New building Zirkusquartier Zurich
A circus house for Altstetten and the world
Contemporary circus pieces have been produced and performed at Zirkusquartier Zürich since 2016. Artists train, research, network with each other and pass on their skills to the next generation.
Here, children, young people and adults, professionals and amateurs alike live the circus dream in a modern way: playful, experimental and low-threshold.
In collaboration with the Kraftwerk1 housing cooperative, the long-awaited center for contemporary circus is being built on around 700 m2 in the Koch district – unprecedented not only for Zurich, but for the whole of Switzerland.
Anyone entering the eight-storey Kraftwerk1 building will suddenly find themselves in the foyer of the Zirkusquartier. The desk provides information to both residents and visitors to the Zirkusquartier. The course program is explained, the way to the rehearsal stages is shown, events are pointed out and tickets are sold.
During performances, the doors to the circus hall are opened to the left. Up to 150 people can be seated here. The stage covers an area of 110m2 m with a ceiling height of 7.2 m and is equipped with ceiling rigging, bracing points sunk into the floor and state-of-the-art event technology. Directly adjacent is the Kurshalle: it measures 82m2 and benefits from the same room height and the same technical requirements as the circus hall. This means that disciplines such as skidding, trampolining and tightrope walking can be taught at a high level.
“Circus is much more than sawdust and popcorn. Cultural forms and genres are wondrously intertwined and whisk us away into an incomparable universe. Fascinating, poetic, accessible and inclusive: a stage art for everyone. With Zirkusquartier Zurich, modern circus arts now have their own venue. This will further inspire the development of this art form. And that is wonderful.”
Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider
Federal Department of Home Affairs
From the foyer, you go up the stairs through the “Sala Comun”, which is available to all tenants, to the second floor. The office of the Zirkusquartier team is set up here, with direct access to mirror room. Equipped with a dance floor and mirrors, smaller productions or educational theater work can be carried out there. The adjacent guest rooms in the building are rented out for artists in residence.
Back on the first floor, we turn to the right. Compagnies develop their stage sets in the 100 m2 workshop, while residents can use the space for their projects. An important place for low-threshold networking with the 460 or so people who live in the building – and with the outside space, as the workshop opens its large doors towards the coal storage hall.
Anyone resting on the large Kochwiese in summer 2027 will be looking directly at the large windows of the Kurshalle and Circus Hall, symbolizing the accessibility of this open house and the vision it embodies: “Culture for all!”
Circus hall
Circus productions have requirements that conventional theater spaces do not meet: Room height, floor conditions and rigging points are just some of them. The new Zirkusquartier uses simple means to create a hall in which artists can make their dreams come true.
Course hall
Courses take place all day in the course hall, while professionals train in the free slots in between. The offer ranges from “Zirkuszwärgli” for children from the age of 2.5 to semester projects for teenagers and master classes for professionals.
Coal storage hall
Zurich’s largest covered parking area is open to the city’s population around the clock. Circus Chnopf will celebrate its premiere here in the future, and Zirkusquartier is also planning events such as the ZirQus festival.
General plan
The new Kraftwerk1 cooperative building is located adjacent to the coal storage depot. The future address of the Zirkusquartier will be Flüelastrasse 52, with the main entrance on the park side facing Kochwiese and the coal storage shed. Deliveries will be made from Flüelastrasse. The entire development is car-free.
Would you like to find out more?
Further information on the overall project can be found on the Koch-Quartier project website and more on Koch-Park at Grün Stadt Zürich. You can find out how you can live and work in the same building as the Zirkusquartier in future directly from the Kraftwerk1 cooperative.
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