simbi Foundation, Vortex Foundation and UNHCR partners. The aim is to make research actionable: turning observation, community knowledge and technical testing into wider social and environmental benefit.
Project
1. Do you advocate for long-term thinking at the outset of work? Do you initiate work with long-term thinking and challenge clients? Also, can the organisation demonstrate that this approach has worked?
We now frame the beginning of each project around the question: what should this place continue to give back? That shifts early conversations from capital cost alone to future usefulness, care, adaptability, operational energy, social value and material recovery. The completed 10,000sqm Vision Centre for CooperVision shows this in a workplace context, bringing R&D, technical innovation and business teams together around shared social spaces and a planted Green Heart. Aegis Energy’s hubs are being designed as durable clean-energy infrastructure for commercial fleets, with high-speed refuelling and driver welfare built into the brief. Sanctuary with Greenpeace is conceived as a reusable touring cultural structure, not a one-off festival installation. The Migration Museum is being designed as a permanent civic institution with national reach, while VIPI turns research into a replicable health and community infrastructure model.
2. Does your work take account of the future climate and the need for resilience?
Future climate is treated as a design condition rather than a compliance issue. We test passive strategies, overheating, daylight, water, material recovery, landscape value and future adaptation from the outset. VIPI’s smart roof demonstrates this approach clearly: it generates solar power, harvests rainwater, provides shade, supports passive ventilation and gives the building a memorable civic identity while using local and recycled materials. Aegis Energy’s multi-energy hubs support the transition away from fossil-fuel freight, while Sanctuary explores how cultural infrastructure can be touring, adaptable and lower impact. The completed Vision Centre uses light, planting and shared amenity to support wellbeing in a high-performance R&D workplace. Earlier projects, including the Science Museum’s Climate Change Gallery and our disassemblable timber structures, remain part of this wider commitment to climate-ready architecture.
3. Does the majority of your work go beyond mitigating negatives and towards optimising positives?
The majority of our work is designed to create positive social, cultural and ecological effects, not simply reduce harm. VIPI brings preventative healthcare, social infrastructure, renewable energy, water collection, digital access and local construction into one village-scale prototype. Sanctuary, developed with The Observatory, Greenpeace International, Creative Giants and RES, extends environmental communication beyond activism into lived experience. Situated within the Greenpeace Field at Glastonbury, it is not a stage, gallery or installation, but a spatial experience audiences enter, spend time within and return to throughout the day. Its programme combines audio-visual work, live performance, spoken word, film and reflection around human systems, nature and inner life. The Migration Museum will centre personal stories and public understanding of migration. Aegis Energy’s hubs support cleaner freight, while the Vision Centre advances wellbeing-led workplace design.
Co-evolving with nature
Practice
1. Do you use biophilia within your premises and/or do you regularly gather in natural settings?
Biophilia is treated as part of how we structure attention, collaboration and care, not as a decorative layer. Our studio is arranged to support daylight, tactile material testing, shared pin-ups, planting, making and informal pause, helping the team work in ways that reflect the wellbeing-led environments we design. This approach has sharpened through projects such as the completed Vision Centre, where planting, light and social space connect research, technical and workplace environments, and Sanctuary, where audiences are invited to slow down, listen and reconnect within the intensity of Glastonbury. We also use project site visits, ecological walks, material research trips and landscape-based conversations to keep the team connected to the living systems our work depends on.
2. Can you share examples of where you have considered nature in decision making?
Nature is part of our decision-making culture, not only a project outcome. Internally, we use flexible working, family-responsive hours and outdoor activities to recognise that people need cycles of focus, rest and recovery. In project work, we test decisions against material origin, biodiversity, water, energy, maintenance and long-term ecological consequence. With Greenpeace and The Observatory, Sanctuary asks how a venue can create a slower relationship between audiences, art and planetary futures. With The Thousand Year Trust, the Rainforest Research Station supports restoration of a threatened biome. With Aegis Energy, we are developing transport infrastructure that must balance operational performance with landscape, biodiversity and driver wellbeing. Our research clusters help keep these questions active throughout design, rather than confined to specialist reports.
