A state-of-the-art 48,000sqm multipurpose venue in Aberdeen, P&J Live is Europe’s largest new entertainment complex and the UK’s most sustainable venue. Offering greater capacities at a location with improved transport links, and located beside Aberdeen International Airport and the city centre, the new venue has been designed to provide the city of Aberdeen and visitors with an array of flexible spaces for a diverse range of events. The development includes a 15,000-capacity arena, world-class conference and exhibition spaces, a high-end restaurant and two onsite hotels: the adjoining 4-star Hilton the Aloft Hotel.
In a changing world where CSR and Environmental issues become ever increasingly prominent, one of Aberdeen’s key objectives for P&J Live was to ensure that it was built to the highest environmental standards. In order to create a world-class venue that is high functioning yet sustainable, several supporting features were implemented into its design.
Taking a circular approach, the venue works to dispose of as little general waste as possible by reusing 98.8% of all materials onsite. Furthermore, P&J Live has been designed to be a living environment to attract people and wildlife to the area, with more than 29,000 trees and shrubs planted on-site and a network of over 7km of new footpaths connecting it to surrounding areas.
The most impressive feature, however, is the venue’s very own innovative energy centre. The centre has been designed to use food and garden waste to power the site. For this to work, the collected waste is digested in an anaerobic plant, with the resulting hydrogen gas then harvested and used to drive the energy centre which supplies heating, cooling and power to the development. This is not only supplied to P&J Live, but also the onsite hotels. The hydrogen fuel cell plant is the renewable energy solution for the venue and the surrounding area. Whilst it ensures that only low carbon energy is used throughout the venue, the centre also has additional uses, such as charging the hydrogen-fuelled cars available to conference organisers.
Overall, the collaboration of these unique characteristics allows P&J Live to pride itself on having the lowest environmental impact of any such facility in the UK. Aberdeen City Council hydrogen spokesman, Councillor Philip Bell said:
“We are very proud of the innovative technologies we’ve used at the TECA site which will ensure all the buildings have their energy needs met in a sustainable way which emphasise our low carbon credentials.
“It is fantastic that we are leading the way in Aberdeen to showcase a major sustainable Scottish build project along with being a world-class entertainments centre that utilises cutting-edge technology.”
P&J Live is on course to achieve BREEAM excellent: the highest environmental standard possible. Only three months since opening, Aberdeen’s high-class events campus is not only a national inspiration, but it is paving the way for sustainable, low-carbon venues worldwide.
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