Formerly known as Harman Hall, the Cherry Creek North gem was built at the turn of the 20th century and is an integral part of Denver history. Often referred to as the city’s most iconic residence, the building served as a town hall before being converted into a stylish residence. However, like many buildings of its age, this Colorado landmark also has its secrets, including a former speakeasy (a remnant of the days of Prohibition, when passwords and hidden rooms were the norm). Today, the expansive home is a renovated dream space on the market for approximately $15 million, making it by far the priciest listing in the area.

Purchased by Pat Hamill, CEO of Oakwood Homes, the historic residence certainly needed a little TLC. Hamill was just the man to return the home to its former glory. After an epic 2010 expansion and renovation, the former Harman Hall is now a contemporary residence that retains nods to its iconic past, complete with authentic turn-of-the-century touches like reclaimed wood and blast-from-the-past patterns.

For his part, Hamill felt that the “iconic home” was special, and certainly worth all the trouble. In addition to expanding the residence’s square footage by approximately 7,000 square feet and gutting the interior, he also paid homage to the house’s past by restoring its original red brick facade. In a nod to the former speakeasy, Hamill also transformed the lowest level into a private event space fit for Prohibition-era partying, though it now hosts charity events and gathering rather than secret social meetings.

The former speakeasy also has another more modern function. Connecting to an underground showroom with space for up to 10 cars, the space serves as a showcase for grandeur and luxury, complete with a hydraulic lift and connecting three-car garage.

Though replete with modern touches like heated wood floors, floor-to-ceiling doors, and elevators, the former Harman Hall remains an iconic cornerstone of Denver architecture. Now a sprawling luxury residence, the historic home retains much of its turn-of-the-century charm with nods to the past that can be seen everywhere from its restored brick facade to its speakeasy-turned-entertainment space. And while you may not need a secret handshake or code word to enter this majestic manor, you do need a cool $15 million to make it your own. But perhaps that’s price worth paying for this unique piece of Denver history.

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Restaurant owner and chef Motonori Hirata was looking for something brand new that felt long-established. “I was asked to design a building as ‘heavy’ as possible,” says Ishigami. “’I want an architecture whose heaviness would increase with time,’ [Hirata] said. ‘It cannot be artificially smooth but rather something with the roughness of nature. Authentic cuisines require such a place.’ He also told me that ‘it has to look as if it has been there and will continue to be there for the longest time.’”

Creating such a structure in the middle of a modern residential neighborhood presented plenty of challenges. Instead of focusing on what he currently had to work with, Ishigami took a subtractive approach, concentrating on what he could have if he removed parts of the existing space.

That line of thinking resulted in an underground cave dwelling that’s every bit as organic and “heavy” as it is practical and functional. Ishigami began with a design that would leave the roof of the new building flush with the ground level. Using state-of-the-art 3D software, he was able to determine the exact points for pile driving. When construction began, workers “dug the holes manually for precision while constantly confirming the position and shape on an iPad.”

Once all the holes were hollowed out, concrete was poured in to create the form of the organically-shaped columns. Then the rest of the space was excavated to create the living and working areas.

Ishigami tried to embrace accidents as they popped up, working the unknown into the process. “Unexpected factors such as growing grass, soil collapsing, or errors due to manual labor were tolerated as much as possible,” he notes. He hoped that the by accepting these “un-precisions,” he would create an architecture that “internalizes natural distortions and uncertainties.”

The original plans called for washing away all the dirt to reveal a gray concrete structure, but Ishigami and his team were so impressed with they way the soil-caked columns looked that they chose to leave them as-is. That decision is what gave the project its cave-like feel and inspired a redesign of the interior spaces, which now include a bedroom, bathroom, industrial kitchen space, and three courtyards that can be filled with dining tables during restaurant hours (or used as living spaces at other times).

Almost imperceptible glass creates walls around the structure to keep it warm and safe from the elements. The flat roof was filled in with concrete except for three skylights, and whitewashed to keep it distinctive from the surrounding topography.

