Invitational Ice Construction
Event II (IICEii)
Rochester, Minnesota

01/07 - 01/08 2006

Materials & Applications and the Rochester Art Center in Minnesota hosted another outdoor construction event over a melty weekend in January.

Architects and artists invited to participate constructed temporary forms and structures of ice on the Rochester Art Center grounds. Unlike typical ice constructions that use blocks of ice to build more traditional structures, or use blocks of ice as a solid medium for carving sculpture, the constructions took advantage of two properties of water: its fluidity while in the liquid state, and its hardness in the solid or frozen state.

Like last year the goal was to create complex ice forms that defy gravity and encourage curiosity. However as "climate change" continues to change, and this year the plans did too. During the day most of the time was spent discussing theory and studying what has been done in that field before. The Art Center has a large walk in freezer so we used that to make quite a few models of things we would like to build, and in some cases more fanciful structures.

At night structures were errected as last year and we learned a lesson and just set up water nozzles to spray all night long. In the early morning we returned to find our arched fabric to be hard enough to stand, and all the plants in the surrounding area had a 3mm shell of ice. As the day wore on we continued talking and experimenting indoors and our large fabric arches gracefully flatened into the concrete as it warmed in the sun. Perhaps the most interesting thing to note from that is that the arches never fell, they just gracefully flattented out from the bottom, always maintaining their original curve.

Inspired by the work of Heinz Isler, the renowned Swiss engineer of thin shell concrete structures, who since 1955, has been experimenting with ice in his winter garden, M&A and the invitees hoped to further explore thin shell construction. Using a garden hose, a spray attachment, and rubber coveralls, Isler creates both beautiful sculptures and functional shelters in ice. He sets up simple supports in the snow, drapes them with a light mesh fabric, and sprays them with layers of fine mist until an icy shell forms. He explains that there is only one rule when playing with the transformation of water into ice; "one has to listen and obey what the water/ice wants to do!"

This year we were again joined by Mark Wojahn of Minneapolis, a very skilled team of architects from NBBJ who had some really skills with the colored beads. Greg Hernandez of the band Mezklah and Clair Didier on the video camera as well as several local participants who worked to recreate some of Isler's experiments and to create some new forms at the Rochester Art Center in Minnesota.