Okay, so everyone recently heard about the $55 million condo deal in Vancouver, which has been referred to as the biggest real estate deal in Canadian history. Sure, that’s an expensive move for someone (potentially a Middle Eastern prince), but how about moving an entire town for $1 billion? Yeah, that’s happening.

It’s time for Kiruna to move

Kiruna is a small town of approximately 18,000 people in Sweden. For about a century, Kiruna has been developing around the largest iron mine in the world, which is owned and operated by Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara AB (LKAB).

In 2004, LKAB decided that in order to keep mining, they would have to dig deeper. The problem is that digging deeper would mean compromising the structural integrity of about 3,000 homes, city hall, a train station, and a century-old church.

The solution? Move the entire town two miles east - obviously.

LKAB is prepared to set aside up to $1 billion to move Kiruna. Earlier this year, White Arkitekter and Ghilardi + Hellsten’s “Kruna 4-ever” proposal was selected as the official plan for Kiruna’s big move.

The architects predict that it will take roughly 20 to 25 years to complete the project. Krister Lindstedt, an architect at White, sees this move as a chance to start over for Kiruna. The town has developed as a low-density community, and moving two miles to the east is its chance to become a high-density town.

The plan calls for several new hotels, 2 million square feet of new office space, government and commercial space, and a new city hall by 2016, which will serve as an anchor for future development. Even a new transit strategy is being implemented. It’s not very often that a team of architects is given a whole town to restructure. We imagine once the project is complete, it will be one of the most cohesive communities in the world.

All images via White Arkitekter