Considered a design wunderkind in architecture circles, Ishimgami started his career with Kazuyo Sejima at SANAA, after graduating with a Master’s in Architecture and Planning from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 2000. In 2004 he started his own firm, junya.ishigami+associates, and has since gone on to win multiple awards, including becoming the youngest-ever recipient of the Architectural Institute of Japan Prize in 2009 for his ultra-thin glass Kanagawa Institute of Technology workshop. In addition to his architectural work, Ishigami also serves as the Kenzo Tange Design Critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

The post Junya Ishigami Crafts Cave-Like House and Restaurant in Japan first appeared on Dornob.

Finland, which shares 800 miles of its eastern border with Russia, is not keen to be the next Ukraine. Luckily, the Scandinavian nation already has a system of 5,000 bomb shelters beneath Helsinki that could shelter the city’s entire population, along with an additional 50,000 bunkers across the country.

The bunkers were mandated by Finland’s Rescue Act, which requires any currently used buildings with a floor area of at least 12,900 square feet to include bunkers. Helsinki began excavating its tunnels in the 1960s for utilities like electricity and plumbing and soon realized they could continue digging for larger spaces to shelter the population in an emergency.

At least 85 percent of these shelters are operated privately and used to serve other functions during peacetime. That means many underground spaces are currently inhabited by churches, skate parks, shopping centers, theaters, parking garages, swimming pools, and even a hockey rink.

Helsinki’s 200-mile network of nuclear bunkers is mostly connected, so the city’s residents can simply go underground and comfortably walk, shop, socialize, and play sports no matter what the weather looks like above the surface. These subterranean spaces can be quite beautiful, especially when the raw rock walls are still visible. Standout spaces include the Amos Rex Art Museum and the Temppeliaukio Church, designed by architects and brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen.

Built throughout the Cold War era, the bunkers are located about 60 feet underground. They’re blast-proof, gas-proof, and able to withstand radiation and chemical attacks. Their current occupation by alternative uses won’t stop them from functioning as needed in an emergency. In fact, it would take just 72 hours to get them ready to accommodate thousands of occupants.

“We have to take care of the citizens, that’s the main reason we have this system,” says Tomi Rask, an instructor with Helsinki’s Civil Defense Department.

Previously part of Sweden, Finland was seized by The Russian Empire in 1809 and remained under its control for about a century. When the Russian Revolution led to the formation of the Soviet Union in 1917, Finland declared its independence. A brief civil war fractured the country between the Soviet-aligned Red faction and the Western-aligned White faction. During World War II, the Soviets invaded Finland twice, and though the outnumbered Finns were able to hold back the Soviet troops, Finland was forced to sign peace treaties twice that resulted in a loss of land along its eastern border.

In the decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Finland has chosen not to join any international alliances in order to appease Russia’s security concerns. The country built its bunkers and made conscription mandatory for men in order to stay prepared for possible invasion. But as officials and citizens alike watch the current events unfolding in Ukraine, support for joining NATO has skyrocketed from about 30 percent before the Russia-Ukraine war to more than 70 percent in the weeks following the February invasion.

Joining NATO would grant Finland the protection of the Western Military Alliance, expand NATO’s influence in the Arctic, and strengthen NATO itself. But it would also more than double Russia’s land border with NATO nations, potentially increasing the tensions in the Baltic Sea region. Russia has already threatened “serious military and political consequences” if Finland and Sweden join NATO. One potential response would be placing nuclear weapons in the Baltics.

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In an interview with Business Insider, North Miami Beach commissioner Michael Joseph said the plan would alleviate a lot of traffic, and that commuters and visitors alike would benefit from a tunnel connecting the city center to the beach. The cost per mile would be “a fraction of what is seen in other types of mass transit projects proposed in South Florida, while the construction would not be disruptive to the local economy.”

If you’re wondering how, exactly, this would work, look to the Las Vegas Convention Center Loop as an example. Part of The Boring Company’s plan for an eventual 29-mile tunnel system which will connect Teslas to more than 50 stations across Las Vegas, this 1.7-mile tunnel network opened in April 2021 and has three stops. Built in about one year using the Godot Tunnel Boring Machine at a cost of $47 million, the tunnel is able to ferry thousands of visitors around the Las Vegas Convention Center area, reducing a 45-minute walk to about two minutes. The company says it will eventually enable large conventions with upwards of 100,000 attendees to occur without road closures or disruptions to street traffic. Even better, the trip is free for convention center visitors.

