Ever heard the phrase as safe as houses?
Your home is meant to be your safe place where you can hide from the outside world.
For some people, that just means four walls and a lock on the front door.
For others, they need a bunker capable of waiting out the apocalypse.
When you’re worried about the threat of meteors, World War 3, viral pandemics and
zombie outbreaks – how better to live out the end of the world than in safety and luxury.
Wanna open the hatch on these uber protected houses?
Let’s get it on!
8570 COLE CREST Perched atop the exclusive and highly coveted
Hollywood Hills is what can only be described as a James Bond Villain’s envy.
It comes with a hefty $5.8m price tag and was built by Al Corbi – otherwise known
as the owner of SAFE, a company contracted to design security systems for governments.
A series of intensive biometric tests need to be passed just to get into the front door.
Once inside, it seems like a regular 5 bed 8 bath mansion – until you realise that
the walls are made from thick steel reinforced concrete.
Underneath it’s unassuming exterior lurks a pair of earthquake proof bunkers dug 30
feet underground.
Would-be bad guys are disorientated thanks to a fog system that fills the house at the
first sign of trouble.
Corbi estimates that if he had to, his family could survive for 3 generations just on the
stored provisions alone.
$18MILLION LUXURY BUNKER Las Vegas is home to a lot of kooky characters,
and this $18M fully subterranean home might seem out of place almost anywhere else – but
not in the City of Sin.
If you’re going to build an underground lair, or a place to ride out the fallout from
nuclear war, then you may as well do it in style.
This place provides a slice of the best life that living in suburbia has to offer.
The home is essentially a modest white brick dwelling with a classic 1970s Californian
Bungalow feel.
Down below one can find a full-size yard complete with low maintenance AstroTurf, complete with
fake trees, a small basketball court, and even a landscaped swimming pool.
Intelligent lighting and lifelike murals on the wall simulate the cycle of day to night,
and the only thing that betrays the fact that you’re effectively in a luxury rabbit warren
is the fact that the warmth from the sun’s rays is conveniently missing.
ARK Polish architect Robert Konieczny is known
for designing all kinds of urban architectural masterpieces.
These days he prefers an uninterrupted view of the Polish countryside, courtesy of Ark
House – a heavily fortified dwelling that focuses solely on keeping his family safe,
and not so much on aesthetics and looks.
It’s a completely bespoke design, a house that can turtle up and wait out any trouble
that comes its way.
The house is made from bare faced, interlocked precast concrete panels.
Wall to wall, ceiling to floor glass panels line every side, but these can be blocked
off from the outside world by sliding concrete panels.
The entrance comes by way of a lowered concrete drawbridge that can be pulled up to become
flush with the outside of the house – turning it into an impenetrable fortress.
BIO FORTRESS Self-sufficient living at its best – this
4,200 square foot Colorado compound has been built specifically to remain free of the grid
and totally non-reliant on the outside world.
It’s the perfect disaster-proof dwelling to raise a bunch of doomsday preppers of your
own.
The house itself looks quite modest and normal, until you notice the 100-foot-tall radio tower
complete with a helipad behind it.
Beneath the home is a steel lined concrete bunker that has been given the ultimate stamp
of approval – it’s nuclear rated and able to withstand the power of gamma radiation
from a nuclear fallout.
There’s a huge ventilation system throughout the home designed to shut off and remain free
of outside contaminants in the case of a biological attack.
There are 4 independent power sources including gasoline and propane generators, solar panels
and a wind turbine, as well as a seven-stage water filtration system.
It’s a paranoid militaristic family’s dream, and a bargain at only $11.5m.
SAFE HOUSE Another masterpiece from building design genius
Robert Konieczny, The Safe House is a fortress home on the outskirts of the capital Warsaw
designed to protect its residents from everything nature has to throw at it.
The home itself is beautiful on the inside, with a white minimalist finish accentuated
by plenty of timber features and furniture.
The outside is a stark contrast, and is made up of bare-faced concrete slabs that are definitely
not gonna take any damage.
The home is able to be fully locked down as there are steel roller shutters above every
entrance, which are then sealed off by huge, thick concrete panels on powerful hydraulic
rams.
The end result is a big concrete cube, sitting in a patch of green lawn that has zero weak
points and nowhere for evil-doers to make an ingress.
