ARCTIC HOTEL

YAC – Young Architects Competitions –launches ARCTIC HOTEL, a competition of ideas for the design of accommodation facilities combining hospitality and unspoiled nature and offering a unique experience for the observation of the Aurora Borealis.

The cash prize of € 15, 000 will be distributed to the winning proposals selected by an international jury panel made of, among the others: Angelo Micheli (AMDL Circle), Rodrigo Duque Motta, Nicodemos Tsolakis (Kyriakos Tsolakis Architects), Lukas Rungger (noa*), Mario Cucinella, Dagur Eggertsson (Rintala Eggertsson Architects), Hesselberg Foged (Effekt).

> BRIEF

Some places may seem straight out of a fairy tale, bu they exist in the real world. In some places, a blend of legends, landscapes, memories, creates something that cannot be described in words: something humans perceive but cannot express, something science explains but does not own.

Rovaniemi is one of those places.

Capital of Finnish Lapland, Rovaniemi is one among the few cities within the world located at a couple of kilometres from the Arctic Circle: legacy of individuals with colourful clothes and special traditions, reindeer farmers and sleigh builders. Rovaniemi may be a place made from snow, perpetual dawns and dusks, and it’s home to the dancing lights that shine within the sky during cold winter nights – the northern lights .

Home to Santa Claus- the Scandinavian myth that conquered the planet through tales and folklore, the town of Rovaniemi had been considered inaccessible and remote for many of its history. Until last century, when it became the destination for visitors and tourists, who wanted to feel its magic and see the fascinating aurora borealis . Today Rovaniemi is not any longer a prerogative of expert travellers and explorers, and new hospitality models are necessary so as to guard the remote identity of this land. An identity that’s characterized by primitive beauty and harmony, and inaccessibility and therefore the absence of humans greatly contributed to its shaping.

How can we make places like this accessible, as inaccessibility may be a key a part of their charm? What quite accommodation facilities can combine hospitality and unspoilt nature?

This is the challenge of Arctic Hotel, the competition organized by YAC and Rovaniemi to make an area where people can experience the foremost authentic North, respecting its isolation and magic.

On Ounasvaara Hill, overlooking one among the foremost remote bases ever built, architects will have the chance to imagine a structure that blends with the forest, the snow and therefore the sky. an area where visitors can find shelter from the freezing temperatures of the Arctic Circle , gather around a fireplace , and luxuriate in the rarest and most mysterious spectacle of nature: the northern lights .