In a small
Arctic town in Sweden, a construction crew bundled up in heavy
parkas is bustling around a building site unlike any other: a
massive ice hotel is taking shape.
Armed with thick gloves and safety helmets over fur-lined hats, the
builders in the northern town of Jukkasjaervi assemble two-tonne
blocks of ice as if they were a large set of Lego blocks, with the
end result a giant igloo with several domes, vaulted ceilings and
archways.
In one hallway, a worker uses a large pick to carve a door out of
the blue-tinged packed snow, working up a sweat despite the
sub-zero temperatures as he exhales feathery puffs of breath.
The builders had just a few
weeks to sculpt 65 hotel rooms, a lobby and reception area, a main
hall and an ice bar in a race against the clock ahead of the
December opening.
An ice chapel will be added to host weddings and christenings,
complete with an ice-sculpted altar, font and pews.
And yet all this effort is ephemeral: in a few months the entire
structure will melt away with the spring thaw.
"We're completely dependent on the weather, we have a schedule to
adhere to but it varies from year to year," Icehotel representative
Beatrice Karlsson said.
The construction method is unique to the Icehotel, according to
Nordic architecture expert Rasmus Waern.
"It's totally original. There's no tradition in Scandinavia of
building with ice," he said.
But it is rapidly becoming a tradition: the Icehotel is being
staged for the 23rd time this year on the shores of the Torne river
from where the ice is taken.
"In March, 5,000 tonnes of ice are pulled from the river and then
conserved in two-tonne blocks in two warehouses where the
temperature is maintained at between minus eight and minus five
degrees Celsius (between 17.6 and 23 Fahrenheit)," explains Jens
Thoms Ivarsson, in charge of the hotel's interior design.
Construction typically begins in the autumn, when the first polar
chills descend on Sweden's far north.
But five months later, once spring arrives and with it the
long-awaited sun, the entire site melts down.
"We return to the Torne what we borrowed," says Thoms Ivarsson,
grateful for the river's loan without which the Icehotel could not
exist.
-- Beds made of ice blocks and reindeer skins --
Once the building process is completed, the interior still needs to
be decorated: ornate chandeliers will embellish the main hall,
while avant-garde sculptures, bas reliefs, and chairs and beds all
cut out of ice await.
Each of the 16 suites is considered a unique piece of art, designed
by artists selected from more than 100 applicants from all corners
of the globe.
While management refuses to disclose how much the entire endeavour
costs each year, the hotel's interior design alone has a budget of
five million kronor (580,000 euros, $752,000).
Details of the suites' themes and designs are kept a well-guarded
secret until the hotel's opening: all that is known so far is that
some of the artists hail from France, Argentina and the United
States.
Ambitious sculptures in the past have included a pinball machine
with coloured lights inside the ice, a man sitting on a toilet in a
bathroom, a female Buddha, a rocket ship, and the inside of a
refrigerator.
The hotel also has 49 standard rooms with less elaborate decor,
some of which will feature scenes of northern lights, a spectacular
phenomenon also known as aurora borealis in which streams of
coloured lights streak across the night sky, a show some visitors
will be lucky enough to see during their stay.
As in the suites, all of the regular room beds are made of ice
blocks covered with reindeer skins. Visitors spending the night are
given thermal sleeping bags when they check in -- and a diploma
when they check out to prove they survived a night at minus seven
degrees Celsius (19 degrees Fahrenheit).
The hotel -- copies of which are now erected in several other
countries -- has no stars the way other hotels do.
But that doesn't mean it's for budget travellers: the cost of a
room ranges from 2,200 to 7,000 kronor (between 255 and 810 euros)
per night.
Alternately, tourists can pay 325 kronor a head to tour the hotel,
which also makes money off the weddings and christenings it hosts,
as well as the popular ice bar where drinks are served in glasses
made of ice.
