Inside Sweden 25th Ice Hotel

shakirajefrydin · Post time 16-12-2014 08:36 AM

An Original article from The Telegraph

The first pictures of the 25th Icehotel, made anew from ice and snow each year, in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden

Now 25 years old, northern Sweden's Icehotel is built with ice from the Torne River each winter and melts to nothing each spring. Opened in early December, the winter 2014/2015 hotel is made from 1,600 tonnes of ice and snow and features 16 "art suites" designed by artists, as well as one designed by a Telegraph reader who won the honour during a prize giveaway as part of this year's Telegraph Travel Awards

In the "Abject Beauty" suite, five anatomical sculptures grow out of the wall and spread out across the room. Artists Lotta Lampa and Julia Gamborg Nielsen wanted to create a room that is both beautiful and destructive, and in this way address the issue of growth and decay

Thomas Czajkowski and Eryk Marks are the creators of the “Borderland” suite. They grew up in eastern Poland and their suite (worthy of Frozen's Princess Anna & Elsa) is inspired by the folk art that decorated the typical wooden houses of the region. "In this suite, we want to show the villages of our grandparents and take the visitor on a journey back in time to witness the handicrafts of the past.”

The creative duo behind the Spring suite were inspired by spring in their creative process and if you look closely at the carved ice pillars you will see the shape of tree trunks under the ice. Their silhouettes become clearer each day, as the ice that encloses them slowly melts and the Icehotel disappears

To celebrate the hotel's 25th birthday, its bar has been inaugurated for the first time in a dome-shaped structure adjacent to the hotel and boasts, aside from an ice bar, lounge sofas and a large dance floor as well

In the "Hot Type" suite, letterpress types, hand-carved in blocks of ice, protrude from the wall on the far side of the room, appearing in print on the opposing wall. John Bark and Charli Kasselbäck both work as graphic designers and are typography enthusiasts. "This suite is a heartfelt celebration of the very art of printing. That magical moment when the types meet a white paper – or as in this case, a wall of ice – and readable words, sentences and texts materialize. In this suite we have used Baskerville, Bodoni, Akzidenz and Futura - typefaces that have made an impression on our own lives."

The Two as One suite features two elegant sculptures that represent a pair of lovers and an abstract sculpture which forms the bed frame, symbolizing the union between the two: the kiss. The bed is an interpretation of the moment when the lovers meet, when everything else disappears and the present moment is the only thing that matters. The creator of the suite is the artist José Carlos Cabello Millán

The 7.5 °Rø suite is divided into 12 frames, each leaning against the preceding frame by 7.5 degrees. The gradient creates a spiral-like twist of the room and an illusion of infinity. Wolfgang Luchow, Sebastian Scheller and Anja Kilian, the artists behind the suite, were inspired by the astronomer Ole Christensen Rømer, who invented a thermometer that measures in Rø units. In this scale, water turns to ice at 7.5 °Rø

The current Icehotel stands out as the most sophisticated ever built. Building methods have been finessed over the years and suites are more elaborate than previously. The picture here shows an art suite that was built in 2000

The 2002 Icehotel featured an ice theatre modelled on Shakespeare's Globe

A piano made from ice was an unusual decorative - and functional - element in the 2001 Icehotel

The Snow Aurora Borealis suite by Kestutis Musteikis and Vytautas Musteikis, found in the 2007 Icehotel

Dragon Residence, a suite in the 2012 hotel, by Bazarsad Bayarsaikhan

Its Alive, a 2012 suite, by Christian Strömqvist, Karl-Johan Ekeroth

Perhaps the standout suite of the 2012 Icehotel, Blue Marine was designed by Britons Andrew Winch and William Blomstrand

The 2013 hotel's ice bar, named 'Lost & found' was designed by Jens Thoms Ivarsson, Tjasa Gusfors and Maurizio Perron