The Boring Company’s renderings for such tunnel projects once included 16-passenger public transit vehicles, but now, they’ve been replaced by Tesla Model 3 cars holding up to five people at a time. And while the company previously said the vehicles could go up to 155 miles per hour, the cars within the Las Vegas loop are only going about 50. The point seems to be using existing technology to make a difference now, with Musk claiming that incremental advances in technology could allow different types of vehicles or connections to subterranean Hyperloop rail systems. But Musk has a penchant for making big announcements and then changing his mind, so it’s unclear exactly how this project will evolve.

Skeptics have called these tunnels little more than brief Tesla test drives, and a bid to sell more of Musk’s cars. The tunnel proposals for various cities have also drawn a lot of criticism and controversy. Projects in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Baltimore seem to have faltered, and The Boring Company website no longer even mentions them. Civil engineering experts and tunneling industry veterans call into question Musk’s claims that his company can bore tunnels faster and cheaper than ever before. In Los Angeles in particular, the Boring Company dug a tunnel 40 feet beneath a low-income part of the county without even informing the local community.

In Florida, where the water table is much higher than average, one has to wonder just how safe the tunnels will be from flooding. It seems like there are a lot of kinks to be worked out in these plans, but as usual, Musk is simply boring straight ahead with his plans, apparently planning to figure it out as he goes.

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That’s what Italian architect Stefano Larotonda of Last Studio decided to do for a home in Rovagnate, northern Italy. The existing structure was a typical two-story Italian country home set into the base of a slope, but the clients wanted a new entrance, additional green space, and a brighter, more usable basement. The only way to grant their wishes was to literally carve out the basement, creating a new sunken courtyard around it.

“That means a new kind of space in the basement and subsequent creation of an outdoor space that is configured as an open-air room,” says Larotonda. “This new environment allows for the lighting of the underground area, which becomes a large hall described by a series of wooden inner partitions that define different spatial configurations.”

Working in collaboration with Andrea Tregnago, Larotonda essentially created a giant trench around the home to expose the basement walls. This new outdoor space is a full story below the grade of the yard around it, its edges defined by new walls made of cast-in-place reinforced concrete. Vertical wooden staves were used as the formwork, imprinting the concrete with their patterns and knots for a more organic appearance. The exposed basement walls were then replaced with the same materials, punctured by circular windows and an oversized sliding glass door.

A large round cutout in the garden wall now acts as the home’s new entrance, beckoning visitors into the light-filled courtyard where Larotonda has installed stepping stones, volcanic rock, and grasses designed to offer proper drainage when it rains. From the driveway looking in, you see an interesting arrangement of diagonal walls sloping toward the lawn above. From the lawn, these walls stick up several feet above grade, looking almost like the prow of a ship.

Inside, the newly renovated basement is suddenly flooded with daylight. The concrete floors were darkened and polished for a slate-like effect, and the interior walls are made of three layers of solid fir stained with green impregnating paints for a sheer, washed look. Together, these colors are meant to evoke the tones of the surrounding mountain landscape. The circular motif is also drawn inside, repeated with cutouts in the wood walls and the shape of the bathroom mirror.

It may not have been the most obvious solution, but excavating the basement level was a clever way to give the clients exactly what they wanted, create a new outdoor space that’s truly private, and make the most of the existing structure instead of wastefully tearing it down and starting anew.

The post Last Studio Turns Unused Basement into Tranquil Underground Patio first appeared on Dornob.

Bringing in ultrasound scanners, the council learned that the tunnels spread out over 65 feet in every direction, right beneath neighboring houses, and one even leading to the rail line. Lyttle, a retired engineer who became known in the press as “The Hackney Mole Man,” was evicted, and the city filled most of the tunnel system with aerated concrete to stabilize the ground, noting that it was a wonder a bus hadn’t fallen right through the street. Lyttle was moved to council housing, where he tried to dig through the floor of his apartment before dying in 2010.

