The historic Belgian city is home to a unique co-working space and high tech/arts innovation centre that draws heavily on its architectural heritage as a former circus venue.
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00:00Step right up to the greatest show in the heart of the city of Ghent.
00:07This is the Winter Circus, a former 19th century stone circus and motor garage.
00:14Now after years of intensive renovation, partially financed by the EU, this legendary building
00:20reopens its doors as a vibrant tech hub.
00:24We actually want to mingle art, culture, music with technology and innovation.
00:29We want to create a place in Europe that is unique in bringing those worlds together.
00:37Its central arena, once filled with circus performances, is now a public square woven
00:42into the fabric of the city.
00:45With Winter Circus we want to be a place where the magic happens by bringing together diverse
00:49people, diverse communities to brainstorm, to think and to collaborate around entrepreneurship,
00:54technology and collaborations to deliver better solutions that our society needs in the world of tomorrow.
01:01Bring back the magic through a 15,000 square meter building that houses a glass auditorium,
01:06co-working spaces, a music club and fancy bars and restaurants.
01:10The renovation's challenge was to keep the layers of history visible, integrating a contemporary
01:15program and sustainability elements.
01:19For the sustainability in the building, it goes on a high level with the techniques.
01:23So it's the geothermal boreholes that we use the warmth from the earth to heat and cool
01:30the building, but also on another level of interior finishes where we're trying to reuse
01:37materials and re-implement second hand furniture, for example, for the design of the spaces.
01:46The project cost almost 31 million euros.
01:49About 1.4 million of that came from the European Cohesion Policy.
01:53Around 21.6 million was financed by the government of Flanders and the city of Ghent,
01:58and a further 8 million from private investment.
02:01Winter Circus gives a stage to creators and tech innovators.
02:0540 cutting edge start-ups work in this inspiring space.
02:09Among them is Say It Labs, an award winning tech company using AI to bring speech therapy
02:15into homes through innovative video games.
02:20We have a shared space of artificial intelligence, machine learning or anything that's related
02:25to cutting edge technology, and this is the type of space that offers very free idea sharing.
02:32That's something that you can't always buy, so being part of this ecosystem really offers
02:37major added value because you can learn so much from your neighbor.
02:44Winter Circus preserves the playful spirit of the past, but instead of acrobats and jugglers,
02:49the space juggles technology and AI to deliver a unique spectacle.