Kiruna’s new city centre is inaugurated after being relocated three kilometers

How do you move an entire city without losing its identity and character? White Arkitekter has contributed to this work, as they won the architectural competition together with Ghilardi + Hellsten to design and develop a 100-year masterplan for Kiruna's new city centre, how it would work and how it would be implemented.

The move has brought many challenges, but also an unprecedented opportunity to transform Kiruna into a more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable city for present and future generations.

– With the inauguration of the new square and centre, the urban transformation has taken a major step forward. But much remains to be done to make the city centre as rich and beautiful as it can be, said Krister Lindstedt, Lead Architect at White Arkitekter. 

The new development has been designed in a denser urban plan, equipped with new meeting places and cultural facilities aimed at promoting public life and enabling a more mixed population to settle and thrive. Circular economy thinking has been important. Reused whole houses, blocks and recycled parts and materials have helped to create new Kiruna. Buildings of cultural and historical value and of great significance to the people of Kiruna have been brought into the new city centre to create a continuity of what has given, and can continue to give, Kiruna its identity. 

– The relocation of Kiruna has brought the built heritage into the new, both buildings and entire environments. We are delighted that a national institution like the church has been included in the relocation to make the city’s history comprehensible. Identity has also been created through meeting places and proximity to greenery, which Kiruna residents highlighted to us as important, said Krister Lindstedt.

Key elements of the project have been citizen dialogue, the square and meeting place with new industries alongside mining, how the interaction with nature develops and what it means to renew the city with reuse.

Read more about what is happening during the opening days on 1 - 3 September here.