Polestar builds Finnish three-storey-tall showroom from snow

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When you consider that one-third of the country of Sweden lies within the Arctic Circle, you may not be all that surprised to hear Swedish EV automaker Polestar’s newest showroom, too, sits north of the 66°33′ latitude line. You might be a little surprised to hear said showroom is in neighbouring Finland, though. And you’ll almost certainly be surprised to hear the new three-storey-tall showroom is made entirely out of snow.

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Don’t call it an igloo — the automaker’s “first-of-a-kind retail Snow Space” resembles a giant cube and stands 12 metres (39 feet) tall, its two-metre-thick (6.5-feet-thick) walls constructed using 3,000 cubic meters (105,944 cubic feet) of snow taken from the Finnish ski resort of Ounasvaara.

Inside, visitors will find replicas of various Polestar vehicle components – wheels, suspension parts, and brakes – crafted out of ice by local artists, as well as one of the company’s (non-ICE, er, non-ice) Polestar 2 EVs. You can book test drives at the Space, but you can’t buy a car there — all Polestar sales are still online-only.

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The unique Polestar Space – the company has some 130 such retail outlets worldwide – was designed by Polestar architects and built by Finnish firm Frozen Innovation in 20 days. It’s the second Polestar Space in the country, but it won’t be for long. After opening last week on January 10, it’ll host visitors only until February 26, when its snow walls will be turned back into ski slopes.

If you want to check out the company’s offerings here in Canada, Polestar has three Spaces across the country, in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. We expect you won’t be surprised to hear each of those much more permanent showrooms are built mostly from conventional materials, though, not snow — we blame the unseasonably warm winter, here.