Cumbernauld Theatre Trust
A model for low-carbon, community cultural buildings
Posted: 16 January 2024

Cumbernauld Theatre is a performing arts charity that delivers professional theatre, music, dance and comedy experiences alongside creative learning and community arts engagement programmes. The company collaborates with directors and artists from across Scotland and the UK, making theatre that is relevant to their community and portrays their lived experience. Since 2021 Cumbernauld Theatre has operated out of Lanternhouse, a state-of-the-art performing arts centre jointly managed with North Lanarkshire Council.
This case study examines how the new building and the ways it’s managed offer a model for low-carbon buildings in the creative and community sectors and for collaboration between culture organisations and local authorities to create low-carbon cultural centres that work with and for the community. Written by Culture for Climate Scotland’s, Matthew Belsey and Cumbernauld Theatre CEO, Sarah Price with contributions from Brian O’Donnell, Director of Operations at NORR Consultants Ltd.
Contents:

History
Cumbernauld town, one of Scotland’s New Towns, was established in the 1950s to ease overcrowding in neighbouring Glasgow. With thousands of new homes and workplaces and thousands of new residents, displaced from friends and the familiarity of their former homeplace, the need for arts provision was felt strongly. In response, a group of local artists and arts enthusiasts lobbied for an arts centre.
The Cottage Theatre was born in 1963 in a row of 18th century cottages leased from the Cumbernauld Development Corporation and converted to present performing arts. Later renamed Cumbernauld Theatre, the remarkably spacious Cottage Theatre became the area’s creative hub Various additions and refurbishments were made throughout the 20th century with a final refurbishment in 1996. When Cumbernauld Theatre started reporting environmental information to Creative Carbon Scotland as a Regularly Funded Organisation in 2015/16 issues with a deteriorating building fabric, accessibility and sustainability meant the venue was no longer fit for purpose. Following a period of consultation and development, planning permission was granted in 2016 to build a new performing arts centre – Lanternhouse – on a site alongside Cumbernauld Academy.

Vintage photo of the Cottage Theatre. Credit: Cumbernauld Theatre.

Funding for the build
North Lanarkshire Council and the Scottish Futures Trust financed the construction of Lanternhouse as part of a managed hub community infrastructure programme for local authorities in support of the Scottish Government’s National Infrastructure Mission to drive inclusive economic growth and build resilient places. A condition of this programme was to evidence community empowerment as an integral part of the scheme.

The building
The architectural brief was to create a community campus, incorporating a replacement public theatre building together with a replacement building for the pre-existing academy. The co-existence of the theatre and school improves overall thermal efficiency because the external envelope is smaller than it would have been had the two buildings been separate. The reduced external envelope results in less embodied carbon (carbon associated with the lifecycle of building materials) and reduced heat loss. The design team, led by NORR Consultants Ltd, followed a fabric-first approach, designing the building to minimise the energy required for it to operate. Here are some examples of the measures adopted:
- Insulating the external walls and roofs at levels significantly higher than building regulations to retain heat, particularly during the winter months.
- Incorporating high levels of air tightness and low levels of thermal bridging.
- Specifying very high thermal resistance for all glazing, and argon-filled cavities and low-emissivity coatings for all double-glazed units.
The building’s services are highly efficient at reducing energy consumption. Measures include:
- All lighting is LED and controlled by motion sensors.
- All heating and hot water pipework is highly insulated to reduce heat loss and improve efficiency.
- Highly efficient central heating systems, incorporating underfloor heating and radiant panels.
- All specialist equipment (including theatre lighting etc.) is the most energy efficient available.
- To ensure that the energy used is as low-carbon as possible the building incorporates:
- Photovoltaic panels (solar PVs) to generate electrical energy, contributing to a cleaner and greener energy mix for the campus.
- Biomass boilers to supply 34% of the building’s energy, thereby reducing its reliance on natural gas.
The building was independently assessed under BRE’s sustainability assessment scheme (BREEAM) attaining a ‘Very Good’ accreditation and an ‘A-rated’ Energy Performance Certificate.

Lanternhouse’s carbon impact
When Cumbernauld Theatre started reporting their environmental impact to Creative Carbon Scotland in 2015/16, their energy emissions (from their old building) for the year were 105 tonnes CO2e. This equated to approximately 95kg CO2e per square metre.
2022/23 was the first reporting year they could report a full year’s energy data from operations in the new building (due to the pandemic). The energy emissions were 42 tonnes CO2e, which equates to 23kg CO2e per square metre – much lower than the average UK home. That’s a 60% reduction in total emissions or a 76% reduction in emissions per square metre. Electricity use has decreased by 40% per year and gas use has decreased by 53%.
The team at Cumbernauld know there is still a way to go to reach net zero and is exploring reducing heat loss via the doors and training staff to optimise the HVAC system. They are aiming for 12kg CO2e per square metre, which equates to the optimal consumption values the architect estimated.

A model for community culture
North Lanarkshire Council and Cumbernauld Theatre jointly manage Lanternhouse. This partnership offers a unique balance of creative leadership and high-quality public-sector management. This active community space is enhanced by being part of an educational hub with Cumbernauld Academy and its local partnerships with New College Lanarkshire, the Health and Social Care partnership and the Locality Planning Partnership public services.
According to Creative Carbon Scotland’s 2022-23 cycle of environmental reporting, audience travel is by far the largest source of emissions from cultural activities. Creating local cultural hubs like Lanternhouse, which can attract national tours and create community-specific opportunities, reduces the need for audiences to travel to larger cultural hubs, thus reducing performance-related audience emissions.
Having a multi-functional community space and the opportunities it creates make an invaluable contribution to a vibrant local culture. For example:
- An increased number of companies in residence has raised the subsidy levels for independent theatre companies and practitioners accessing rehearsal and development resources in return for running workshops and masterclasses.
- A year-long residency with Dunedin Consort, one of the world’s leading Baroque ensembles, resulted in multiple unique and innovative performances, education and community engagement events.
- A year of partnership with Manipulate Arts through their Captivate North Lanarkshire programme brought puppetry and visual theatre practices into community development work with local schools.

Dunedin Consort Residency – Sonata. Credit: Susan Hay.
Lanternhouse, a place-based, community-focused, high-quality environment, has attracted new partnerships and strengthened existing ones, increased the scale, scope and diversity of arts opportunities to the local community, to deliver a growth in outputs and community benefits whilst, due to the design, reducing carbon emissions.
As we move further into this most crucial decade for climate action, sustainability approaches and efficient resource use demand new models of delivering services. Cumbernauld Theatre is demonstrating sustainable ways of working through its capital development, operations, collaboration and programming. We hope this example and work being delivered by many other organisations across Scotland inspires cultural organisations, local authorities and funders to be bold when they embark on sustainable developments.

Contact
Please get in touch with Sarah Price at [email protected] if you would like to know more about their sustainability work and check out Cumbernauld Theatre’s website for more information about their programme.