The property is surrounded with a 10-foot-tall concrete compound wall that can be electronically
sealed from inside the house.
If there’s anywhere to wait out a zombie apocalypse, this is surely the place to do
it.
LONSDALEITE ESTATE Switzerland’s St Moritz Ski Resort is where
the uber-wealthy go to unwind.
It stands to reason then, that the country’s most expensive home is designed to make even
a Billionaire salivate at the thought of owning it.
It’s on the market for $185m, a fair price when you consider it’s made almost entirely
out of stone, and has gold plated walls.
But it’s not the over the top opulence that makes it so interesting, but the sneaky secrets
built into the home.
A secret switch in the reception area opens up a hidden waiting room, and yet another
switch reveals a secluded office space.
The den has its own private chair lift to access the slopes or make a quick getaway.
Deep underground, there’s a manmade lake to swim in, home cinema to relax in, Himalayan
salt room to detoxify in, and even a sub-zero cryo- recovery chamber to curb the aging process.
MAXIMUM SECURITY MANSION This monumental limestone mansion in Evergreen
Colorado is the product of a nine-year long construction program with one goal in mind
– to completely replicate the famous Biltmore House in Asheville North Carolina.
It’s a proper castle, complete with stained glass, diamond cut crystal, and wrought iron
as far as the eye can see.
No less than 126 individual chandeliers hang from its 25-foot-high ceilings, and the balconies
provide a picturesque view of the pine covered mountainside.
Outside appearances do well to hide the fact that this not-so-humble abode boasts a $6m
security system.
No matter where you are in the world, you can log in and see exactly who, or what, is
in and around your home courtesy of extensive surveillance coverage.
Thermal imaging shows any clumsy hand prints left behind by crooks up to 20 mins after
they leave, and moisture sensors can detect even the slightest leak in a bathroom pipe.
SURVIVAL CONDO PROJECT The Survival Condo Project is a serious down
payment on the survival of the human race, only affordable to the mega-rich.
This is the Rolls Royce of all bunkers, ironically situated within an abandoned US missile silo.
When investors get the call, they grab a go-bag and hightail it to central Kansas.
The underground complex is like a great inverted skyscraper, providing bare essentials for
survival as well as luxurious creature comforts to those seeking refuge within its walls.
The structure reaches almost 200 feet deep and features 15 specific levels.
A team of architects, engineers, and even a psychologist designed the bunker to simulate
everyday life.
There’s a supermarket level complete with shopping baskets, huge refrigerators, and
even an espresso machine – mimicking a Whole Foods, with stores to last 75 people a full
5 years.
Residents can even enjoy a swim on the pool level, with underground thermals supplying
10,000 gallons of filtered drinkable water a day.
Last but not least, there’s an armoury level that packs enough hardware to take over a
small country.
If there's any place to ride out the end of the world, it's most definitely here… if
you can afford it that is...
SKYSPHERE As kids, we all loved the idea of having our
own treehouse to act as a fortress of solitude, a place where we could shut off from the outside
world and have total privacy.
As it turns out, imaginative New Zealander Jono Williams had that very idea in mind–
designing a modern treehouse of his own.
The place itself looks like it belongs in the future, a marvel of mechanical engineering
that consists of a heavy-duty steel column complete with internal ladder and lockable
door, topped with a small white dome with 360 degree one way glass.
Though the living area is cosy to say the least, it does feature a voice-controlled
beer dispenser on the couch.
Where better to keep safe from roaming bands of post-apocalyptic bandits, or hordes of
hungry zombies.
BECKHAM CREEK CAVE HOUSE It’s not only Bruce Wayne who had the luxury
of his own private Bat Cave, you can have your very own secluded subterranean space
in Ozark, Arkansas for a very affordable $2.75m.
The Beckham Creek Cave Lodge is built directly into the side of a mountain, and has raw un-hewed
rock for ceilings and walls, and stalactites adorning above in lieu of chandeliers.
It was originally built in the 1980s to serve as a bomb shelter due to the Soviet Nuclear
threats of the Cold War era, but has since been renovated into the ultimate shelter and
get-away destination.
The home has been designed to fit perfectly into the natural contours of the cavern, and
provides ample room for 4 bathrooms, 4 bedrooms, and several large living areas.
An underground spring provides clean drinking water that comes deep from within the heart
of the mountain.