The home was abandoned until 2012, when it sold at auction to British artist Sue Webster. She was fascinated by its bizarre history and found the shabby exterior charming. The process of cleaning it out was arduous, to say the least. Incredibly, among the 300 dumpster loads of junk unearthed from the home were three cars and a boat. Webster then hired architect David Adjaye to transform it into her own home and studio while preserving as much of its history as they could. They dug out 2,000 tons of the city council’s aerated concrete to create a basement level in tribute to the home’s subterranean history and creatively repurposed some of the junk, like a set of “stairs to nowhere” that became a terrace.

Adjaye says the design was borne “from an archaeological exercise, a gradual reveal of time through the process of excavation.” The newly reconfigured interiors have an open plan surrounded by a sunken landscaped garden along the perimeter. Multiple entrances on different levels reveal the locations of some of the former tunnels, aiming to preserve the feeling of discovery as you walk. The contrast of old and new, high and low can be found in every space. Wood formwork left organic imprints on all the concrete walls and ceilings, complementing the salvaged wood flooring and built-in plywood cabinetry. Webster has also filled the home with things like salvaged industrial details, artwork, modern furniture, and plants.

Outside, Webster wanted to maintain the building’s “derelict bunker-like appearance,” so Adjaye reconstructed the masonry facade with 15,000 reclaimed London bricks while adding large windows bordered by patinated bronze. Touches like these help it retain its its sense of timeworn history and curiosity. One wonders what Lyttle would think of it now, but it certainly seems like it fell into the right hands. Instead of being demolished by a developer and paved over with a new cookie-cutter project, it’s been given new life by someone willing to steward its spirit of wonder and adventure.

The post Crazy Network of Illegal Subterranean Tunnels Transformed Into Modern “Mole House” first appeared on Dornob.

Meaning “house in the earth,” the home’s name is extremely fitting, as the structure is organically camouflaged into a field of waving grasses and just a stone’s throw from the waters of Alqueva — Europe’s largest manmade lake.

The secret dwelling is the latest to be acquired by the Silent Living rental property group, a company dedicated to “the search for happiness and fulfillment” by providing patrons “a feeling of home.” According to its website, Casa na Terra fits instinctively within its carefully-curated portfolio as “the house honors very deeply its natural surroundings, finding shelter in the land itself.”

Designed by Lison-born architect Manuel Aires Mateus, the underground hideaway is an ArchDaily “Building of the Year 2020” award winner.

Aires Mateus is a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Lisbon. He and brother Francisco founded the firm Aires Mateus in 1988 and have gone on to create a prolific body of work, earning both national and international honors along the way.

For this construction, the firm notes that “faced with the boundless extents of the Alqueva lake, the house require[d] a center: a protected courtyard embracing the water.” Indeed, the only feature visible from the lake is this focal piece, with the carved-out dome perched neatly over the concealed interior. The courtyard also opens into separate kitchen and living spaces that connect to the three en suite bedrooms via zig-zagging hallways. Each bedroom in turn opens onto its own “patio,” a circular air well painted in brilliant white to reflect light from above.

“The house is located in an area where construction is not allowed,” adds Aires Mateus. “Our ecological responsibility was also to make the house disappear into the landscape.”

Most of the bunker-like structure was built using concrete, while the interior finishes and furniture continue the theme of blending in with the surrounding environment. Aires Mateus says this minimalist-yet-inviting vibe was inspired by the notion of silence, incorporating elements like natural wood paneling, sheets of floor-to-ceiling mirrors, and built-in cabinets that are barely discernable from the rest of the wall to elevate that enveloping sensation of quiet. Rattan sofas and warm wood chairs soften the bare concrete surroundings. Even the hand-tied leather straps that serve as kitchen door handles conform to the voiceless flow of the house.

“In this case, the interior design and the architecture is not something to be seen, only to be felt,” Manuel explains.

Casa na Terra rates begin at €350 in the off-season, with a minimum stay of three nights. In the high season of June to September, seven-night reservations are required, with rates starting at €600. Breakfast and daily cleaning are included, and regardless of group size, the home is exclusively reserved for each booking party.

Aires Mateus has worked with Silent Living before, having renovated the 18th-century Santa Clara 1728, a stunning six-room hotel in Lisbon’s seven hills district.

