While facing the hazards of the globe should be accompanied by collective efforts to confront them, some choose to isolate themselves in sort of underground fortresses, further widening inequalities between humans. And for good reason! Touching these structures with your fingertips has a price and not the least…
Reminder: the quick history of bunkers
Reading them, “apocalyptic architecture” and “luxury” don’t really go together. But on closer inspection, the outlines of the concept emerge. Originally, bunkers were defensive military shelters created by the Germans during World War II.
They are manufactured to resist external aggressions, whether natural (earthquakesearthquakes, stormsstorms…)) or not (bombings, diffusiondiffusion of harmful substances…). Today, the concept is somewhat identical. Except that in addition to ensuring maximum protection for its occupants, today’s bunker becomes a complete living space where that of the 1940s was similar to a summary and occasional habitat.
Bunkers: modern underground shelters
The bunker is metamorphosismetamorphosis today into a luxury shelter with modules added as its cost increases, that goes without saying! Aliveone of the largest American bunker builders, made itself known with the constructionconstruction luxury anti-atomic models. And what luxury… swimming pool, gym, master suite among others can be fitted out there.
The company even offers the arrangement of 575 American army bunkers unoccupied since 1967 and located in South Dakota, “ far from riots, violence, targets and dumping zones”as she boasts. Alive offers to occupy one of these bunkers at an “attractive” price: initial payment of 55,000 dollars (50,130 euros), plus an ongoing annual rent of 1,091 dollars (994 euros) per accommodation for the location. Be careful, at this price, the bunker is not (yet) equipped, but can be for “only” 10,000 dollars (9,114 euros).
In France, anti-atomic shelters emergingemerging also. The company Shelter in my garden offers buried dens with a surface area of 15 to 30 m², turnkey. His leitmotif? Don’t compromise on comfort!
“Refuge in my garden”, a comfortable bunker. © Shelter, YouTube
The bunkers are built from maritime containers surrounded by a reinforced concrete hull and buried four meters deep, they offer a maximum of solutions for living for a few days in self-sufficiency in a space that looks like a boat. This “atypical hiding place” can be yours for a starting price of 50,000 euros!
Bunkers: between apocalyptic architecture and luxury
Some bunkers are more talked about than others. This is the case of that of Mark ZuckerbergMark ZuckerbergCEO of Meta, who allegedly had a bunker of almost 500 square meters built on his property on the island of Hawaii. The anti-atomic shelter would be equipped with a water tank of astronomical capacity and pump systems aimed at supplying the bunker with water. It could also generate its own energyenergy electric. The construction of the underground shelter alone would have reached the sum of 100 million dollars (approximately 91,145,500 euros). Some of them published by the American media Wiredthe information about this affair should not have leaked out thanks to the signing of a clause of confidentialityconfidentiality imposed by Zuckerberg on its manufacturers. Lack !
Another example, that of Larry Hall, an American engineer who decided to transform a silo to missilemissile in a luxury bunker capable of sheltering several families if there is an apocalypse!
Survival Condo, from its nickname, is built three meters thick and sinks 15 floors underground. It can accommodate around 75 people for a durationduration of five years maximum. Everything has been created to limit the boredom of these potential residents: swimming pool, spa, cinema, library, climbing wall, medical station… Moreover Survival Condo offers certain floors of its complex for rental. It seems that they are all already booked.
Presentation of a luxury bunker. © Media, YouTube
In a world that tends to “grow” like the buildings of Neom, some inhabitants of the world prefer to hunker down. The apocalypse, the psychosespsychoses and thecollapsecollapse of the planet put into lightlight by bunker builders would therefore sell to a certain elite. Their construction, however, highlights a real paradox: part of the world prefers to lock itself in underground fortresses to escape where others choose to see the horizon from above. One thing is certain, the price of an underground leak or a pied-à-terre in the airsairs marks a growing disconnect between the richest and the rest of the population…
