A snowflake-shaped building floats beneath a green sky, with water reflecting its bright outline. The Krystall hotel concept brought two attractive ideas together: unusual architecture and the possibility of watching the northern lights from indoors.
The Krystall concept and its 2016 opening target
The project was publicised for waters near Tromsø, with an opening target of 2016 in the original coverage. That announcement is not evidence that the hotel opened. This image is an architectural rendering, and this feature does not present the proposal as accommodation currently available to book.
A glass roof makes the sky part of the room’s design, but the indoor view would depend on more than the outline of the building. Reflections from interior lighting, the position of the glazing and the weather outside would all affect the experience. These are useful questions for understanding the concept, even without a completed hotel to assess.
What a glass-roofed room might change
Watching from somewhere warm is appealing; the weather still decides what is visible. For an actual destination overview, explore Tromsø in winter. For another proposed outdoor design that deserves the same distinction between illustration and delivered product, revisit the solar-tent concept. The architectural idea remains interesting even though the announced opening date does not establish that it was completed.
The proposed rooms and the images behind the idea
The historical proposal described an 86-room floating hotel near Tromsø, with a glass roof and interiors intended to echo the futuristic exterior. Hallways, a fireplace, meeting spaces and a spa appeared in the old description. Those design elements give the concept substance beyond its memorable outline.
The gallery combines two different kinds of image. The Waterstudio and Dutch Docklands rendering illustrates the proposed hotel; the aurora photographs credited to Tommy Eliassen / Barcroft Media and the accompanying source illustrate the phenomenon that inspired it. The latter do not show a view taken from a completed Krystall room. Keeping that distinction in mind makes the collection easier to enjoy: one set of images explores an architectural idea, while the others show why looking up at the northern sky is such an appealing part of the proposal.
Sources, photography and further reading
Original feature and image attributions:
- Tommy Eliassen / Barcroft Media
- tntmagazine.com
- Huffington Post
- Life Buzz
- Dazzling Displays of Aurora Borealis Dance Across the Night Sky
- The Best 10 Places to See the Magnificent Northern Lights!
- The Arctic Light, A Really Amazing Video
- Amazing Northern Lights - Aurora Borealis over Norway, Alaska and from Space
- Tromsø in winter
- the solar-tent concept
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