In Swedish Lapland, a hotel is born each winter and disappears with the spring thaw. Icehotel began in Jukkasjärvi after founder Yngve Bergqvist invited artists to build an ice exhibition on the frozen Torne River in 1989. Visitors eventually slept inside the temporary structure, turning an art experiment into lodging with a scheduled melting date.

Each cold season, crews harvest river ice and combine snow with ice particles to make a strong building material called snice. It is sprayed over forms to create self-supporting corridors and rooms. Invited artists then carve individual suites, furniture and sculptures, so the seasonal hotel is never rebuilt as an exact copy of the previous one. The raw material is stored through summer in an insulated ice warehouse for the next construction cycle.

When temperatures rise, the temporary section does not need a demolition crew. Walls soften, sculptures lose their edges and meltwater returns to the Torne River. Icehotel now also operates a permanent solar-cooled building, but the original seasonal ritual continues beside it. A normal hotel fights water damage; this one finishes every stay by becoming water again.