London’s Jellyfish Theatre Made From Pallets Opens Today!

Today London saw the opening of the Jellyfish Theatre, a remarkable new performance venue made entirely from donated, free and <a href="../recycled-materials" target="_blank">recycled materials</a>. Reused shipping pallets, recycled nails, old school furniture, and donated wood scraps have been used to construct this organic 120-seat temporary auditorium, which is located a mere 10 minutes' walk from the Globe Theatre on the banks of the Thames. While some see the Jellyfish Theatre as "<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/aug/16/junkitecture-jellyfish-theatre-kaltwasser-kobberling" target="_blank">junkitecture</a>" others see the handmade, recycled theatre as a work of art -- read on for a look at London's newest performance space and tell us your take in the comments!

The theatre was constructed from donated and found materials including recycled nails, reused shipping pallets, old school furniture, scrap wood and water bottles.

The theatre opens today with a brand new eco themed play called Oikos (pronounced "ee-kos", the Greek root for economy and ecology) by Simon Wu.

The Jellyfish Theatre is only temporary -- at the end of its life it will be dismantled and recycled.

Construction of the theatre took over nine weeks with the help of 81 volunteers, who logged in 4,200 hours of volunteer work.

The theatre's interior has room for 120 seats, some of which are old school chairs.

800 pallets from the nearby Covet Garden Market were donated as well as 750 square meters of plywood and other sheet material.

Both of the plays that will take place inside the theatre are about how people deal with their lives after a political and environmental catastrophe.

The building suggests ways that we can better use our resources for architecture, and even offers a look into how we might be forced to build in the future.

Martin Kaltwasser and Folke Köbberling designed the structure and have also helped in directing the plays. The producers of the play have largely been involved in the construction of the theatre.

Here water bottles are stacked to form a wall around the lounge area outside the main theatre room.

Workshops were held during the construction to teach about reuse. This workshop took old water bottles and transformed them into planters.

The supporting structure for the theatre is a network of steel scaffolding, which gives it a good sturdy base.

This diagram gives the basic layout of the theatre, although rigid construction documents didn't dictate the building's construction.