In Pictures – 30th Icehotel opens in Lapland

gold hue in room full of ice and a bed
730 565 Hamish Kilburn
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In Pictures – 30th Icehotel opens in Lapland

Hotel Designs receives the first images as the original Icehotel opens in Lapland for the winter season with spectacular new designs and features to celebrate its 30th anniversary…

Built from 30,000 cubic metres of ice, which is the equivalent of 110 million ice creams, the iconic Icehotel in Swedish Lapland has opened its doors for another winter season. Celebrating its 30th anniversary, the hotel shelters new layouts, suite designs, activities and features including a special ice-carved observation deck built above the hotel.

gold hue in room full of ice and a bed

It has been 30 years since Icehotel founder Yngve Bergqvist started a journey that would lead to the world’s first hotel made entirely out of snow and ice and during this time more than one million guests from all continents of the world have visited. The latest incarnation of the hotel is now open until the ice melts in the spring and the water returns to the Thorne river.

33 artists from 16 countries have spent an intense couple of weeks in the village of Jukkasjärvi, creating the hotel (made entirely out of ice and snow from the free-flowing Torne River) under the guidance of the hotel’s new Creative Director Luca Roncoroni.

Bar made from ice

Image credit: Asaf Kliger/Icehotel

This includes two British teams; father and daughter duo Jonathan and Marnie Green and professional sculptor Robert Harding, both of which have created Art Suites for Icehotel before.

The Green family’s suite is themed around a West End production called A Night at the Theatre, with ice-carved curtains, reindeers waiting in the wings, an impressive scale model of the hotel entrance in the centre and a frozen bed nestled amongst miniature theatre seats in the auditorium, with six life-size ice seats for guests to sit on behind.

Image credit: Asaf Kliger/Icehotel

Harding’s Bone Room celebrates the natural melting process of the Icehotel each spring as it slowly dissolves back into the Torne River, and aims to highlight the beauty found in the cycle of life with giant ice-carved bone sculptures overlooking the frozen bed, each glowing from within thanks to an under-floor white light.

Image credit: Asaf Kliger/Icehotel

The Main Hall “Brutalism” celebrates the construction of the hotel, the Ceremony Hall “Gingko” plays homage to the Chinese Ginkgo Tree (which symbolises hope, strength, longevity) and features 30 stars carved into the ceiling, one for each year of Icehotel, whilst the IceBar “TorneLand” is a tribute to the hotel’s 30 years of frozen fun, with ice-carved roller-coasters, games and hot air balloons surrounding the bar.

The full list to artists are as follows:

Main Hall: Brutal Experience
Jens Thoms Ivarsson: designer, artist and previous Creative Director at Icehotel,
Mats Nilsson: Stonemason and craftsman

Ceremony Hall: Gingko
Nina Kauppi: design studio owner, Sweden
Johan Kauppi: design studio owner, Sweden

IceBar: Torneland
Luc Vosin: landscape artist and interior designer, France
Mathieu Brison: urban planner, artistic director and architect

The Day After
Marjolein Vonk: art director, stylist and artist, Netherlands
Maurizio Perron: sculptor and artist, Italy

Subterranean
Jörgen Westin: artist and industrial designer, Sweden
Daniel Rosenbaum: artist and designer, Australia/ Canada

Feline Lair
Brian McArthur: artist and sculptor, Canada
Dawn Detarando: artist and sculptor, Canada

Ruossut- The Light You Can Hear
Anna Öhlund: photographer, sculptor and artist, Sweden
John Pettersson: lighting designer, Sweden

Clear Water
AnnaSofia Mååg: artist and sculptor, Sweden
Niklas Byman: entrepreneur and former Icehotel ice-production technician, Sweden

ECHOS of the Torne River
Francisco Cortés Zamudio: artist, Chile/Germany

White Santorini
Haemee Han: designer and landscape architect, USA/South Korea
Jaeyual Lee: architect, USA

Bone Room
Robert Harding: artist and sculptor, UK/South Africa/Spain

Spring Dream
ZhaoLei: artist and sculptor, China
ZhaoYong: artist and sculptor, China

Golden Ice
Nicolas Triboulot: designer, France
Jean-Marie Guitera: sound and game designer, Australia

Kaleidoscope
Natsuki Saito: ice sculptor, architect, designer, Japan
Shingo Saito: ice sculptor, Japan

A Night At The Theatre
Jonathan Paul Green: production designer, UK
Marnie Green: art student, UK

Tip Of The iceberg
Franziska Agrawal: industrial designer and artist, Germany

Warm Up
Tomasz Czajkowski: interior designer, Poland
Aleksandra Pasek: psychologist and writer, Poland

The 6th Feeling
Vladimir Barsukov: sculptor and photographer, Russia
Ekaterina Barsukova: designer and sculptor, Russia

To mark the 30th anniversary, the hotel has built a special ice-carved observation deck, offering views of the surrounding frozen landscape across the Torne River from which the ice is harvested. Plus, the hotel has also built a new sculpture at the enterence to the winter hotel; a four-metre tall tower that guests can climb.

Main image: Asaf Kliger/Icehotel

Hamish Kilburn / 17.12.2019

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