Art & Design 2020 – 2021

A cavalcade of festive celebrations!

Young and old! Step inside this year’s ice bar and let the over-the-top festivities begin. A fairground “on the rocks”, it celebrates the 30th birthday of Icehotel in grand style, so why not admire the frozen jollifications from the hot air balloon or take a spin on the unicorn carousel? Feel your stomach tingle as you line up for the twirling Ferris wheel or gasp at the dropping roller coasters. ‘Torneland’ is a tribute to 30 years of frozen fun in Jukkasjärvi. 

Get lost in your inner world

An abstract centerpiece adjacent to a pair of chairs are positioned inside a big circular wall immediately inside the room. Next to chairs; a red button too big and bright not to be pressed.  The installation introduces light, music and sound. “It was a new challenge for us to get design, light and sound to interact, but we’re very pleased with the result and it will be interesting to hear what the guests think” says Jens Thoms Ivarsson. Sit back and start the voyage into your inner world.

Enter a deep and vertical world,  and feel the cold of the glacier

Which way is up? Enter a deep and vertical world, and feel the cold of the glacier. Its massive presence is tangible in the natural, raw ice. Fall asleep at the end of the tunnel, cradled and sheltered by the unpolished Arctic. “With 34 meters of ice walls and 32 tons of raw Torne River ice, even on the ceiling, this suite is record breaking. Due to the huge amount of ice, the room is 4-5 degrees colder than average. Literally a cool experience!”

Think of Téckara (number 9) and allow an aperture of other thinking spaces, recalling priorities and becoming enlightened again

Designed with the intention to create a place for serenity, Javier Opazo’s suite uses the impressive height of the Icehotel 365 to its fullest potential. The room is composed by nine tall pillars and several different floor levels. Within the space, the transparent icy pillars are positioned to accelerate an architectural transit, while the different floor levels bestow a rhythm to the room. Téckara means “9” in Kunza, an extinguished polysynthetic language from the northern part of Chile and the
Altiplanic region of the Atacama Desert.

The harmonious sound of life starting anew

The moment when the first sprouts break through the snow. Water dripping from the melting ice. The soft wind playing with the clouds and the new life starts. In Early Spring, sculptors Nando Alvarez and Liliya Pobornikova were inspired by the natural elements and the intention to unite their individual expressions in the ephemeral and soft materials ice and snow, using ideas they have previously explored in hard and permanent materials.

You are kindly invited to a Raindrop Prelude

Raindrops form ripple effects on the frozen ice. Deeper inside the suite; a majestic bed frame gainst intricate wall patterns inspired by traditional Polish folk art. The musical notations of Chopin’s classical work engraved in the ice aloft. “Hearing Chopin’s work had a profound effect on me. His way of fusing Polish folk and classical music inspired me. This suite mirrors his 19th century Poland, interpreted through blending traditional local folk art with the Biedermeier style that came to grow immensely popular at this time.” 

Be part of the slow drift of visual transformation and dream up your own fiction

Nature inspires us with shapes created from pure and wild beauty. Ice flows, perpetually in motion. These abstract volumes are an ever changing screen to project your personal impressions and emotions upon. Install yourself among the ice and snow shells and let your true vision interact with the room.

Blue Houses is a minimalistic tribute to houses, dwellings and tranquility

This little village is built out of strong snow walls and beautiful ice windows. The cold materials are formed to iconic shapes with clear lines, where dreamy dimmed light ­reflects from the ­inaccessible insides. “Blue Houses is a minimalistic tribute to houses, dwellings and tranquility. An invitation to mind­fulness. The time to enjoy is now.”

Visitors can lower themselves into a bath of ice and in peace contemplate the nature, embodied by a deer

The design in this suite is inspired by the Japanese Onsen baths and the Great Totem spirit animals. The lanterns bring light, moments of understanding, for the nature and the world we live in. Visitors can lower themselves into a bath of ice and in peace contemplate the nature, embodied by a deer. “Oh Deer express an awe of the grand animal and a humble envision of Mother Earth and the fascinating landscape outside.”

Enjoy the mystic elegance of sleeping on frozen water and experiencing deep silence

Enter a surreal frozen lake environment and literally walk on thin ice across a landing stage running through the suite and connecting to the bed. Look into the depth of the frozen lakes surface’s visually transparent ice, allowing you to witness the serene beauty of naturally emerged structures created by nature – cracks, air bubbles and light effects. “Enjoy the mystic elegance of sleeping on frozen water and experiencing deep silence.”

Nature in its abstraction. Let your imagination run free

With an urge to explore nature and its profound elements, you embark upon the unknown, ephemeral ground. In front of you, a winding pathway edged with massive ice crescents, diverse in heights and proportions. As if pulled by gravity, you are drawn in, and the wavy passage changes your perception with every step until the journey ends in front of a bed, surrounded by suggestive lights. Filled with impressions, you lay down, taking in the starlit sky.

We wanted to form a suite filled with positive energy that translates into the guests

Dancers in the dark is all about choosing survival – the light and positive path. Artists Tjåsa Gusfors and Patrick Dallard have experimented with the features and elements of the frozen water, and created movement in the room, emerged from the dancers. The music is written and performed by Tjåsa Gusfors herself with arrangement by Matti Eklund. “We wanted to form a suite filled with positive energy that translates into the guests, to create a sensuous space, which gives you bliss. So we keep dancing in the dark, chasing sparks…”

Sleep amongst the trees in a piece of furniture made of ice

Cabinet in the Woods plays on the familiar image of a cabin nestled amongst trees. It’s only once you’ve passed the doorway and the light bulb hanging in the solitary window that you realize there’s more to it than you were expecting. The bed is, in fact, a paneled wardrobe with moldings and details usually reserved for wood craftsmanship. But the highlight is the intricate frieze, depicting the process of making furniture, drawing parallels to how the room itself was constructed. 

Ice sculpture of a man with a big hat inside Icehotel