A Look At This Year’s ICEHOTEL Art Suites

all the suites in this year's icehotel

The ICEHOTEL is a world famous hotel and an art exhibition made of ice and snow that changes every year. Founded in 1989 in the Swedish village of Jukkasjärvi – 200 km north of the Arctic Circle, it is all about ice and creativity – with artfully created accommodations as the result. Each year artists (who are not required to have worked with ice before) are invited to take part – they’re selected from among those who send in their ideas based on originality and creating it in real natural ice would pose a new challenge. The several weeks’ hard work and months of planning and preparation culminate in something that only exists for a few months.

ICEHOTEL Art Suites

This year 34 artists from 13 countries have spent an intense couple of weeks in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, to create the 29th annual incarnation of the ephemeral hotel that is entirely made out of ice and snow from the free-flowing Arctic river Torne.

ICEHOTEL Art Suites
The opening of this year’s ICEHOTEL, photo: Louise Nordström Pettersson

The artists sculpt 15 unique suites of ice and snow (all shown below), one ice ceremony hall for weddings and ceremonies and the main hall, featuring the iconic columns and chandeliers that have become synonymous with the hotel.

This year's chandelier for the lobby
This year’s chandelier for the lobby

A building team, the ice production, art support and lighting designers work together with the artists in the building of ICEHOTEL, and create an additional 20 ice rooms.

“Haven”, Jonas Johansson, Jordi Claramunt & Lukas Petko, Sweden, Spain and Slovakia
“Haven”, Jonas Johansson, Jordi Claramunt & Lukas Petko, Sweden, Spain and Slovakia
Dancing Aurora suite icehotel
“Dancing Auroras”, Emilie Steele & Sebastian Dell’Uva, Sweden
art suites in the icehotel
“Flock”, Lisa Lindqvist & Ulrika Tallving, UK & Sweden
”Oak”, Tjåsa Gusfors & Sam Gusfors, Sweden
spruce woods art suite
“Spruce Woods”, Christopher Pancoe & Jennie O’Keefe, Canada
the living ocean suite
“The Living Ocean Suite”, Jonathan Paul Green & Marnie Green, UK
“Kaamon Aurinko, the Sun of Polar Night”, Katharina Wyss, Frank Dittman & Veronika Mayerböck, Switzerland
“Kaamon Aurinko, the Sun of Polar Night”, Katharina Wyss, Frank Dittman & Veronika Mayerböck, Switzerland
icehotel art suites
“Lollipop”, Mathieu Brison & Luc Voisin, France
icehotel The Sea of Ice art suite
“The Sea of Ice”, Kristina Möckel & Sebastian Scheller, Germany
icehotel suites
”Blossom”, Wouter Biegelaar & Viktor Tsarski, Netherlands
ice hotel rooms
“Differential Expansion”, Antonio Camara & Juan Carlos Camara, Canada & Mexico
“Perception”,  Francisco Javier Cortes Zamudio, Germany
“Perception”,  Francisco Javier Cortes Zamudio, Germany
”Zero. ICTYS – Water is Always the Same”, Emilio Lorenzo & Josu Ruiz, Spain
icewoman in icehotel art suite
“Icewoman”, Linda Vagnelind, Sweden
The Tao Of Cat ice suite
“The Tao Of Cat”, Sonia Chow & Huschang Pourian, Hong Kong
icehotel Main Hall, Marjolein Vonk & Maurizio Perron, Netherlands & Italy
Main Hall, Marjolein Vonk & Maurizio Perron, Netherlands & Italy

ICEHOTEL is entirely made of snow and ice from the Arctic Torne River, Sweden’s largest national river. The annual hotel is built over 12 weeks October – January, only to melt back to the river in April.

• The total amount of ice used by the hotel equals 10 seconds’ water flow in the river Torne.

• The iconic chandeliers hold 1 000 ice crystals sculpted and mounted by hand.

• The main building material is “snice” (a mixture of snow+ice). 30 000 cubic meters of snice – that’s the equivalent of 110 million popsicles – are used for the floors, ceilings and walls of the hotel.

• Out of 150 applications, 15 teams are selected and invited to create their suite concept.

• Each year, ICEHOTEL is visited by around 70,000 guests from all over the world, about 50 wedding couples get married in the sparkling ceremony hall. Most visitors stay three nights (only one in an ice suite and the rest the warm rooms that the hotel also offers) and the bucket list experiences to be checked off the list include northern lights, snowmobiling and dog sledding, ice sculpting and of course tasting the bespoke ice menu at ICEHOTEL Restaurant, – a five-course festive dinner on plates made out of ice, straight from Torne River.

all photos courtesy of Asaf Kliger.

ICEHOTEL