The Oikos Project set to build The Jellyfish Theatre from scratch

There wasn't much activity going on when I popped down to the children's-playground- turned-building site in Southwark on a scorching hot Tuesday afternoon. Yet in only a matter of weeks it will be home to The Jellyfish Theatre, the UK's first theatre to be made entirely from recycled and reclaimed materials. The materials are starting to gather: there are wooden pallets from New Covent Garden Market, empty water-cooler bottles that (if they get enough) will make up the street-facing wall and a rather sparkly silver set from the National Film Awards, all of which was headed for the bin before it was rescued and brought here.

Named The Oikos Project, it's a collaboration between the Berlin-based architect duo Folke Köbberling and Martin Kaltwasser and The Red Room theatre company, who are known for focusing on contemporary social issues. They have commissioned two climate change-related plays, "part science fiction, part family drama", which will run from the end of August until October, when the building will be dismantled.

The idea is that this is very much a community project, with anyone being encouraged to drop off materials and get involved by taking part in the build, watching play rehearsals when they start or simply dropping by as I did, to take a look at what's happening.

Oikosproject.com