With help of A-16's Mark Castber, Jennifer and Robert have now tested all their Arctic underwear for the trip. LEVITY will proved the protective jackets and gear. 

On November 17th the team will fly to Dusseldorf, the location of Studio-RMA's European office, and greeted by Marc Bell. They will be stocked with more winter clothes, and off they go, via Stockholm to Kiruna, current temperature 20°F.  

The nearest Airport

It seems these Swedes and Laplanders spring into action once the polar frost descends upon them. Quite strange. The ice seems to awaken a new fervor in them and the Studio-RMA team has all they can do just to keep up! 

Jukkasjärvi, is buzzing with action- calls and e-mails are  flying back and forth...."Any Food Allergies?" -The Chefs, "Where do we place the Ice blocks in your Suite?" - The Construction Team, "What kind of lights and where" - The Lighting Support Team, "We have to change the Helix wall to account for the added snow load, 40 Kilo" - The Ice Architectural Engineering Team, "Can we have your boot size in European measurements, please" -The Keeping the Artists from Freezing Team.     

 The name of the village where the ICHOTEL is birthed each winter is Jukkasjarvi (pronounced you-kas-yar-vee) which means meeting place. Pretty appropriate considering the flood of first construction workers then artists then guests that descend upon this small Lapland village each year.

Meanwhile, we are in feverish last minute preparations for our design adventures in the Swedish Lapland. The Torne river is now frozen, the rigs are on the ice mining the blocks needed. The main structure of the hotel is already being built. We learned that during the life of this year's ICEHOTEL the roof  will compact by about 2 ft. As a result some of the design had to be altered to allow for it.

When the designers revisited their suite design they found in it a symbolic representation of the journey of life. From one end of the room to the other life is represented as a seed then a  helix into the full experience of life finally imploding into rebirth.