Harbin Ice Hotel / LAVA

By:  | February - 3 - 2014

LAVA, iceberg, ice city, north china, china, hotel, retail, harbin, transparent, ice, digital fabrication

Icebergs and quartz crystal are the design inspiration for a new hotel, retail and cultural center by LAVA. The clash of fire and ice in a dramatic lobby contrasts the electro light transparent facade. Icebergs, quartz crystal formations and elegant swans are the design inspiration for a new hotel, retail and cultural center in Harbin. The tenth largest city in China is a key political, economic, scientific, cultural and communications hub in the North China.

Known as the ‘Ice City’, it is renowned for its annual international Ice and Snow Sculpture festival. The combination of Han, Manchu and Russian cultures influences the local architecture style, food, music, and customs. A new re-development, ‘Ice Hotel’, is a dynamic clash of fire and ice, with a dramatic crystalline lobby that draws the user into a warm, cave-like interior. The visitor moves from the perceptually ‘cold’ exterior of a transparent facade and vertical linear iceberg geometry. The grouping of several crystal-shaped buildings adds to this drama.

LAVA explores frontiers that merge future technologies with the patterns of organization found in nature and believes this will result in a smarter, friendlier, more socially and environmentally responsible future.The potential for naturally evolving systems such as snowflakes, spider webs and soap bubbles for new building typologies and structures has continued to fascinate LAVA – the geometries in nature create both efficiency and beauty. But above all the human is the center of their investigations.

LAVA combines digital workflow, nature’s structural principles and the latest digital fabrication technologies with the aim of achieving MORE WITH LESS: more (architecture) with less (material/ energy/time/cost).

LAVA, iceberg, ice city, north china, china, hotel, retail, harbin, transparent, ice, digital fabrication

LAVA, iceberg, ice city, north china, china, hotel, retail, harbin, transparent, ice, digital fabrication

LAVA, iceberg, ice city, north china, china, hotel, retail, harbin, transparent, ice, digital fabrication

LAVA, iceberg, ice city, north china, china, hotel, retail, harbin, transparent, ice, digital fabrication

Leave a Reply