Wintercircus Ghent: From house of fun to high tech hub

Step right up to the greatest show in the heart of the city of Ghent! The Wintercircus is a former 19th century stone circus and one-time motor garage. Now, after years of intensive renovation, partially financed by the EU, this legendary building has reopens its doors as a vibrant tech hub:

“We actually want to mingle art, culture, music with technology and innovation,” says Louis Jonckheere, CEO of Wintercircus: “We want to create a place in Europe that is unique in bringing those worlds together”.

The facility’s central arena, once filled with circus performances, is now a public square woven into the fabric of the city: Jonckheere aims to recapture the former spirit of the space. “We want to be a place where the magic happens by bringing together diverse people, diverse communities to brainstorm, to think, and to collaborate around entrepreneurship, technology, and collaborations to deliver better solutions that our society needs in the world of tomorrow,” he says.

It’s a kind of magic

The goal is to bring back the magic through a 15,000-square metre building that houses a glass auditorium, co-working spaces, a music club and fancy bars and restaurants. The renovation’s challenge was to keep the layers of history visible integrating a contemporary programme and sustainability elements:

“For the sustainability in the building, It goes on high level techniques,” says Jolien de Baets, an interior design architect with OYO Architects. “So it’s the geothermal bore holes that we use the warmth from the earth to heat and cool the building, but also on another level of interior finishes, where we’re trying to reuse materials and re-implement second-hand furniture, for example, for the design of the spaces,” she adds.

The project cost almost 31 million euros (30,8M). About 1.4 (€ 1.352.317,5 M) of that came from the European Cohesion Policy. Around 21.6 million € (€ 21.647.682,5 M) was financed by the Government of Flanders and the City of Ghent, and a further 8 million from private investment.  

Arena of ideas

Wintercircus gives a stage to creators and tech innovators. 40 cutting-edge startups work in this inspiring space. Among them is Say IT Labs, an award-winning tech company using AI to bring speech therapy into homes through innovative video games.

“We have a shared space of artificial intelligence, machine learning, or anything that’s related to cutting-edge technology,” says Erich Reiter, CEO and co-founder SayIT Lab.* “This is the type of space that offers very free idea sharing. That’s something that you can’t always buy. Being part of this ecosystem really offers major added value because you can learn so much from your neighbour.”

Wintercircus preserves the playful spirit of the past, but instead of acrobats and jugglers the space juggles technology and AI to deliver a unique spectacle.