The post Portugal’s Hottest New Vacation Rental Digs Deep in Its Design first appeared on Dornob.

In Ghent, Belgium, a new guest house by Atelier Vens Vanbelle makes a sculptural statement beside a more traditional residence. Its exterior contrasts with the main brick volume in just about every way but somehow complements it at the same time, and its interiors are just as delightful.

The client, who works in the film business, wanted to host international guests in style without sacrificing privacy within his own home. What the studio served up fills that criteria and then some, offering up guest quarters, a screening room, and a lookout tower in a compact package that takes up very little space in the yard.

“The location is very idyllic, with the Schelde (river) flowing behind the romantic garden on the one hand and a castle view on the other,” the architects say. “The French-style house had a garden wall behind which an old dilapidated garage and shed stood in a wild garden. A lost and forgotten corner, but still this place had everything to be the ideal location for the guest house: cool setting, privacy, space, and view.”

“This project remains close to the reality of the owner, and as a guest, you literally descend into an alienating underground world before the ultimate log cabin is shown. Guests enter the new garden shed and bicycle shed through the living room of the client, after which they descend a staircase and end up in a long underground corridor. The disorientation is complete. A first surprise awaits them when they arrive in a small cinema hall with red curtains. David Lynch is not far away. Opposite there is a small, nice bar with an equally strange character.”

The spiral staircase then leads to a completely wood-lined guest space inspired by the cozy enveloping atmosphere of a cave. Instead of framing standard interior walls, the architects stacked laminated wood throughout the interiors for a chunky, sculptural effect. In fact, the whole guest house was built this way in the architects’ studio using four-centimeter thick slabs of wood, “layer by layer,” before it was transported to the site.

Two large round windows offer views of the landscape and of the home. If you continue ascending the staircase from there, you’ll find yourself at the top of a “lookout point” that’s actually an outdoor shower. The Corten steel facade of the guest house offers protection from the elements, and gives it an earthy feeling among the surrounding trees.

The architects add that “this project was designed as a kind of cinematic experience in which you are catapulted from one atmosphere into another, and which responds strongly to your feelings. One elongated surprise with a guest house that stays as far away from a typical hotel room as possible. Here, you are briefly away from the world.”

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The posh hotel, owned by InterContinental Hotel Group, extends 88 meters, or nearly 300 feet, into the quarry. All but the top two of the 18 stories press against the sides of the quarry, diving into a campus of natural elements combined with extreme architecture. A striking glass waterfall-style elevator starts at the surface and cascades down the side of the rock face. Of course, you could always just skip the elevator and land in the middle of the resort grounds via the centralized helipad.

The two lowest levels are underwater, so to speak, with a unique aquarium surrounding the restaurants and accommodations on both. Even better, each of the six underwater suites on these floors also have their own aquarium. In all, the hotel contains 337 standard to luxury rooms alongside everything else a premier resort might offer, from pampering to full-on adventure.

Dubbed “Shanghai Wonderland,” those who can afford to stay at the resort and spa will experience a unique location while enjoying posh amenities like expansive pools with lounging areas and a lake large enough for kayaking. Visitors can observe waterfalls from their room, leisurely walk the grounds, or head out for some rock climbing and bungee jumping within the compound walls. Private theater box balconies also allow guests to view a nightly water and light show. In truth, there’s no need to leave the resort with all it has to offer, but travelers to Shanghai can easily launch over to nearby attractions such as the Chenshan Botanical Garden and Guangfulin site, along with a bustling city full of activity.

Unlike most mega hotels, Shanghai Wonderland was built using a low-impact design that takes advantage of unused natural space. Exterior balconies house ample greenery, and the roof has also been covered with plants to better blend into the landscape above. The shade from the surrounding cliff walls helps to regulate the temperature and improve heating and cooling efficiency. The structure, designed by JADE+QA Architects, is also partially powered using renewable technologies like solar panels and geothermal systems.

Building 18 stories down is no easy engineering or construction feat. In fact, for more than a decade, over 5,000 architects, designers, planners, engineers, and construction workers contributed to the completion of this project. One of the largest challenges was figuring out how to pump concrete into the bottom of the quarry, a process that required significant revamping of typical protocols. An extensive use of technology and innovation were required to make this hotel, which cost a whopping $300 million to complete.

