Sweden's ICEHOTEL Adds Comfort & Beauty to Wiinter

The weather in New York City has been brutal this winter. The snow and ice makes traveling tedious at the very least and hazardous at its worst. But there are some days where you don’t have to go anywhere and can just sit inside with a mug of hot coffee and admire how the city looks, still, quiet, white and frozen over. It can be very beautiful and serene. It puts me in mind of an ice hotel,
where winter is celebrated and visitors can stay warm and cozy even surrounded by the cold.

Ice hotels are temporary resorts for tourists, built from ice and snow on top of steel beams, held together with a combination of snow and ice called “snice” which acts as a jointing agent like mortar. Probably the most famous of these is ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden which is the largest in the world encompassing over 5500 square meters. Each room is completely unique and created by two designers and a huge construction team. They are all beautiful in their own way and have an amazing amount of detail in the overall design.

Main Hall by Sofi Ruotsalainen by Mats Nille Nilsson & Lena Kriström, Sweden

Royal Delux Suite by Marinus Vroom & Marjolein Vonk, The Netherlands.

Art Deco Suite by Tomasz Czajkowski & Eryk Marks, Poland

Flow Suite by Liliya Pobornikova & Viktor Tsarski, Bulgary

All photos © Leif Milling.

If you’re interested in booking a room at ICEHOTEL, learning more about their fascinating history and building process, or seeing more of these beautiful photos, visit their website.

IIDA Shows Us the Future of Design

February 6th & 16th mark important final deadlines for the 38th Annual IIDA (International Interior Design Association) Interior Design Competition. The IIDA focuses on finding new talent and helping seasoned professionals nurture those are just starting out and acts as an advocate for legal issues that arise in the field.

The goal of The Interior Design Competition, according to the call for entry:

To recognize and reward outstanding interior design, and to encourage new ideas and techniques in the design and furnishing of interior spaces.

The winners will be published in Design Magazine and are archived on IIDA.org. 
Click the image below to view a slide show of the 2010 winners. 

It’s fascinating to be able to have a sneak peek at the new ideas trends in interior design and how they’ll shape the future. What’s even more important in the future of design is making it sustainable and environmentally friendly. Winners were recently announced for the Student Sustainable Design Competition, also from IIDA. They had a record number of entries in 2010 - nearly 3 times as many as the year before! The Grand Prize went to Katie Barons, Amanda Martin and Richard Abi Saab of New York School of Interior Design for “Fashion Showroom at One Bryant Park” which utilizes natural light to help keep down cooling and heating costs through unique angles that take in less light and warmth in the summer when the sun is high and more in the winter when the sun is lower. The floorboards would be made of organic bamboo and many areas will be decorated by arrangements of natural moss that will thrive in a self-sustained manner.

You can view the full design, as well as the other winners by clicking on  the image below.

Keep your eyes on other IIDA competitions to see the future of design happen right in front of them!