The greatest challenge in this years’ ICEHOTEL is the new category of rooms – the Design Suite.
”Design Suite has changed how I relate to the hotel. It demands outstanding advance planning since the interior is pre-fabricated, in order to be put on loading pallets until it is time to place it in the rooms”, says architect Åke Larsson.
At this moment the design for the 10 suites is being completed. The pre-fabrication starts already in the middle of September and it is our own staff that carries out the work. The suites will be opened to overnight guests January 5, 2008.
The hotel’s only luxury suite will be opened in just about right time before New Years. The suite, which is sold as a package for a complete ice and luxury experience, is both an architectonical and technical challenge. Åke Larsson is the one to manufacture the technique that will replace the inflatable, but wind sensitive, moulding form that has been used in previous years to create igloo-like buildings.
Rashid Sagadeev and Charly Walter from Russia respectively Austria stands for idea and design of the luxury suite. The room will have a round shape and will inhabit a diamond-like dome of ice.
Rashid Sagadeev teaches as well as works with art. He uses materials such as snow and ice, sand and metals and has been painting frescos in an Italian monastery. Rashid is winner of numerous international ice sculpting contests. He is also a returning artist to ICEHOTEL.
The artists that have been selected this year derive from 14 different countries, their experiences and spheres of activity are widely differentiated. The fact that fire sculptors, illustrators, filmmakers, architects and many other are gathering here is what gives ICEHOTEL its wealth of variety.
Maurizio Perron from Italy says ”My work mediates my feelings. At ICEHOTEL one of my works will for the first time be ’lived’. Normally I create monuments, sculptures and installations that people set foot on, touch and feel but this time it will be different. Someone will overnight, sleep and dream in an ambience that comes from my soul.”
Camilla Bondareva
Press Officer ICEHOTEL
Tel: 0980-668 40
E-mail: camilla@icehotel.com
Designers and artists 2007/2008:
Alexander Bach and Sandra Uhlitzsch; Germany
Andrea Thompson; USA
Ben Roussean and James Drew; England
Benny Ekman; Sweden
Cui Wei and Rüi Zheng; China
David Andrén; Sweden
Do Delaunay; France
Kestutis Mustekis; Lithuania
Laura Marcos and Lelé Trabb; Argentina
Liliya Pobornikova and Viktor Tsarski; Bulgaria
Maurizio Perron; Italy
Natsuki Munakata and Shingo Saito; Japan
Olle Magnusson and Svenerik Jakobsson; Sweden
Patrick Dallard; Sweden
Roger Thomson; New Zealand
Sakai Hiroyoshi; Japan
Ulrika Tallving; Sweden
Valli Schafer and Barra Cassedy; Ireland
De Luxe Suite Rashid Sagadeev and Charly Walter; Russia and Austria