Arcola to build UK’s first all-green theatre

North London’s Arcola Theatre is laying plans to create the UK’s first environmentally friendly arts “campus”, in a multimillion-pound project that will see the company’s new home constructed from straw bale.

If given the green light, the company will relocate from its current building on Arcola Street to a nearby 20,000 square feet plot of land next to Dalston Junction station, which is due to open next year.

It will house a total of six performance spaces, including a 300-seat main auditorium in a permanent “eco-venue” made from sustainable materials, a separate theatre complex with four studio spaces and an additional stage called the Launch Pad, for eco-focused and entertainment events.

The campus will also include a learning and skills suite, cafe and restaurant, a park, a healthy living centre with an environmentally-friendly gym, and offices and laboratories dedicated to the research of green technologies. It will be created in three phases over a ten-year period, which will allow the Arcola to continue producing work while relocating from its current site.

In 2007, the company expressed an aim to become the world’s first carbon-neutral theatre. This has been spearheaded by chief executive Ben Todd under the banner Arcola Energy.

Todd believes this capital development will enable the company to expand its ‘green’ activities. Speaking to The Stage, he explained that a new base will also allow the company to build its artistic programme, offer better facilities for artists and audiences, and provide the transport links that the current venue lacks. He also hopes that it will regenerate the local area and help the Arcola become “subsidy-independent”.

Todd said: “The general problem we have is that the artistic programme does not fit into studio one anymore - the scale of shows we are doing just don’t fit and don’t pay.

“And with the incubator [the scientific research offices], we have got an international profile now. To explain to people which train station to go to and then walk through this dirty market on to a dodgy side street, and the shabby looking facade is the Arcola, it doesn’t really work. We need an iconic building.”

Todd explained that the company hoped to have the main eco-space - the first phase of the development - completed by 2012, in time for the Olympics.

The building will be created using the existing facade of terraced buildings on one side, while the remaining structure will use the straw bale method, in which either bales or a mixture of straw and mud act as a filler on a metal or timber frame.

This system was used on the Siobhan Davies Studios in London and the Centre for Alternative Technology’s science, theatre and education centre. However, the Arcola’s new venue will be the UK’s first major professional theatre to be built using this ‘green’ method.

“Often you will find that organisations like the Arcola will develop to a certain point, where ten or 20 years in, they have a board and call in architects and ask for a shiny new building. Everybody then harks on about how it has lost some of its character and soul. But this will be built by the Arcola, in the Arcola way,” Todd added.

In September, Hackney Council will decide whether the Arcola can occupy the plot of land for an initial four-year period, in which time it will be required to demonstrate its suitability for the site. If successful, the company will begin staging outdoor events in the autumn and will consider setting up a Latitude festival-style theatre tent to use until the eco-venue is complete.

The Arcola is also waiting to hear from the London Development Agency - which is currently leading a £160 million regeneration scheme in Dalston - on whether it has won a grant of £60,000 to undertake a feasibility study.