Polish entry wins architectural ideas competiton for Santa Claus snow museum

The entry Re-Ice, submitted by Hanna Galas from Poland, has been chosen as winner of the The Unbelievable Challenge 2021 ideas competition. The winner will receive a six-month fully paid internship at the internationally acclaimed architect workshop WXCA in Warsaw, Poland.

The task of the competition, which started on September 15, 2021, was to design a snow museum on a plot in a prime location in the City of Rovaniemi. The ideas competition for young and graduating architects and designers culminated on Friday December 10, with the announcement of the winner in Rovaniemi.

The jury described the winning work as follows:

The jury appreciated the skillful combination of the results of the location analysis with the idea of the competition task aimed at building awareness of the climate crisis. The proposal has strong educational value. It reflects our need for contact with nature and expresses this positive relation and coexistence. The concept serves the visitor as a holistic experience. The educational path as a gentle intervention in the existing landscape connects with the surrounding trails making a loop on the plot with various elements of an outdoor interactive exhibition strung onto it, where the user can experience playing with water, ice and snow. The experience will vary depending on the season, which makes this new destination attractive all year round. In the zone away from the river, the author proposed a museum building - 2 cubatures connected by a lobby that could serve as a shelter for hikers from unfavorable weather. The concept of the architectural form is based on biomimicry –ice rocks as forms inspired by nature, as the author's goal was to refer to the surrounding landscape.

This winning entry to the Unbelievable Challenge Idea Competition for the Museum of Snow, proposes a park complex with outdoor and indoor exhibitions that encourage us to reflect on human activities, and teach us how to use natural resources wisely, take care of our planet, so that the joy of snow could also be shared by future generations

“One of the goals of the competition was to support young architects in their careers. This is the third time we will be able to follow the career development of a young architect so closely,” says Tiina Tukia, Marketing Director of Ruukki's Building Envelopes unit, and continues:

“I am particularly pleased to have received a lot of publicity on an issue that concerns us all - we were able to remind ourselves of what is happening to our climate. Of course, I hope we never need a snow museum.”

When evaluating the entries, the jury emphasized the “big idea” and the overall view that best met the competition criteria: sustainable development and energy efficiency, as well as construction products that are suited to and revitalize the environment - taking into account recyclability and reusability.

A total of 18 entries were submitted to The Unbelievable Challenge 2021, from which the jury selected five finalists. In addition to the winner, all finalists were awarded a cash prize of €1,000. The partners in the competition were the City of Rovaniemi and the architectural workshops WXCA (Poland) and Snøhetta (Norway).

Places 2–4: (in alphabetical order)  

     “DETACHED”, by Štefánia Vasiľková, Slovakia

     “ICEBERG”, by Elina Harjunpää, Finland

     ”THE MELTING GLOBE”, by Mohamed Raslan, Hungary

     ”SNOWDRIFT”, by Alice Šindelářová, Czech Republic

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