3. Are you supporting nature locally and nationally?
Unknown Works supports nature through project design, research partnerships and supply-chain work. The Atlantic Temperate Rainforest Research Station helps The Thousand Year Trust advance the study and restoration of one of the UK’s rarest habitats. Our in-house research clusters are developing tools and guidance around homegrown British timber, bio-based materials, circular detailing and lower-carbon procurement, connecting design decisions to woodland health and regional economies. In infrastructure projects such as Aegis Energy’s multi-energy hubs, we are developing landscape principles that address biodiversity, water, shade, habitat and human wellbeing alongside operational needs. Across cultural and civic projects, including Sanctuary and the Migration Museum, we also consider how public experience can build emotional connection to ecological and social systems. Nature is treated as a collaborator, not a backdrop.
Project
1. Can you demonstrate work that strives to match the performance of a mature ecosystem?
Several projects are structured as interdependent systems rather than standalone objects. VIPI combines clinic, social hub, microgrid, water harvesting, internet access, learning space and community gathering, so one piece of architecture can support health, energy and social life together. The Atlantic Temperate Rainforest Research Station links research, restoration, education and community activity within a threatened ecosystem. The Vision Centre connects laboratories, clean rooms, offices and social spaces through a planted atrium and Green Heart, supporting informal exchange between previously separated teams. Aegis Energy’s hubs are being designed as nodes in a cleaner national mobility network, with energy, logistics, rest, welfare and landscape working together. Sanctuary creates a cultural ecosystem of sound, performance, reflection and environmental storytelling, designed to evolve beyond one festival context.
2. Are you working on material stewardship?
Unknown Works treats material stewardship as a live research discipline, not a specification exercise. Our in-house research clusters work across projects to develop tools for carbon assessment, reuse potential, circular assemblies, disassembly, regional sourcing, bio-based procurement and material evidence. These tools help design teams compare structural systems, test alternatives early and challenge consultants, suppliers and clients with data rather than preference. External collaborations with Hooke Park, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Xilonor, foresters and fabricators remain important, but they are now supported by internal knowledge systems that turn research into repeatable project methods. VIPI applies this through GGBS concrete replacement, recycled rebar, compressed earth bricks and reclaimed steel, with early studies indicating over 50% reductions for key material substitutions. Our timber research explores homegrown British supply chains that connect material choice with woodland health, local economies and lower-carbon construction.
3. Does the majority of your work demonstrate the use of biologically-inspired approaches such as Bioregionalism, Biophilia or Biomimicry?
Our biologically inspired work focuses on performance, not visual imitation. Bioregional thinking shapes how we use local skills, climate knowledge, available materials and cultural patterns of occupation. VIPI’s smart roof behaves like an environmental organ: collecting water, generating power, shading, cooling, ventilating and creating a recognisable civic identity. The Vision Centre uses planting, light and spatial connection to support wellbeing and collaboration in a technical workplace. Sanctuary creates a slower, more reflective environment within a high-intensity festival, encouraging audiences to experience ecological questions through atmosphere and attention. Earlier projects, including the Armadillo shell structure, Beehive Theatre façade and living laboratory roofs at the Rainforest Research Station, show how natural systems can inform structure, porosity, adaptation and environmental exchange.
Creating a just space for people
Practice
1. Do you have a progressive EDI policy and can you evidence many forms of diversity, which are welcomed and acknowledged, within your company/organisation?
Unknown Works has a robust Equal Opportunities Policy and an active commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion and access to opportunity. Our team of 16 represents 12 nationalities, bringing a wide range of cultural, educational and professional perspectives into the studio. This matters deeply to the work we now undertake across migration, health, displacement, community life, workplace culture and public storytelling. The Migration Museum, VIPI, UNHCR-supported work and our Rwanda Model Villages research all depend on listening across difference and recognising lived experience as expertise. Recruitment, feedback and progression are managed through open processes, and staff are encouraged to contribute to design reviews, research, engagement and practice strategy. We aim to build a studio where difference is not simply represented, but actively shapes judgement.
2. Do you operate a no overtime culture, meet the living wage consistently, and stipulate a fair salary ratio between staff of all levels?
