Lapland University’s Faculty of Art & Design with Rovaniemi University of Applied Sciences displayed its expertise in a unique design event and fought the minus degrees outside. Lapland Snow Design Project constructed a snow and ice environment in the middle of the Rovaniemi City centre to a raised parking garage and created an unprecedented event displaying light, sound, projections, shapes and clothing design in Arctic conditions. The venue called “Arctic Snow Room” was open from the 18^th to 26^th of February.

The space was a not heated two level parking garage and site constructed snow domes. It consisted of downstairs area with snow sculptures by Steiner School students to perform as a children play area. One snow dome created an exhibition space for ice-replicas of Finnish design. The other two domes were occupied with snow and ice sculptures, sound design and projections as well as lighting. The whole area was realized by an international group of students on a “Snow Ice Media Expression“, SIME course. On top floor there was a continuous exhibition of snow wall designs and a small auditorium for 200 people made of snow. There was a snow slide connecting the top floor to the biggest dome.

“SIME “ Course students made a huge job in finalizing this all in just a one week. During the Design week there was two KAAMOS ON/OFF open air fashion shows by the faculty of Art and Design and several film screenings by Flatlight Films. Lighting to the fashion show was designer and realized by another group of Finnish students.

The challenges to lighting was to make sure we had the right equipment and IP- rating for the space. We chose LED lights to prevent the heating and the domes to melt down unexpectedly. LEDs were also used open air and then we were to make sure we cleaned all the snow off them so heavy snowfall (average during the week 10cm a day) did not block the light. For fashion show we used the normal theatre lighting equipment since it was easier to focus off the snow walls for projections and the length of the show was 40min. Unfortunately the fashion show challenge was the lighting board that froze and the students had to run the lights straight from the dimmer set.

Where: Rovaniemi, Finland

Who: University Of Lapland (Lapland Snow Design- project and Faculty of Arts), Rovaniemi University of Applied Sciences, Rovaniemi Art school, Rudolf Steiner School of Rovaniemi

Why: Rovaniemi Design Week 2012, part of Helsinki Design Capital 2012 cooperation

Sponsors: City Hotel, Business and Regional Development Agency of the City of Rovaniemi, BRP Finland, Flatlight Films

Teachers: Coordinator/Snow Constructions designer/Snow and Ice scuptures- Antti-Jussi Yliharju FIN, Snow Construction assistent/Coordinator- Reija Arnberg FIN, Snow and Ice scuptures– Antti Stöckel FIN, Esther Dorsman NED, Lighting- Katja Muttilainen FIN, Media/Coordination- Annamari Manninen FIN, Sound- Vesa Tuisku FIN

Lighting group students: Tomi Teppo FIN, Jonne Katainen FIN, Linus Schaaf GER, Xin Bao JPN, Luiz de Mello Ferreira BRA

Fashion show lighting group students, all FIN: Reetta Kerola, Katri Konttinen, Karoliina Heikkinen, Katri Kaarto, Eeva Siekkinen

More information:

http://www.ulapland.fi/InEnglish.iw3

http://www.ramk.fi/en

http://lapland-snow-design.blogspot.com/

http://www.rovaniemenkehitys.fi/In_English.iw3

http://www.flatlightfilms.com/

Photo link http://www.flickr.com/photos/iirorautiainen/6895483643/in/set-72157629367555103/

All photos by Iiro Rautiainen (copyright) , photos from making off, venue, light focusing for fashion show, fashion show rehearsals, and fashion show.

Another link to fashion show photos here http://markusvertanen.blogspot.com/2012/02/kaamos-onoff-fashion-show.html , copyright Markus Vertainen.