From day one, Polestar has made a concerted effort to stand out among the competitively crowded EV segment. The brand’s stable of minimalist-modern vehicles have silently blazed their own aesthetic route; each Polestar model is easily identifiable even at a glance from the herds of similarly sculpted silhouettes of other brands, electric or otherwise. Add Polestar’s commitment toward achieving closed circle sustainability and engineering industry-leading safety, and you’ve got one of the most compelling automotive brands associated with the future of electric vehicles.
Polestar’s effort to stand from the crowd has also been expressed with numerous projects distinct, yet complementary to the brand. Last year Polestar commissioned artist Thijs Biersteker to help lead in the creation of the interactive We Harvest Wind, an installation inspired by Polestar’s LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) data spotlighting “information about emissions from materials production, manufacturing, how the type of electricity used when charging affects use phase emissions, and so on.” Suffice to say, the brand isn’t hesitant to use design in a multitude of mediums to further communicate the values and motivations behind their ethos.
While Biersteker’s kinetic polymer sculpture might be perceived more as a conceptual exercise, the brand’s latest showroom doesn’t require all too much explanation. It’s simply cool. Cold even.
Constructed in Rovaniemi, Finland by Frozen Innovation in a collaborative effort between Polestar and the Arctic Design Week, the Polestar Space stands as a 12-meter-high cube with 2-meter-thick walls of ice, an Arctic Circle showroom supplemented by ice sculptures of Polestar parts carved by local artists. You can even take a car out on a test drive around an Arctic Circle course.
The city of Rovaniemi is known for its wonderful design. We wanted to honor this by creating a beautiful work that was inspired by our brand’s minimalistic and pure design language. The choice of building material was easy due to the location and our desire to use circular materials: of course, it had to be built from snow.
– Polestar Finland’s Marketing Manager Martin Österberg
Despite its rectilinear architecture, the Polestar Space was conceived as the epitome of circular material design, built with snow and ice, materials in great abundance in the city located just 6 miles south of the Arctic Circle. The Snow Space took approximately 20 days to build with 3,000 cubic meters of snow sourced and transported by electric trucks from the nearby Ounasvaara ski resort.
While Polestar could conceivably close the loop by simply allowing the Snow Space to slowly merge back into the snowy landscape, the showroom is planned to be deconstructed and returned to grace the landscape from where it was sourced after the Arctic Circle Space closes its polar doors in late February.
