Bi-weekly ICEHOTEL UPDATES Photo: ICEHOTEL; Artist: Åke Larsson
Jennifer Fulmer and Robert Mechielsen team up to design a suite for the ICEHOTEL
Jennifer and Robert
The ICEHOTEL is built every year 255km inside the arctic circle in Sweden, built completely out of snow and ice. It houses 14 specially designed suites. International artists are invited each year to create a unique design for each of these suites. This winter Studio-RMA has been invited to design a suite for the 2007 hotel.
The suites are 3.5h*7*4.5 meters , or 23’ x 15’ with a height of 11’. The only materials allowed in the design are ice and snow, even the bed is to be designed and built out of ice.
The bed and the entry of the suite will be covered with reindeer hides. Obviously parkas and other warm clothing are necessary. The Ice Hotel also houses an Absolute Vodka Ice Bar in which even the glasses are made of ice.
The designers are to be part of the construction team, detailing the suite mid-December in Sweden.
Photo: Peter Grant
Quick Keys
Some Spicy Details:
"Although I, Robert, am personally horrified of using electrical saws because of an accident in construction I witnessed...
Jennifer has shown great skills in the use of powertools! So the cutting of the Ice blocks, will be Jennifer's job! "
Robert and Jennifer were both inspired by the work of Andy Goldworthy. Through different sources they both became very exited about his use of natural elements to frame nature in a way that is new, intriguing and beautiful.
In their design, overlapping sheets of translucent ice are backlit and layered around a keyhole viewing wall. The illusion of centrifugal motion was their goal as they created a vortex shape. Spotlights will transmit light-beams through the polished ice shapes into the vortex design.
They designed a partition wall in the suite consisting of two twisting double helix forms that will be created out of stacked blocks of ice (cut into pieces 10h*25*100) which reach up to the ceiling. The partition will partially hide the bed, a key hole at eye level will reveal the vortex-shaped sculptural ice wall beyond.
This composition is fully clear and visible when passing by the keyhole in the helix wall and looking through. If the elements of this design were thought of as planets within a solar system, then upon entering this room and looking through the keyhole is when the planets align to exert their full influence on existence.
The circle is their key shape which repeats itself through each element in the suite. Thus there is a rebirth of this circular force, a vortex of rebirth through form. As the snow circles and curves in on itself and the shape is renewed from one end of the room to the other the vortex feel is created.
By Andy Goldworthy
By Andy Goldworthy
Here we let them talk...
"To explore the first design ideas we created a paper model, lit up to explore the light effects. Then we sketched out how the ' line up' of the different design elements would work"
Section through the Suite, w. Entry at the left
The model
Double Helix Entry Wall Sketch Vortex Back walll
Design Inspiration by Lee Bentecou
The ICEHOTEL Photos Courtesy ICEHOTEL
Photo: Peter Grant
One of its most appealing qualities, is how beautiful the ice reacts to light. In the Arctic Circle, winter days have little sun, so our guests will be bathed in dimmed sky tones and muted ice pastels.
Photo: Håkan Hjort; Artists: Mats Indseth, Marcus Hall
In the frozen, tightly compacted snow is the basic structure of the Icehotel. The roofs of the rooms are formed in curvilinear fashion, similar to an igloo, yet with a square floor base.
Photo: Håkan Hjort; Artists Mats Indseth, Marcus Hall
Photo Hakan Hjort
Skilled labor and Swedish architects knowledgeable about ice structures will help with the project.
Ice-Lighting designers will be there help our team.
Yet, our designers in their thermal underwear and Parkas will be ones that must make this piece of magic work....
The concept of building with ice is very appealing to both artists. They both embrace sustainable architecture in their work, mainly with SCIP building technology. Jennifer has a background in Film and Theater set design. Robert has his wits in composition and structure.
The Icehotel provides the Designers with pre-frozen, pre-cut dimensional ice blocks and whatever amounts of snow they require.
So, how do we build the main, lit-up, centrifucal end wall?
The solution was found in the Roman 'Keystone' invention that made the structural arch possible.
Sequence of 'how to build' images
The ice blocks arriving at site
Photo:Hakan Hjort
Stacked Ice
Carved Ice
Wall of Ice Blocks
Each year the Icehotel features a Vodka Bar and a Restaurant. Consistent with its theme, glasses and plates will be made out of ice.
Photo: ICEHOTEL
What Jennifer and Robert are really looking forward to is working with all the other artists. They are impressed with the work and the unusually high artistic minded management. They are ready to work hard and play hard, give it the most and enjoy being with their kindred.
Studio-RMA will post updates here on how the designers are coping with their Arctic tasks. They might need some cheering and encouragement, while they are freezing their butts, getting this design to work...
Eventually, both Designers will sleep together in the 'Cyclic Vortex' Ice Suite on their Ice Bed... We are all looking forward to these images....
Rest assured, Thermal underwear, Parkas, and Exhaustion will keep them virtuous to their life partners, yet their dream will be realized and celebrated...
For those interested in the ICEHOTEL experience, let us assure you that close to the actual ICEHOTEL, is a comfortably heated WarmHotel, that most guests will use after their first night of Parkas.
Yet the intriguing appeal of the 'Lit-up' Ice structure will keep you coming back... Perhaps to tease the new guests, or to delve into a deeper understanding of how we humans tend to find new meaning and resolve in life, in barren and magical perspectives.
For more info check WWW.ICEHOTEL.COM