“It was a challenge,” says Martin Jochman, chief architect of the hotel. “This quarry was really a scar on the surface of the earth. It was overgrown and dangerous.” He adds that: “we took some big risks because it was totally unknown. The hotel comes out of nature.”

JADE+QA Architects, the award-winning UK firm credited with the project, specializes in architecture, urban planning, and product design, with a focus on “respecting nature through sensitive design.”

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Elevating the Concept

Raised floors are nothing new. Countless office buildings around the world have installed them on top of solid substrates (usually concrete slabs) to house everything from electrical and mechanical systems to computer rooms, IT data storage centers, and technological command hubs. These hidden spaces typically range from two inches to four feet in height.

Banchini collaborated with French designer Laure Jaffuel to take the raised floor model one step further, ultimately naming their creation “3-8.” Instead of using hidden spaces to mask unsightly wires and IT stations, the pair created spaces large enough to accommodate entire meeting rooms and conventional workstations — not to mention a kitchen and garden.

The Amenities of 3-8

Permanently installed on the fourth floor of the Centre Pompidou, 3-8’s primary function will be to host educational lectures and workshops put on by the museum. Hinged floor panels open to reveal the rooms underneath, to which a set of easily navigable stairs provides quick access. Although each new space was assigned a specific use, all of these underground floors can be easily modified as their occupants’ needs change.

A large section of seven hinged floor panels exposes a working kitchen, complete with a storage area, sink, and a rack rail to hold cups, cooking utensils, pots, and pans. A similarly-sized floor section conceals a seating area illuminated by an undulating neon red light.

Beneath these submerged levels is a compact garden, with small plants thriving in rich soil all throughout. Adjacent to this area, two more panels cover up an advanced speaker system. Open other subtly installed panels to find an assortment of desks for visitors alongside a big flat-screen TV.

Banchini’s Vision

Banchini was always impressed with the vision of Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, the men who designed the original Centre Pompidou. He believes that the innovative upgrade reflects the progressive architectural concepts that inspired the original building and helps the world of office design move forward.

He explains: “raised floors are a common element of office architecture. However, they seem to be disregarded by architects and are rarely used outside of their primary function. Hiding all the functional elements under the surface allowed us to completely free the space, but it is also a reference to utopian architectures developed at the same time as the beautiful architecture of the Centre Pompidou.”

Banchini hopes his creative use of larger submerged spaces will motivate other designers and architects to develop unique ways to utilize underused office space. He adds: “The installation is not trying to provide a new model for offices, it is merely meant to question the alienating office culture that we take for granted. The misappropriation of the office space should encourage us to high-jack daily life objects and emancipate design from preconceived usages.”

An Encore Extra

In 2016, Banchini created an inflatable PVC nightclub in his studio Bureau A, when he hosted the yearly party of the Federation of Swiss Architects. He incorporated this whimsical addition into the Centre Pompidou project. The inflatable structure extends out from under a raised tile of office flooring.

The post Hide and Sink: Leopold Banchini Design Conceals Rooms and Objects Under Office Floors first appeared on Dornob.

From the description alone, you might get the wrong idea about this unusual neighborhood in a remote area of South Dakota: green-roofed dwellings sit in orderly rows amid a lush green field with views of hills in the distance, promising safety and security to your family in uncertain times, and rent is only $1,000 per year. But take a closer look at The Vivos Group’s “xPoint” and you’ll start noticing the prison-like barbed wire fences, lack of windows, heavy-duty doors, and military-style ID numbers painted on the concrete facades.

This is no swanky subdivision, but rather a former military fortress built by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1942 to store explosives and munitions. There are no internal rooms or surface treatments. There’s not even electricity, water, or sewage. Yet, Vivos hopes that hundreds of well-to-do families will make an investment in the property and pay to have the bunkers converted into luxurious residences for the post-apocalyptic lifestyle.

The California-based company is known for building and maintaining fortified shelters for millionaires and billionaires, and xPoint is its latest endeavor, billed as the largest private shelter community on earth. Nobody lives there just yet, but it’s capable of housing up to 5,000 people in 575 bunkers, each able to withstand a 500,000-pound blast. Nuclear war? No problem, as long as you don’t mind staying inside virtually forever.

