Lumen Aureus

Spatial design

The Ice Church of ICEHOTEL #20 in Sweden was built again by Dutch designers Marjolein Vonk and Marinus Vroom in collaboration with ICEHOTEL founder Åke Larsson.

By Editor Design.nl / 28-02-2010

For the 2009/10 edition of the ICEHOTEL Sweden, Dutch designers returned again to build parts of the hotel.

For this 20th edition, long-standing contributors Marjolein Vonk and Marinus Vroom designed the Ice Church in collaboration with ICEHOTEL founder and ice-architect Åke Larsson.

The Ice Church titled ‘Lumen Aureus’, pays homage to the tradition of gilding, and daylight illumination through stained glass in medieval Christian churches. Gold leaf is here used to transform the natural light into a warm reflective glow. A substantial amount of clear ice is used in the design, with both end walls to the vault which is entirely transparent. Fourteen ice pews, rotated to focus on the alter space, serve this ethereal congregation. A clear, sky-blue ice cross in the barrel-vaulted ceiling is suspended over the chancel.

Each year, international artists and designers are invited to design hotel suites and installations at the hotel located 200km north of the Arctic Circle in Jukkasjärvi. Built from snow and ice, The ICEHOTEL exists only temporarily each winter from December until March, depending on the weather. Every year, around 150 brave couples opt to exchange their vows in the breathtakingly surreal frozen church. In the spring, the frozen water palace melts back into the River Torne from which the building 'materials' originated.

See Marjolein Vonk and Marinus Vroom's work on last year's ICEHOTEL church here.

Photography: BEN NILSSON/BIG BEN PRODUCTIONS. Artists: Åke Larsson, Marjoleine Vonk and Marnius Vroom. Sweden, The Netherlands.