The Project Before the Project with Ben Hayes + Theo Games Petrohilos, Unknown Works

​The Project Before the Project
Designing Cultural Infrastructure for an Age of Acceleration

​About Event
Join us for a KoD Connect session with Ben Hayes and Theo Games Petrohilos, Founding Directors of Unknown Works. They will discuss what cultural organizations are for now and how the answer is changing the role of the designer.

​Digital tools have transformed how people reach culture and information, raising fresh debate about what physical space can uniquely provide: context, encounter, participation, and sustained focus. In the UK, long-standing venues face growing economic pressure, while independent operators struggle to find viable premises. In Saudi Arabia, Vision 2030 is creating a new landscape at a remarkable scale, with more than SAR 81 billion invested in cultural infrastructure since its launch. The opportunity lies beyond building more, in understanding how all this investment becomes lasting.

​This talk explores two linked concepts. The project before the project covers research, mapping, community input, feasibility, and prototyping, which help determine what should exist before an architectural brief becomes fixed. The project within the project is a deeper material or environmental inquiry pursued through the commission.

​Along the way, they consider attention as a spatial resource, why immersion differs from saturation, and how investigation can become a form of design, expanding the architect's reach from objects to programs and networks. With international case studies moving between permanent buildings and experimental temporary structures, the presentation closes on one proposition: what gets built should be informed by evidence and planned so that creative life can evolve and remain useful as society shifts.

​About Unknown Works
Unknown Works is a London-based architecture, design, and research studio operating internationally. Its portfolio spans museums, theaters, renewable energy and transport, workplaces, life sciences, community facilities, and commercial and mixed-use development. The studio often joins at the earliest stage, helping define purpose, relevance, and strategic direction before moving into delivery. Cultural mapping, material experimentation, and co-design guide how its buildings stay adaptable over time.

Links:
Unknown Works: https://www.unknown.works
Instagram: @unknownworks
LinkedIn: Unknown Works

​About Ben Hayes
Ben Hayes is a Founding Director of Unknown Works. His architecture is paired with inquiry into how communities and new forms of public provision can develop through design. He co-led the Rwanda Model Villages research, created with local residents through co-design, which received the inaugural RIBA Scott Brownrigg Award for Sustainable Development. At the studio he has contributed to cultural venues, theaters, and public settings, alongside studies of sustainability and materials. Ben has taught at The Bartlett, UCL, and held a senior research position at the University of Hong Kong.

​About Theo Games Petrohilos
Theo Games Petrohilos is a Founding Director of Unknown Works, where he co-leads cultural and commercial commissions. His practice spans architecture, exhibition design, strategy, and public environments, with projects for the Royal Academy of Arts, the Barbican, and the Science Museum. He has led galleries, performance spaces, workplaces, and international development schemes, bringing storytelling and material experimentation into the process. Theo has taught and lectured at The Bartlett, the London School of Architecture, and the University of Glasgow.

​About Knowledge of Design
Knowledge of Design is a cross-disciplinary initiative examining design as a system of knowledge across STEAM. Grounded in speculative design, it treats the discipline as a lens on relationships, behavior, culture, and the forces influencing daily life. KoD has developed an intellectual framework, a methodology, a research agenda, an archive, and a community of contributors, with activity spanning publications, workshops, partnerships, and an annual gathering in Riyadh.

​About KoD Connect
KoD Connect is the monthly online series extending this inquiry across the year. Each session invites a guest to share a project, method, or emerging signal, with registration open to audiences worldwide.