Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

This paper constitutes graduate work at the landscape
architecture program at the Department of Urban
and Rural Development at the Swedish University of
Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala. The main purpose of this
paper is to create a project from an idea to reality. The
place for the project is the environment of Icehotel in
Jukkasjärvi in the north of Sweden. Icehotel is a unique
hotel concept and each winter a hotel, a church and a
bar is built at the area of only ice and snow, and each
spring it all melts down and returns to the Torne river.
During the project a plan for the environment, in ice and
snow, will be made and then a part of it will be built in
January 2010. The purpose is to improve the outdoor
environment with landscape architecture to enhance the
experience of Icehotel and create an exciting entrance to
the area. During the project the whole process will be
documented and evaluated.

Icehotel is a very interesting area with many qualities but
through different analyses many needs were discovered.
With this knowledge I put together a vision for the
project. The goal of the vision was to solve the needs and
use the qualities. The biggest needs were to connect the
important places, to enhance the main path, to make the
entrance to the area clearer and more exciting and to
hide the constructing area and its buildings. There was
also a need to give the whole environment a structured
expression. Through sketching and working with various
kinds of models I created a concept and then a master
plan before I travelled to Jukkasjärvi I January.

During one and a half week I worked with building my
proposal outside the reception at the entrance to the
whole area and next to the Ice church and the Icehotel.
The work was fun, giving and challenging.

When the project at Icehotel was finished I investigated
if I had succeeded with the goals I had put up for the
area. I believe that my project has a meaning for the
experience of the outdoor environment at Icehotel. The
shapes I created frame and enhance the experience of
Icehotel by creating a contrast, leading the views and the
movements of the visitors.

I have learnt a lot during the project; I have improved
my creative process, learnt to use my creativity better, to
communicate my ideas better and to use the strengths
with a good concept and improved my self-confidence in
my creating. I hope that my work at Icehotel can inspire
others to work with landscape architecture in new ways
and to use the possibilities there are with ice and snow.