The iconic ICEHOTEL of Jukkasjrvi, Sweden recently opened its snowy doors for a 26th winter season. This year, 19 individually designed ice suites carved from over 1,000 tonnes of ice are being showcased, some of which we have featured here. The “mind-boggling art endeavour” founded in 1988 serves as both an art exhibition and a fully functional hotel composed of ice and snow.
Each year, construction begins anew, and materials for the hotel are collected as soon as the nearby river Torne freezes over, located just 200km from the Arctic Circle. The overall structure takes around two months to complete, with employees working full time. After basic construction is completed, the walls, floors, and ceilings of the hotel are transformed into canvases for artists from all over the world. Each year the art work varies and a unique annual symposium is created, allowing visitors the opportunity to experience a widely varied collection and explore a uniquely surreal frozen structure, within their suites.
Typically in the spring the hotel melts to the ground, however ICEHOTEL recently released design plans that involve harnessing solar energy to create a sustainable option that allows the lodge to remain open year-round. This aligns with the hotel’s overall eco-friendly business stance, as they aim to reduce emissions from their buildings and protect the surrounding nature that attributes itself so well to the fantastical winter wonderland created each year.
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via [The Guardian]