Every winter, the small Swedish village of Jukkasjärvi builds an Icehotel. Almost 50,000 people will visit each season, and artists from around the world come to build sculptural, light-based or even typographic installations for themed rooms. This year is the 25th edition of the iconic frozen palace, which uses almost 1,000 tons of frozen water and about 7 million gallons of snow and ice from the nearby Torne River. The hotel is structurally sound and the ephemeral installations are inspired by everything from love and baroque architecture to the inner workings of a clock.
Here are a few of this year’s rooms, along with some other Icehotel madness.
’7 , 5 °’ Rø by Wolfgang-A. Lüchow, Sebastian Andreas Scheller, Anja Kilian, Germany
‘Two as One’ by Jose Carlos Cabello Millán
‘Borderland’ by Tomasz Cjazkowski & Eryk Marks
24th Jukkasjärvi Icehotel, 2014
23rd Jukkasjärvi Icehotel, 2013
22nd Jukkasjärvi Icehotel, 2012
Image via www.hoteldeglace-canada.com
Hotel De Glace, Quebec
© Chris Burton
Image via www.fodors.com
Hotel of Ice, Balea Lac, Romania
Image via www.fodors.com
Snow Village Finland, Kittilä, Finland
Image via www.fodors.com
Eskimska Vas, Slovenia
Image via www.fodors.com
The Snowcastle of Kemi, Kemi, Finland