Inside Sweden’s new floating hotel

A good vacation is an escape from the everyday and this upcoming resort in the Swedish Lapland, couldn’t be further from normal life – it’s literally floating on a river in the middle of nowhere.

ArcticBath is a new hotel adrift on the Lule River in the Scandinavian north – a glacial haven of snow-tipped forests, world-class fishing, amazing wildlife and the Northern Lights.

The resort is from the team behind the region’s acclaimed Treehotel – the quirky brainchild of owners Britta and Kent Lindvall, situated amongst the forest canopy.

ArcticBath will offer a similar mix of luxury and nature – inspired by the wild, stunning Swedish surroundings.

Homegrown ethos

The unusual design of ArcticBath has a homegrown history.

“You don’t have to copy things made elsewhere, it’s not interesting,” says ArcticBath articitect Bertil Harström – who worked on the project alongside Johan Kauppi. “I think the interesting things come from your own history and your background.”

Bertil Harström tells CNN Travel that the zany design is inspired by Swedish log-shipping traditions.

Until the mid-20th century, logs were transporting along Swedish waterways. En route, the timber would often get stuck on the rapids and form clusters of floating logs.

The architect recalled this image from his childhood – and it became his main inspiration for the new design.

“It was a symbol for that era,” Harström says. “So I chose to build this idea around the connection to the forest in the north.”

The resulting circular structure is a striking combination of man-made and natural influences.

“I don’t call myself a sophisticated intellectual architect designer, I work with more conceptual structures,” says Harström.

Internal and external

Courtesy Daniel J. Allen

Wild at heart: Ringed by the Arctic Circle and bordered by Norway, Finland and the Baltic Sea, Swedish Lapland extends across the top quarter of Sweden.

Courtesy Daniel J. Allen

Those summer nights: Swedish Lapland is one of the best spots to see the Northern Lights, and is glorious in the summer.

Courtesy Daniel J. Allen

Wildlife: Even for Swedes, this is a remote place, perfect for spotting wildlife such as lynx.

Courtesy Daniel J. Allen

Indigenous culture: Activities such as hunting, intensive forestry and mining in Swedish Lapland have all had a negative impact on regional ecosystems, with a knock-on effect on the livelihoods of many local people.

Courtesy Daniel J. Allen

Rewilding Lapland: This is where Rewilding Lapland, part of Rewilding Europe, a pan-European organization working to make Europe a wilder place by restoring natural habitats and their indigenous species.

Courtesy Daniel J. Allen

How it works: By generating incomes from activities such as wildlife-watching and other nature and culture-based activities, the rewilding process is based on both economic and environmental drivers.

Courtesy Daniel J. Allen

Back to nature: Rewilding Europe is setting up rewilding-focused vacations in Swedish Lapland through the newly established European Safari Company.

Courtesy Daniel J. Allen

Nature economy: "There are huge opportunities to develop a nature and culture-based economy in Swedish Lapland," says Landstrom.

Courtesy Daniel J. Allen

Alternative future: "At Rewilding Lapland we want to show how this is a far better alternative than relying on resource-extractive industries such as forestry and mining," Landstrom says.

The resort is home to six, 25-square-meter hotel rooms alongside saunas, a cold plunge pool, spa treatment rooms, a restaurant and bar and the central open-air bath.

Visitors will access the resort from a wooden walkway.

“You can say that the building is rather introvert, the focus is on the inside,” says Harström. “So if you see it from a distance, you will have some problems to guess what is inside.”

During winter, the resort will be frozen into the ice. During the summer it’ll be floating in the river.

The center of the bath will offer spectacular panoramas of the Swedish night sky above.

“It’s not a traditional façade in architecture,” says Harström, who also worked on one of the treehouses for the nearby TreeHotel. “I think TreeHotel prepared the world for ArcticBath as the next project.”

Local community

Harström says locals in the nearby village of Harads have been very encouraging about the project, especially after the success of TreeHotel:

“They are confident now […] that it will be something good for society,” says Harström.

The designers and owners are also conscious of protecting the environment – as well as providing an excellent tourist experience. Harström says their ambitions are supported by the local government.

“They have been positive, and now we have all the papers that we need for starting up the building process,” explains Harström.

ArcticBath is due to open in the latter half of 2018.