Unknown Works actively discourages overtime and treats rest as part of responsible practice. We plan resourcing carefully, review workloads regularly and encourage open conversations when pressure points arise. The studio consistently pays above the London Living Wage, with salaries reviewed annually against RIBA benchmarks. Our salary structure is designed to be fair and proportionate, limiting excessive disparities while recognising responsibility and experience. Flexible working is supported where appropriate, including for team members with caring responsibilities. We see fair pay, reasonable hours and a supportive culture as central to the same values we advocate in our projects: health, dignity, inclusion and long-term capacity. A practice cannot contribute meaningfully to social or environmental repair if its own working culture relies on exhaustion.
3. Do you support charities, community groups, social enterprises, action groups and others through pro-bono work, charitable giving or in-kind donations?
Unknown Works supports charities, community groups, social enterprises and action groups through pro-bono work, reduced-fee support, in-kind contributions, workshops and research. We have worked with organisations including the Simbi Foundation, Southall Black Sisters, Vortex Foundation, UNHCR partners and The Thousand Year Trust. This year’s work expands that commitment across culture, climate and public health. VIPI is rooted in co-design and preventative healthcare need in Rwanda’s Model Villages. The Migration Museum will centre personal stories, community collaboration and national partnerships. Sanctuary with Greenpeace uses art, sound and spatial experience to make environmental questions emotionally accessible. We also deliver free educational workshops for children and young people, and work with engagement specialists so communities can shape outcomes rather than simply respond to finished proposals.
4. Do you use an ethical framework to assess opportunities and/or supply chain partners and is them team consulted on these decisions?
Unknown Works assesses opportunities through environmental and ethical policies, asking whether a project advances social purpose, climate responsibility, fair labour, material care and public value. We consider the funding context, supply chain, client ambitions and likely users before accepting work. Where concerns arise, they are discussed internally and we reserve the right to decline commissions that conflict with our principles. The team contributes through project reviews, research groups and open studio dialogue, so ethical judgement is shared rather than isolated within leadership. We seek collaborators who are willing to test better ways of working, from public health and cultural institutions to conservation charities, climate campaigners and clean infrastructure providers. This framework helps us choose work that can produce civic, ecological and social benefit.
Project
1. Does your work demonstrate deep engagement with local stakeholders and end users?
Our projects are grounded in meaningful engagement with local stakeholders and end users. In Rwanda, we conducted post-occupancy appraisal and co-design research in the Model Villages with residents, village leaders, housing authorities and academic partners; this now informs VIPI’s health, energy and social programme. On public realm and safety projects with the City of London and City of London Police, we have run co-design sessions with residents and schoolchildren. The Migration Museum is being developed around personal stories, co-produced exhibits, community partnerships, a national events programme and storytelling spaces from gallery to café, shop and courtyard. Sanctuary invites audiences into participation, attention and return rather than passive spectatorship. Engagement is treated as an iterative method of making architecture accountable.
2. Does your work create connected and resilient communities which positively contribute to neighbourhoods and allow equality of access?
We design projects to strengthen communities, improve access and create lasting local value. VIPI addresses gaps identified through research in Rwanda’s Model Villages by combining preventative healthcare with community space, internet access, public charging, rainwater harvesting and renewable energy. The Migration Museum will create a permanent civic home for the UK’s migration stories while connecting with partners and pop-ups nationally. With Aegis Energy, we are shaping a £150m programme of up to 30 clean multi-energy hubs, combining electric, hydrogen and biofuel charging or refuelling for trucks and vans with high-speed servicing and driver welfare. Sanctuary creates a place of pause and connection within Glastonbury’s Greenpeace Field. The Vision Centre brings previously separated teams together through shared social spaces and a planted atrium. Each project is designed to serve beyond its immediate footprint.
3. Does the majority of your work promote equity in society, and consider all people, not only building inhabitants
The majority of our projects consider equity beyond the building boundary. We ask who benefits, who is represented, who gains access and who carries environmental or social cost. The Migration Museum foregrounds stories of arrival, departure and belonging, creating a public platform for communities whose histories have shaped the UK. VIPI responds to rural health inequality by making preventative care, digital connectivity and social space more accessible. Sanctuary makes environmental reflection available through shared cultural experience rather than specialist discourse. Our UNHCR-supported Brightbox work, pro-bono projects and community-led research focus on people often excluded from conventional design processes. We also promote justice through ethical sourcing, fair labour expectations, transparent procurement and local partnerships. For us, architecture must redistribute opportunity as well as reduce carbon.