In a more than decade-long project, Rotterdam-based Atelier Kempe Thill, Ghent-based aNNo architecten, Ghent-based Baro Architectuur, and Brussels-based SumProject worked on the redesign and renovation of the Wintercircus building in Ghent, Belgium. The project has transformed this monumental building into a multifunctional public facility.
Wintercircus: A brief history
The Wintercircus in Ghent is a surreal edifice, a huge structure that once played host to a number of circus companies, revues, and variety performances. Designed by architect Emile de Weerdt and originally built in 1894, the building was destroyed by fire in 1920 with only the facade surviving. A second building was designed by architect Jules Pascal Ledoux and the Wintercircus reopened in 1923. At that point, it was more anchored within Ghent’s city fabric, having a new entrance on historic Lammerstraat.
The Wintercircus building was later bought by Ghislain Mahy, whose family had specialized in the manufacture of steam boilers. Born in 1907, Mahy had an aptitude for mechanics. He built his first car at the age of seventeen and in 1938, opened the first car rental agency in Belgium. Mahy was a passionate collector of antique cars, buying a 1921 Ford Model T in 1944. The collection grew and was housed in the Wintercircus. In the 1950s, Mahy began remodeling and extending the periphery of the main round circus building, adding a modernist showroom on Lammerstraat. In 1953, he converted the Wintercircus into a car dealership — it even had its own gas station inside the building.
When remodeling the Wintercircus, Mahy removed the indoor wooden stands, used as seating for circus spectators, the stucco ornamentation, and the suspended ceilings, reducing the main round building to its bare concrete frame. Ramps and new extensions were added, making all floors accessible to cars. The Wintercircus was in a challenging location in the city center with no systematic and clear approach. Atelier Kempe Thill and aNNo architecten explain: “The entire complex became a ‘Merzbau’ of sorts, a collage that at first glance is chaotic and fanciful in equal measure, similar to the work of the German Dada artist Kurt Schwitters in the 1920s. Mahy simply expanded the space in any possible pragmatic way, such that unexpected beauty unfolded again and again. He paid little attention to minimum heights or the radius of curvature and the steepness of ramps. Nor did he take legal issues like building permits very seriously . . . all of the transformations, extensions, rooms, and details that he added to the [Wintercircus] show a great love of building in an elegant, modernist way.”
Mahy’s collection of antique cars, which he had meticulously restored, would eventually become one of the largest of its kind in the world. (Mahy passed away in 1999 — in the late 1990s, his collection moved to a redundant textile factory in the town of Leuze-en-Hainaut, Belgium, and reopened as the “Mahymobiles” museum in 2000.)
Wintercircus: Design approach
The Wintercircus building was abandoned in 2000. In 2005, it was purchased by Ghent-based urban development company sogent, whose aim was to renovate the building in a way that honored its rich architectural heritage. In 2012, a competition to redesign the Wintercircus was held by sogent and awarded to Atelier Kempe Thill in collaboration with aNNo architecten. The planned program included a rock concert hall for an audience of 500 people, shops, restaurants, lecture spaces, and public areas.
Atelier Kempe Thill and aNNo architecten considered four key design issues:
The first issue addressed the former circus space itself — a space that “has the same huge dimensions of the Pantheon in Rome,” the studios note. The Atelier Kempe Thill team suggested keeping this space “utterly empty” — a monumental and flexible public space that is “a kind of canopied square for all kinds of activities.”
The second issue dealt with the acoustically challenging rock concert hall. “This was realized underground in a building-within-a-building construction of reinforced concrete, directly under the main round circus building,” says Atelier Kempe Thill and aNNo architecten.
The third issue addressed the surfaces after renovation. In a bold and clever move (and owing partly to a limited budget), it was decided that everything would remain as it had been found, preserving the patina of the Wintercircus building’s historical past: raw brick walls, plaster that had fallen off in the main atrium following years of dilapidation, and concrete flooring covered in red. For Atelier Kempe Thill and aNNo architecten, this decisive approach “contributed to the authentic nature of the finished project, holding it together, and ensuring a casual yet simultaneously noble visual appearance.”
The fourth issue concerned the numerous adaptations made by Ghislain Mahy, compelling the two architectural studios to position themselves with respect to the sensitive nature of the architecture. Atelier Kempe Thill and aNNo architecten explain: “The team was utterly enchanted by the beauty and logic of these structural elements and assumed the position of showing pronounced humility and empathy in the design by trying to respect the existing building in all its details.”
With these four guidelines, the two studios approached the redesign of the Wintercircus with utmost care. Any necessary adaptations to the building, fire safety, acoustics, and so on, were carried out with minimum disruption to the existing architecture, thereby preserving the building’s authenticity.
“Fortunately, the existing fragile steel roof structure could be preserved despite the high fire safety requirements,” says Atelier Kempe Thill and aNNo architecten. “The predominately open connections between the main circus building and all of the additions surrounding it could remain open in most cases. The interior facades did not need thermal insulation, despite the sheerly unresolvable thermal bridging resulting from the complicated connections to the neighboring buildings.”
The two studios considered all of the playful additions made by Mahy, including the car ramps. Taking a “situational approach” that alluded to Mahy’s original concepts, any essential modifications were carefully evaluated so as to avoid conflicts.
Once Atelier Kempe Thill and aNNo architecten had drawn up the design concept and obtained the building permit, the city of Ghent selected Baro Architectuur and SumProject to develop the concept further and complete the execution phase.
Wintercircus: Execution phase
The exterior facades of Wintercircus are furnished with a thermal insulation composite system and painted in a light grey hue. Window apertures follow an interpretation of the original placement and have black steel frames. With the building’s complex layout, its facades are described as being “more in the background,” functioning from the “outside in” as opposed to the “inside out.” The former showroom on Lammerstraat is one of the few actual facades and was restored in keeping with the original design details. The brick facade that faces Platteberg is authentic — the Platteberg entrance has been integrated into the building section with the concrete vaulted roof. The facade of the huge atrium space retains its raw brick walls and peeling stucco.
For Atelier Kempe Thill and aNNo architecten, the Wintercircus project is an example of “a consistent course of action in restoring a historical monument: a situational design.” Here, the role of the architect was modest in nature: a “sensitive approach to protecting the structure’s generous spatial qualities and their transformation, in order to welcome new use.” This isn’t a pristine and polished project, but one that celebrates the Wintercircus building’s history by enhancing the raw nature of its past. Atelier Kempe Thill and aNNo architecten suggest that Wintercircus can be viewed as “a subconscious desire to eschew ongoing domestication, digital dominance, and an immaculately planned and tidy environment, in favor of reviving and celebrating the wild, the tactile, and the spontaneous.”
Wintercircus site details
Site area: 0.35 hectares/0.86 acres
Building size: 14,297 square meters/153,892 square feet (gross floor area); 10,870 square meters/117,004 square feet (net floor area)
Building volume: 67,207 cubic meters/2,373,393 cubic feet (gross volume)
