Lately, I’ve seen several articles about the Saab “Move Your Mind” display at the Icehotel in Sweden. It features a full size ice sculpture of a Saab concept car, the Aero X, which appears to be driving through the wall of the hotel. One article was clever enough to point out that you DEFINITELY don’t want to use antifreeze in this car! Saab has released four main photos of the ice car and one of the photos gives clues as to how they achieved such a clean look for the sculpture. If you look at the second photo in the gallery, you can see that the car is composed of layers, front to back. This indicated to me that they might have used a CNC machine to make the car and a later discovery almost completely confirmed it. Saab posted a video about the display (click “Watch Film” or download a movie at the bottom) on their website that shows part of the assembly process in fast motion. The sculpture was indeed assembled in layers from the back of the car to the front. The video also shows the carvers shaping a large slab of ice before it’s added to the car. However, there’s an obvious CNC-type line cut into the slab, and it becomes clear that the carver isn’t shaping the slab as much as he’s or she’s just getting rid of excess ice around the line. Now it appears that the CNC machine would have to be larger than the norm, but perhaps the CNC used is not usually used for ice. It looks as though they’re using the natural Icehotel ice though, because there’s a large fracture in one of the slabs. Either way, the process suggests a somewhat novel way to create large 3D ice pieces with a CNC. (The technical term for the process is “Layered Object Manufacturing” and it’s used for the rapid prototyping of large models out of foam or other materials.)

    Saab’s relationship with the Icehotel isn’t new and they’ve created ice/car displays before. As an “ice experience” you could also take a Saab for a spin on some icy roads (apparently, special training is included).

    Finally, perhaps they’ll have fixed it by the time you read it, but as of Feb. 14, In an article titled “Saab opens brand installation in world's only ice hotel,” reliableplant.com claims that the icy Saab Aero is “Housed within the one and only hotel made of ice, the ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden.” To the contrary, the Icehotel isn’t even the only ice hotel in Europe, with other hotels in Norway and Romania. Certainly Icehotel is the original and the biggest name, but Quebec’s ice hotel can’t be ignored and from what I’ve heard, you CAN stay overnight in the hotel/museum at Chena Hot Springs, near Fairbanks, AK (see bed photo at top). Oh well; reliableplant.com has proven itself a little unreliable, but ice doesn’t seem to be their specialty anyway...