Theatre to be world’s first all-green venue

The first purpose-built eco-theatre is being planned in London and could become the benchmark for environmentally sustainable arts venues.

Award-winning Arcola Theatre in Dalston has appointed engineering and architectural firm Arup, whose projects have included the Sydney Opera House and Beijing's Bird's Nest Olympic stadium, to work on the venue which could be a test-bed for green design.

The London Development Agency has provided £60,000 for a feasibility study that envisions a 350-seat venue as well as a workshop, studio spaces, bar and restaurant.

Hackney council is backing the venture and has provided three possible sites. It is likely to be at Dalston Junction in the regeneration area prompted by the new East London line station.

Ben Todd, the theatre's executive director, said: "The driver for 350 seats is our desire to pay proper rates to artists for our main house productions, which is just not sustainable with the 150 seats we have at present. But we will continue to provide a platform for higher-risk, emerging artists in the other studios, with very much the same aesthetic as the existing Arcola."

Neill Woodger, of Arup's theatre consulting business, said the task was to conceive something that "exemplifies sustainability". "This is the first public venue to use a sustainability framework to define the brief and conceptual design."

Mayor Boris Johnson said: "Arcola Theatre is at the forefront of how London's arts organisations can champion the environment."