12 Unique Designs From The IceHotel

1. Main Entrance, 2009, The IceHotel

The shell of the IceHotel is actually a massive structure encompassing the main entrance, supporting walls, and covering for the hotel. This structure is very similar from year to year, but the interiors and sculptures are always new. Here, before the main entrance is “Slightly Off,” an ice sculpture by Åke Larsson, Mikael Nille Nilsson & Sofi Ruotsalainen of Sweden.

2. Main Hall, 2009, The IceHotel

This year, Anders Eriksson and Arne Bergh, two Swedish carpenters, designed the main hall with these cube-come-cylindrical columns and ice crystal chandeliers to bring as much light, sparkle, and playfulness into the “Crystal Hall” as possible.

3. Absolut Icebar, 2009, The IceHotel

Absolut(ely) fabulous, this Roaring 20’s style bar named after Sweden’s most famous vodka, is intricately scupted by Mark Armstrong, an English architect, and Lena Kriström, Swedish sculptor. How would you like to down your Absolut Mandrinoska in this icebar?

4. Ho-Shi To Tsu-ki, Guest Suite 2009, The IceHotel

Looking so inviting, despite the cold, designer/woodworker Hiroyoshi Saka, from Japan, pays tribute to the night and the moon and stars that are so splendid in the night sky.

5. Getting Cold Feet, Guest Suite 2009, The IceHotel

A dig at consumerism, designers Ben Rousseau and INSA from England created large “leg columns” with rather pointed-toed shoes. The bed… a pretty blue ice shoe, with a high headboard in skin print.

6. Mush-Room, Guest Suite 2009, The IceHotel

Layers and layers of forested mushrooms surround your dreams in this fairy tale suite by Liliya Pobornikova, award-winning sculptor, and Viktor Tsarski, architect and sculptor, from Bulgaria.

7. The Queen of Ice, Guest Suite 2009, The IceHotel

A tribute to your queen, designers Natsuki Munakata and Shingo Saito of Japan introduce layers of gentle, lacy ice work to this regal bedroom, even designing a special bed frame and headboard for the queen.

8. Chasing Penguins, Guest Suite 2009, The IceHotel

The submarine chamber is cleverly and whimsically designed for the guest explorer by English designer Mark Armstrong.

9. Funnyture, Guest Suite 2009, The IceHotel

This well-furnished suite comes with night table, desk, chair, and wardrobe from the design pair of Åke Larsson and Mikael Nille Nilsson of Sweden. This guest suite should make you feel more at home.

10. Trompe l’oeil, Guest Suite 2009, The IceHotel

Perhaps this lovely chamber was smaller, so you only have the illusion of furniture. As difficult as it is to create effective trompe l’oeil, imagine how it was to sculpt it! Mikael Nille Nilsson and Sofi Ruotsalainen of Sweden accomplished it marvelously. Look at the reflection of the window sill on the floor. It looks so 3-dimensional.

11. Broken Surface, Guest Suite 2009, The IceHotel

David Andrén and Daniel of Ampersand, Swedish designers, create a brilliant illusion of light and layers in the Broken Surface, a wonderful spot for contemplation.

12. Get Bad, Guest Suite 2009, The IceHotel

There are many travel specials to this adventure in the Artic. The IceHotel even has conference and even facilities… some heated. And if you are staying at the IceHotel, bring the warmest undergarments and clothing; the hotel will supply your outerwear! Cool?

10 amazing buildings made of dirt and straw

The Three Little Pigs have nothing on these digs. Ancient technique and modern groove set these structures apart from the little hillside boxes filling our neighborhoods. There are no cookie-cutter house plans here. Just clean, green, natural buildings smoothed from dirt, straw, clay, and loads of ingenuity. No Big Bad Wolf will blow these down.

1. Hollyhock house mimicks Devon UK styles, on Cortes Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Cob, as this style of construction is known, has been used by crafty home-builders as far back as the 11th century. Evidence of these ultra-stable, fire-resistant structures has been found in North Africa, the Middle East, and, most commonly, Devon, Wales, and Cornwall in the United Kingdom. Earthen home-building gained resurgence in the late 1990's, in England and Ireland, and has become all the rage in Canada's British Columbia, displayed in exhibitions and neighborhood streets alike.

2. Won't have to worry about tracking dirt into this Baja Mexico lounge. It's there on purpose.

A 2007 family home, measuring 2,150 ft2, fitted with solar power and sub-floor heating ran a mere $210,000 CAD (112,000 GBP), making cob construction one of the most economical means of home-building, in addition to being among the most ethical. Impressive stats in these wild economic times, and positioning this rustic style of design at the forefront of charitable efforts to house the poor.

3. Smooth and groovy, a micro-house on display at Stanley Park, British Columbia.

Perhaps these Hobbit-esque homes are the wave of the future. Customizable and conservation-minded, earthen materials are the few things this planet has, in spades.

4. Natural minimalism at it's best in a green-built family home.

5. Just look for Wilma Flintstone scrubbing up in this South African kitchen.
6. A wood-stove cobworks kitchen pays homage to pioneer days, with a modern flare.

7. Praise the lord and pass the bong in this righteous meditation circle.

8. It seems awfully easy to be green if you have digs like this house on Mayne Island, Canada.
9. Country corn-cob motif seems somehow appropriate on this little cob-built tool shed.
10. There is no limit to the shapes and functionalities of cob house design.