This year's ICEHOTEL - in pictures


Sweden's original ICEHOTEL celebrates its 25th incarnation this year with rooms by artists including David Andren, Johan Andren and Tjasa Gusfors.


Main Picture: ART SUITE: 7 , 5 ° Rø by Wolfgang-A. Lüchow, Sebastian Andreas Scheller, Anja Kilian. Photo Paulina Holmgren

Spending the night in a bedroom made entirely of ice is, clearly, not for everyone. But a stay in the Ice Hotel (more info) is, literally, a once in a lifetime experience. Each year, the hotel is built from scratch using blocks of ice cut from the Torne River, and, when the season comes to an end, it is allowed to melt - so that even if you stayed in the Ice Hotel every year, you'd never actually stay in the same hotel twice.

There are now may ice hotels built each year across Europe, but this one in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden. is the original. This year marks the ICEHOTEL's 25 incarnation, and its makers have gone all out commissioning what must be some of the most beautiful and breathtaking ice sculpture and ice architecture ever seen.

Everything - except a few meagre but nevertheless luxurious bedclothes - is made of ice, including the beds: in some rooms, ethereal animals watch over you while you sleep, while in others, ornate furniture and candelabras have been intricately sculpted from ice.

Those who write this off as a tourist gimmick, may be surprised to learn that ICEHOTEL has, over the year's come to be respected as a transient work of art: the rooms and communal areas of the hotel are packed with ice sculptures - as well as being ice sculptures in themselves. These are created by artists and the money earned from guests helps fund the construction and pay the artists.

This year's hotel features an ice chapel, by David Andren, Johan Andren and Tjasa Gusfors

ICEHOTEL_DesignCurial

Photo: Paulina Holmgren

ICEHOTEL_DesignCurial

Photo: Paulina Holmgren

ICEHOTEL_DesignCurial

ART SUITE: Hot Type in a Cold Setting by John Bark & Charli Kasselbäck. Photo: Paulina Holmgren

ICEHOTEL_DesignCurial

Photo: Paulina Holmgren

ICEHOTEL_DesignCurial

ART SUITE: Borderland by Tomasz Cjazkowski & Eryk Marks. Photo: Paulina Holmgren

ICEHOTEL_DesignCurial

Photo: Paulina Holmgren

ICEHOTEL_DesignCurial

Photo: Paulina Holmgren

ICEHOTEL_DesignCurial

Photo: Paulina Holmgren

Photo: Paulina Holmgren

ART SUITE: Borderland by Tomasz Cjazkowski & Eryk Marks. Photo: Paulina Holmgren

Photo: Paulina Holmgren

ICEBAR by ICEHOTEL Jukkasjärvi. Boom by Wouter Biegelaar, Viktor Tsarski & Maurizio Perron. Photo: Paulina Holmgren

 









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