The plans for the building of the 24th ICEHOTEL in Swedish Lapland are well underway, with the designs submitted and 20 winning artists just announced, including two Brits – film director Marcus Dillistone and sculptor Rob Harding.A total of 200 designs were submitted for this year’s hotel with those selected including a London underground platform, a Frankenstein-esque science lab, pole dancing Polar Bears and a Montmartre-inspired roof top setting – all made of ice and snow. The guest designers, who will be responsible for crafting the eleven art suites in the hotel, have diverse backgrounds including film direction to architecture, children’s product design and visual anthropologists.
Winning British Designs
British artist *Marcus Dillistone, who worked on 2010/11 ICEHOTEL (a suite based on the inside of a fridge) has chosen to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the London Underground with his design – a suite called Mind the Gap. **Rob Harding, another selected British artist, has worked with his son on their winning design based on the idea ’Before the Big Bang’.
These winning British designs come in the year when the ICEHOTEL is more accessible than ever from the UK. Discover the World will be offering the UK’s only direct flights from Heathrow to Kiruna (3.5 hours flight duration) and has announced a 30% increase in the number of flights for the forthcoming season to give people more choice of dates and durations especially over the busy Christmas, New Year and mid-February periods.
Discover the World is offering ICEHOTEL breaks from £1,164 per person (based on two adults sharing) including one night in a standard Snow Room, two nights in heated accommodation, morning sauna and breakfast, return direct flights between London Heathrow and Kiruna with complimentary in-flight meal and transfers.
Background of ICEHOTEL
ICEHOTEL is a design inspired living museum built on the bank of the Torne river in Swedish Lapland every year since its inception in 1990. Thousands of tonnes of ice are harvested from the river each year for its construction which takes place over eight weeks between late October and December. After the basic structure of the ICEHOTEL is built, each artist has about three weeks to complete their design in the design suites whilst other artists work to add the details to the remainder of the ICEHOTEL.
The interior of the ICEHOTEL remains similar to a conventional hotel with a bar, reception, luxury suites, main hall and even a church. These are additional design projects assigned to the ICEHOTEL’s own creative team which will be announced later.
This year’s hotel will have approximately 65 rooms ranging over five categories, including the eleven individually designed suites by guest artists. The ICEHOTEL complex comprises of warm rooms as well as ice rooms which guests usually stay in for part of their break.
Confirmed artists include:
Brooke Erdman, USA Marcus Dillistone, UK
Camilla Bergman, Sweden Mark Szulgit, USA
Christian Strömqvist, Sweden
Mathieu Brison, France
Christine Close, France Melanie Peters, Austria
Gretchen Alexander, Austria
Natalie Close, Japan
Jens Dyvik, Norway Natsuki Saito, Japan
José Carlos Cabello Millán, Spain Rob Harding, UK/Spain
Karl-Johan Ekeroth, Sweden
Shingo Saito, Japan
Lena Kriström, Sweden Timsam Harding, UK/Spain
Luc Voisin, France
Yoad David Luxembourg, the Netherlands
ICEHOTEL will be open from 6 December 2013 and available to book via www.discovertheworld.co.uk.