Each shelter is about 26 feet wide and either 60 or 80 feet long, enabling them to be subdivided into as many rooms as you like. How you lay out the interior is entirely up to you, as once you’ve paid the $25,000 deposit, you’ll be solely responsible for making the space livable. That will include paying roughly $12,000 for a new blast door seal and interior lock, exhaust and air vents, fuel tank, wiring, plumbing, hot water heaters, a septic system, and the all-important escape hatch.

The rest of the “optional” construction—meaning anything beyond the concrete shell and basic components named above – will start at roughly $20,000. Each bunker fits up to ten people comfortably. In the renderings, the bomb-proof bunkers are shown outfitted with every modern comfort you can imagine, including home movie theaters and LED screen “windows” to provide the illusion that everything outside is totally fine, and the world is as beautiful and safe as ever.

Vivos doesn’t provide much other than the land itself, though they’ll have a full-time staff around to provide maintenance and security and run a general store. Security features include military-trained guards, camera systems, and members-only access gates. They hope the development will ultimately be home to “like-minded survivalists,” noting that there’s safety and security in numbers.

Presumably, once you’ve put the cash and energy into filling your own personal survival bunker with the kinds of furnishings you’d want for the end of the world, you could take regular vacations out there to “practice” and feel like you’re getting your money’s worth. The property itself is an off-grid area covering about 18 square miles, located one hundred miles or more from the nearest known military nuclear targets.

Check out more details and sign a 99-year lease over at Vivos.

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What Began as Undesirable Ruins

During the three decades of its abandonment, nobody would have wanted to live in this subterranean space beneath London’s Crystal Palace Parade, a stop on the city’s transit network adjacent to Crystal Palace Park. Built in 1929, this space was used as a public restroom for over fifty years, and when it was closed in the 1980s, all of the toilets, urinals and sinks were left in place. It wasn’t pretty, yet Clark saw its potential right away.

She first spotted the space in 2005 and envisioned turning it into a bar or tiny movie theater, “something quirky and fun that would breathe life back into a neglected part of the local landscape.”

Ultimately, Clark decided to take on the project of transforming the derelict restroom into a sleek one-bedroom home for herself through her practice, Lamp Architects. It took her six years just to persuade local authorities to allow her to purchase it, and then contractors balked at having to labor in the stuffy, stinky underground space. She ended up doing most of the work herself, ripping everything out to start fresh.

Transformation into a Gorgeous Abode

“I’ve always loved the idea of micro-regeneration,” she told The Telegraph. “For me, that’s about saving sites with an interesting history, but which have been abandoned and forgotten.”

The space measures just about 600 square feet and features glass block skylights that pierce the sidewalk above, so when you’re beneath them, you get a hazy view of pedestrians walking by. With all interior walls removed, it now comprises the men’s and ladies’ restrooms along with the accompanying attendant’s offices, and the stairway to the ladies room is now a garden.

Now that it’s complete, with all of Clark’s belongings inside, you’d never guess what it used to be. The space is surprisingly bright despite being underground thanks to those skylights, which flood the entire length of the entire with daylight. White subway tile references the space’s former purpose, but the renovations have obliterated all traces of public restroom funk, and you can’t even tell where the toilets used to be anymore.

Surprisingly Spacious with Bright Natural Light

The white walls give it a sense of spaciousness despite its small dimensions, contrasting with glossy red cabinets and a gilded accent wall behind the bathtub. The sunken outdoor space feels like a secret garden, shielded from view of the public by the original wrought iron fencing.

It’s quite an incredible reclamation of a previously unwanted space, proof positive that there are still inexpensive places to be found for houses in London — as long as you can push visions of thousands of emptying bladders out of your mind while you’re cooking.

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Winter is coming. And if you watch “Game of Thrones” (and even if you don’t), you probably know it doesn’t spell skiing. In all seriousness, though, there are some people who truly are concerned about what is next for our planet: biological weapons, disease outbreaks, giant-scale natural disasters, and global war. And they are building high security shelters. “High net worth families,” in fact, are planning to escape to luxury bomb shelters that are the nec plus ultra in “life insurance.” And when they do, they hire Vivos, which means survival shelters with a museum, movie theaters, pools and restaurants. Really.

