It might be the coldest hotel in the world, but one look at the Icehotel’s Tron room and you probably won’t care.
Staying in a hotel made of ice must be a pretty unique experience, but you have to assume that staying in a suite inspired by the movie Tron would add a certain something to the experience for the adventurous, and geeky, traveller.
The “Legacy of the River” room is part of the Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi in the Swedish part of Lapland. The hotel is constructed entirely out of ice, and thus melts away each year as temperatures rise. As part of the 21st Icehotel, designers Ben Rousseau and architect Ian Douglas-Jones designed and constructed a room based around the cult sci-fi movie Tron and its upcoming sequel. The pair etched channels into blocks of clear ice, and then laid glowing blue cables into the channels in order to replicate the look of the movie. So not to be wasteful, the lights take very little energy and are run on sustainable energy sources.
The pair had to wear special insulated suits as they shaped the ice with chainsaws and chisels in the freezing arctic temperatures,. “We are massive Tron fans,” Rousseau said in a statement about the project. “The entire film is a complete fantasy for us both with its high-tech and futuristic design.”
Aside from looking simply amazing, what makes this room extra special is that it has a very limited shelf life, and probably won’t be around in six months time. The average temperature in the hotel is about -5°C. or 23°F., and a room at the Icehotel costs at least four hundred and fifty dollars a night. The company that runs the hotel doesn’t recommend a prolonged stay in such chilly accommodation however, and suggests travelers limit their visit to just one night.
Source: Wired
Published: Dec 9, 2010 01:51 pm