ICEHOTEL number 18 in Sweden opens with creativity

ICEHOTEL number 8 opens in Sweden on December 7, but the preparations have already started, with ICEHOTEL having become a part of the brand Sweden and with its own very own area in Scandinavian design.

New technique will be tested this year and they say they have committed to better meet the expectations and demands of their guests.

In a few days this years’ chosen designers and artists will hand in their ice block orders to the production hall in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden, with the greatest challenge in this years’ ICEHOTEL being the new category of rooms – the Design Suite.

“Design Suite has changed how I relate to the hotel. It demands outstanding advance planning since the interior is pre-fabricated, in order to be put on loading pallets until it is time to place it in the rooms”, says architect Ake Larsson.

At this moment the design for the 10 suites is being completed, with the pre-fabrication starting in the middle of September.

The suites will be opened to overnight guests January 5, 2008, with the hotel’s only luxury suite will opened just before New Years.

The developers say that the suite, which is sold as a package for a complete ice and luxury experience, is both an architectonical and technical challenge, with Ake Larsson manufacturing the technique that will replace the inflatable, but wind sensitive, moulding form that has been used in previous years to create igloo-like buildings.

Rashid Sagadeev and Charly Walter from Russia and Austria have designed the luxury suite, which will have a round shape and a diamond-like dome of ice.

Rashid Sagadeev teaches as well as works with art, using materials such as snow and ice, sand and metals and he has also been painting frescos in an Italian monastery. Rashid is winner of numerous international ice sculpting contests and he is also a returning artist to ICEHOTEL.

The artists that have been selected this year derive from 14 different countries, with their experiences and spheres of activity are differentiated. The fact that fire sculptors, illustrators, filmmakers, architects and many other are gathering here is what gives ICEHOTEL its wealth of variety.

Maurizio Perron from Italy said, “My work mediates my feelings.” “At ICEHOTEL one of my works will for the first time be ’lived”. “Normally I create monuments, sculptures and installations that people set foot on, touch and feel but this time it will be different”. “Someone will overnight, sleep and dream in an ambience that comes from my soul.”

Designers and artists in the 2007/2008 ICEHOTEL include:

Suites

Alexander Bach and Sandra Uhlitzsch; Germany

Andrea Thompson; USA

Ben Roussean and James Drew; England

Benny Ekman; Sweden

Cui Wei and Rui Zheng; China

David Andren; Sweden

Do Delaunay; France

Kestutis Mustekis; Lithuania

Laura Marcos and Lele Trabb; Argentina

Liliya Pobornikova and Viktor Tsarski; Bulgaria

Maurizio Perron; Italy

Natsuki Munakata and Shingo Saito; Japan

Olle Magnusson and Svenerik Jakobsson; Sweden

Patrick Dallard; Sweden

Roger Thomson; New Zealand

Sakai Hiroyoshi; Japan

Ulrika Tallving; Sweden

Valli Schafer and Barra Cassedy; Ireland

De Luxe Suite

Rashid Sagadeev and Charly Walter; Russia and Austria

Report by The Mole