Polestar, the sporty, electric spinoff of Swedish company Volvo opened a new showroom in the Arctic Circle. If it wasn't cold enough north of 66-degrees latitude, the showroom is made of snow. The Polestar Space in Rovaniemi, Finland is a temporary installation that will only be open until February 26.
The gathering space was built buy Frozen Innovations, whose specialty is to plan, design and execute these types of winter climate solutions for entertainment purposes.
The 39-foot-high cube building was inspired by the Scandinavian design of the Polestar headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden. It resides in Kansalaistori square surrounded by classic buildings created by Finnish designer Alvar Aalto.
Smaller brand Polestar specializes in these pop up spaces with more 130 of them worldwide. Snow Space is the second one in Finland and took about 20 days to build.
"We have built around 50 different snow and ice installations the last 15 years, including hotels, bars and even a small castle. But never a cube! We have used around 3,000 cubic meters of snow from the local Ounasvaara ski resort for the construction," Frozen Innovations CEO Taavi Heikkila said in a press release.
"One cubic meter weighs almost 800 kilograms, so it is almost as compact as ice, stomped/packed by skiers. Inside the cube we have made a dome shape in the roof to make the construction strong. In total five people have spent 6 weeks on this project, with approximately 3 weeks of construction."
First it covered the base area with a protective snow layer. Next it put of wood and steel molds for both the outside and inside walls. The company added snow to the molds and compacted it, then added layers before removing the molds. It then carved in the details and finishing touches.
Inside the 6-foot-thick walls is a Polestar 2 electric vehicle featuring Android Auto with Google Maps, surrounded by some of its parts crafted in ice. Noting the circular nature of recycling during Arctic Design week in Rovaniemi, the snow will be sent back to the ski resort after the event ends.
"The city of Rovaniemi is known for its wonderful design. We wanted to honor this by creating a beautiful work that was inspired by our brand's minimalistic and pure design language. The choice of building material was easy due to the location and our desire to use circular materials: of course, it had to be built from snow," says Polestar Finland's Marketing Manager Martin Österberg in a press release.
"The purpose of Arctic Design Week is to highlight the arctic and responsible design. We are happy that this message was brought to Rovaniemi in the form of Snow Space and that the work turned out to be so spectacular," says Taina Torvela, producer of the Arctic Design Week and design manager of the city of Rovaniemi, also in a release.
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Jake Lingeman is the Managing Editor for the Autos team at Newsweek. He has previously worked for Autoweek, The Detroit ... Read more
