Sweden

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Design

A Floating Hotel with Aurora Views Just Opened on a Frozen River in Sweden

After 16 months of construction, a spa hotel built on the Lule River in the northern province of Lapland Sweden is now open to travelers. Called Arctic Bath, the 12-room hotel features six elevated land cabins and six cabins that float when the river thaws. In the center is a circular structure with saunas, hot baths around the perimeter, and a large ice bath at its core.

For the buoyant rooms and main structure, architects Bertil Harström and Johan Kauppi took design inspiration from timber floating methods used by loggers to transport felled trees downriver. The land cabins were designed by Ann Kathrin Lundqvist with glass walls that provide guests with unobstructed views of the surrounding Swedish landscape. In addition to experiencing the unique architecture, visitors have access to various spa and wellness treatments, chef-prepared meals, and activities including yoga, dogsledding, bear watching, and cross country skiing.

“The Arctic Bath really is a first—it’s a special spa experience,” Lundqvist said in a statement. “So much thought, engineering and ingenuity have come together to provide visitors with an experience they can’t find anywhere else.” Reservations for the hotel are now open, with rates starting at 9600 Swedish Krona (just more than $1,000 U.S. dollars), and dates available between February 2020 and February 2021.

Design

A Mirrored Golden Egg Sauna is Hatched in Sweden

Architects Bigert & Bergstrom recently unveiled Solar Egg, an egg-shaped wood-burning sauna that can seat up to 8 people. The project is part of an urban redevelopment effort lead by developer Riksbyggen in the northernmost city in Sweden called Kiruna. Standing 16 feet (5m) tall, the eye-catching egg is comprised of a pine wood interior and highly reflective gold plated steel panels that reflect the environment surrounding the sauna. In the center rests a heart-shaped sauna stove cast from iron. From Bigert & Bergstrom:

In the arctic climate of Lapland the sauna occupies a key position, as a room for warmth and reflection. B&B have taken up this tradition and developed a sculptural symbol that prompts thoughts of rebirth and an incubator that nurtures conversation and exchanges of ideas. The project is a continuation of the artist’s strategy to incorporate the climate into the experience of the artwork which was initiated with the Climate Chambers in 1994.

When not in use, Solar Egg can be broken down into 69 separate components which can be reassembled elsewhere, rendering the entire sauna completely mobile. You can learn more about Solar Egg here. (via Contemporist)

Design

Observe the Aurora Borealis From Snøhetta’s Swedish Treetop Cabin

Gazing up, the first thing you notice when viewing the 33-foot tall cabin, The 7th Room, is its base, an aluminum covering featuring black and white images of the pine trees that surround the structure. Used as camouflage, this exterior panel immerses the treetop cabin into its environment, blurring the boundaries between the building and forest. Designed by architecture firm Snøhetta, the structure is also intended to bring visitors closer to nature, built with a suspended net at its center, and several floor-to-ceiling windows that allow for multiple viewpoints of the Aurora Borealis overhead.

The 7th Room is one of seven cabins available through northern Sweden’s Treehotel. You can view the other six cabins that compose the alternative hotel, like The Mirror Cube, on their website. (via Designboom)

Illustration

Simon Stålenhag’s Retro Sci-Fi Images of a Dystopian Swedish Countryside Published In Two New Books

Across the backdrop of an expansive retro-Scandinavian landscape, Swedish illustrator Simon Stålenhag has spent the last few years imagining a world of science fiction inhabited by roaming mech robots, dinosaurs, and other technological innovations plopped right onto the Swedish countryside. The digitally painted images spread far and wide across the internet over the last few years, capturing the imagination of legions of fantasy and sci-fi fans who clamoured for comic books and even a feature film. For now, we’ll have to make do with old-fashioned art books.

Stålenhag and Free League Publishing just announced a Kickstarter project for two new books featuring Stålenhag’s dystopian vision of the future that will pair illustrations with short stories written in English. You can explore many more illustrations on his website (just start scrolling), and some are available as individual prints.