Suite 301 Ice Installation

Full description

RESEARCH BACKGROUND This project was one of nine included in an inaugural international design competition to design and construct a hotel suite in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, in December 2005. The proposal involved the construction of a back-lit, undulating wall that described a surface based on a recent photograph of Antarctica taken from space. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION In collaboration with Lucas Ihlein, Stuart Harrison's project used a load-bearing masonry system (ice blocks) to produce a stable, three-dimensional wall surface. This was initially tested through digital and physical modelling, as well as complex modelling, to establish the centre of gravity of the total mass. The horizontal contours were derived by software that generates 'heights' from tonal variations in the image. This formed many varying profiles for the wall surface which were translated as 1:5 'shop' drawings that were taken to Sweden. The profiles were then manually translated onto 37 profiles of ice blocks, hand-cut with a chainsaw and assembled. A cavity behind the ice wall allowed for backlighting, to illuminate the changing contours. The suite design is progressive in many ways: it debuted the use of computer-generated imagery to visualise a scheme for the Ice Hotel; it was also the first instance in which that process was used to manually realise a digital design in ice. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE The 2005-06 Ice Hotel designs featured in international television and press. The scheme was published in the accompanying exhibition catalogue, and was then presented at invited lectures: Sydney Gallery, Surry Hills, NSW (Jan 2006); RAIA Process talks (March 2006); and at RMIT (June 2006). The project developed new techniques for 'ice sculpture' and these were presented to fellow artists in the project.