Vivos builds private and community underground shelters able to withstand any type of catastrophe. Their glamorous community shelters are based around a co-ownership concept, where the cost is shared by each party. In order to become such an all-risk shelter co-owner, you must first apply to become a Vivos member. Membership itself is free, but then the price gets steep: The Vivos Indiana shelter, which fits 80 hopeful survivors, involves a fee of $35,000 for adults and $25,000 for kids. But what you get is immense. This four-star fortress of a nuclear shelter can handle a 20-megaton blast, tsunami, earthquake and more. Inside, members will find a plethora of amenities, not limited to a theater area, a workshop, bicycles, lounge, medical supplies, you name it.

Vivos also offers so-called Deluxe Quantum Shelters for six to eight people, which can be installed on your own property with an entry tunnel. These are 40’ long x 8’ wide x 8.5’ high and are completely furnished with living area, kitchen, dinette, bathroom and shower. The Vivos Trine Shelter Complex is the most immense option, suited for up to 500 people “with an ample budget to match,” according to the company.

Then there’s the absolutely fantastic Vivos Europa One, “available to just 34 high net worth families.” Coast of admission? A whopping $3 to $5 million. Hidden deep inside a limestone mountain in the German village of Rothenstein, Germany, it’s a giant survival compound constructed by the Soviets during the Cold War to withstand biological warfare, nuclear blasts, shock waves and other horror scenarios. Vivos and his German developer partner bought it for $2.25 million, and according to estimates it’s already worth over a billion dollars.

Vivos is in charge of re-purposing this 227,904 square foot shelter for those who can afford it – and by invite only. The five-star survival complex has a mind-boggling array of amenities and features such as theaters, pools, chapels, nurseries, restaurants, an art exhibit hall, and … you get the idea. The entry will be protected by an armed security force employed by Vivos.

Each family gets “2,500 square foot of floor area, capable of two story improvements for a total of 5,000 square feet of private living quarters.” This space they can design according to their own taste and needs by hiring their own contractors and architects. The sky’s the limit. There’s also the Vivos Global Genome Vault to store – you guessed it – your very own DNA.

Ready? Vivos founder Robert Vicinio certainly is. As he said to the Daily Mail Online: “We are […] living in dangerous and changing times that the uninformed will never understand until the threats are evident. We cannot predict, but we can prepare.”

Apply for space at www.terravivos.com

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A private client with a love of hotel-like luxury and, apparently, a very large interior design budget tasked interior architecture studio Lawson Robb with creating this glamorous underground spa. The spa occupies a subterranean location beneath a listed building in Mayfair, London.

The basement level of the 15,000 square foot residential development began as a maze of rooms. The architects segmented the rooms into distinct zones. A pool, a sauna, massage rooms, a steam room, and a walk-in jet shower all provide for a feeling of extreme luxury.

Creative lighting, vaulted ceilings, and use of mirrors make the underground space seem like a quiet, reverent space perfect for reflection. A glass bridge spans a central light well to bring natural light down into the space.

At one end of the spa, a backlit slab of onyx conceals the remote control pop-up bar. A secret stone stairway takes visitors through the wine cellar and up to the library above.

The classic stonework and rich teak strips are just a part of the overall stunning appearance of this unexpected oasis. The water itself lends an ethereal air to the space. Taken as a whole, it would be difficult to guess that this space is actually beneath ground in an historically significant building. It is hidden luxury at its finest.

“Hotel design has for a long time informed the interior design of homes. as more people travel the world, so they bring home global styles,” says Lawson Robb. “They also want to translate that hotel service into their own environments; if they can pay for comfort while on holiday, why not have the same at home?”

About Lawson Robb: “Design means extracting the DNA of an idea and seeing what can be developed from it. Each project has its own story to tell. It is a project’s identity that sets it apart, and our design schemes are not merged into the uniformity and trends of today. The success of the studio is attributed to the uniqueness of each design and bespoke approach to each project. Good interiors design is more than the way things look, it is about how the space is used, the person who inhabits it and enhancing the environment.”

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