Rule 1: Heavy building materials should not be transported over long distances.
Rule 2: Shelter should only be there when necessary.
Rule 3: Transience provides a sensation of rebirth.
This is exactly what the Finnish firm SnowHow Ltd. does. It was founded in 1997 by architect Kimmo Kuismanen and engineer Seppo Mäkinen. Ice and snow have been in use for building huts and sculpting for a long time, but these two entrepreneurs wanted to systematically explore the architectural qualities and structural properties of frozen water. Kuismanen: 'Our aim is to bring building art to snow building.'
And so they do. Every year a hotel, chapel and exhibition halls, 3500 square meters of it, is erected in Jukkasjärvi in northern Sweden. The construction method is up to date and patented. It is based on shooting snow on steel molds in the shape of early gothic arches. After the snow has set in a few days the mold is moved to the next position, and so on. In this way long tunnels are shaped. The roof is supported by ice columns made of segments drilled out of a nearby river.
It is becoming a tourist attraction - there are already more like it - and a peculiar one too. The outside of snow and ice buildings can hardly be discerned within a polar landscape. No, snow architecture, more than any other kind, is a matter of experiencing interiors. And it's cold inside. Body heat is not capable of raising the temperature any higher than 5 Centigrade below zero. This is a temperature of keeping on the move to stay warm, and not one of contemplation. Paradoxically this is exactly what one would prefer to do, because of the special way in which the ice treats light.
In spring the experience comes to a slow end, when every penny invested in the hotel construction just beautifully melts away, to be continued next winter.
(excerpt from the book Trespassers; inspirations for eco-efficient design www.amazon.com)