Archinect - News

The bunker business is booming

2020-06-30T19:53:00-04:00

The basic model at Northeast Bunkers is a cylindrical steel vessel eight feet in diameter, in 13- or 20-foot lengths, welded from quarter-inch plate steel and equipped with an entrance hatch on top. Standard features include rust-resistant exterior paint, cedar plank flooring, zero-VOC (volatile organic compounds) interior finishes, two vent ports, floor hatches for storage, and an emergency exit hatch.

Writing in The New York Times, Mira Ptacin surveys the growing demand for underground bunkers across the United States as disease, social unrest, and political instability push some people to prepare for potential worst case scenarios, both real and imagined.

Brian V. Camden, principal of Hardened Structures, a bunker manufacturer, tells Ptacin, “I collaborate with architects, engineers, Navy Seals,” adding, “We have ex-military employees specializing in C.B.R.N. — chemical biological radio nuclear analysis.”

A rusty, post-apocalyptic shipwreck 'crashed' into a skyscraper could soon become Prague's tallest building

2019-09-25T14:42:00-04:00

A giant rusty shipwreck, its bow reaching for the sky, cuts through the main building. Plants growing out of the hull seem to symbolise man’s creation slowly being reclaimed by nature. According to Tomáš Císař, the lead architect of Black n´ Arch studio, which designed the structure, the building also serves as a pedestal for the ship.

While environmental activist Greta Thunberg reminded delegates at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York this week of our planet's dire future prospects, Czech developers Trigema have proposed a post-apocalyptic vision of an enormous rusty shipwreck sculpture leaning upright against, and seemingly crashing into, a high-rise building.

"This is something we wanted to do as a memento which connects art and architecture," Czech Radio quotes the designers, architects Black N' Arch in collaboration with sculptor David Černý, about the climate change-inspired Top Tower proposal which, if realized, could become the tallest building in the Czech Republic. "It is actually a post-apocalyptic message about what is happening around."

Don't believe the hype: Brick-and-mortar retail is here to stay

2019-09-24T19:30:00-04:00

The hypothetical Retail Apocalypse should be supported by a decline in the total retail establishments, but that's not the case. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported 1,044,509 establishments for 2018, for a net gain of 2,413 establishments over 2017 (1,042,096). The 2018 figure also represents a net gain of more than 20,800 establishments since a retail trough in 2011, a low point resulting from the Great Recession.

Sharon Woods, CEO of real estate consultant group LandUseUSA, writes in Public Square, a journal produced by the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) presents an opposing, data-driven view of the future of America's retail landscape.

Woods writes, "The future for brick-and-mortar retail is far less bleak than the scene painted by mainstream media. Although e-commerce is taking a larger share of the pie, brick-n-mortar and physical store sales are also continuing to grow. Most of the chain store closures are limited to certain segments of retail—particularly department stores anchors and apparel tenants of sprawling regional malls and strip centers."

As the chart above notes, much of the retail growth is taking place in chain restaurants, CVS HealthHUB stores, and dollar stores like Dollar Tree and Dollar General.

Japanese photographer Hisaharu Motada envisions a post-apocalyptic Tokyo

2018-09-10T15:38:00-04:00

The work of Japanese photographer Hisaharu Motada envisions what Tokyo might look like in some version of the future. Offering glimpses of doomsday, Motoda's lithographs depict deserted cityscapes, crumbling buildings, monuments overgrown with weeds, and other markings of a post-apocalyptic world. Picturing familiar Tokyo landscapes devoid of humans and overrun by plant life, Motada captures a sense of both the world′s past and its future. In another series, titled Neo-Ruins, he gives the same treatment to notable works such as the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and the Sydney Opera House. Below, a selection of some of his work.

Revelation: Kabukicho I; 2004. Hisaharu Motoda.

Revelation: The Kaminarimon Gate; 2005. Hisaharu Motoda.

Indication: Opera House, Sydney; 2010. Hisaharu Motoda.

30 St Mary Axe (The Gherkin); 2017. Hisaharu Motoda.

Holing up in hoity-toity hovels: doomsday architecture for the super-wealthy

2017-01-24T17:25:00-05:00

Trump is President, the climate is chaos, and the wealth gap is starting to qualify as its own national canyon. So if you've got vats of money and are afraid of all the people who don't, what do you do? Build doomsday architecture to survive the collapse of society! In this piece for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos investigates the luxury bunkers of folks who realize that they'll probably need to plan to take the family of the pilot of their private jet with them, for, you know, maintenance issues (sigh):

Hall led me through the garage, down a ramp, and into a lounge, with a stone fireplace, a dining area, and a kitchen to one side. It had the feel of a ski condo without windows: pool table, stainless-steel appliances, leather couches. To maximize space, Hall took ideas from cruise-ship design. We were accompanied by Mark Menosky, an engineer who manages day-to-day operations. While they fixed dinner—steak, baked potatoes, and salad—Hall said that the hardest part of the project was susta...

A look at the dioramas of apocalypse

2016-06-29T12:54:00-04:00

Their ongoing series -- titled "The City" -- imagines a parallel universe where humankind is extinct and nature has already started to reclaim the concrete jungle. Think of it as a journey through apocalyptic architecture.

Commercial diorama makers Kathleen Gerber and Lori Nix's dystopian art project, "The City," is a miniature labor of love. Each diorama takes about 7 to 15 months to build, primarily because of the intricate level of detail contained within each scene. Check out this post-apocalyptic casino, replete with distressed slot machines and chintzy carpet:

Or this bombed-out circulation desk scene with half-opened card catalog drawers (a physical object filled with index cards that people used to look up library materials before computer searches):

Meanwhile, this subway scene features a decayed downtown, glimpsed through the permanently agape doors:

What's the latest in innovative model-making?

It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel luxurious): high-end apocalypse shelters

2015-10-22T20:14:00-04:00

Vicino's company built Vivos Indiana, an "impervious underground complex" built in a Cold-War-era nuclear shelter and kitted out with luxury amenities. The idea is that you sign up in advance and plunk down $35,000 per person ($25,000 for kids) to secure one of the 80 spots available within the shelter...you can survive for a year amidst leather couches, 600-thread-count sheets and gourmet chow.

"Once through security, the aesthetic makes a drastic shift," notes the narrator of the Travel Channel's video profile of the Vivos Group's underground luxury shelter. Vivo, a company which specializes in creating luxurious accommodations for that rough, between-civilizations feeling, also has a top-of-the-line European version of their shelter, made specifically for "high-net worth families."

Sculptures on NYC's Cathedral of St. John the Divine depict a modern-day apocalypse

2013-10-08T20:09:00-04:00

On the Portal of Paradise on the western façade of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan are sculptures of the end of modern New York. The Brooklyn Bridge is breaking in two, a bus plummeting from it into the water while waves rise up over the toppling skyline. People run in a panic below the Stock Exchange, and next to them a scorpion, snake, and other signs of pestilence swarm a skeleton.

Chinese man spends whole life savings building very own 'Noah's Ark' over fears of impending apocalypse

2012-11-28T17:20:00-05:00

The vessel, which has cost him ¥1million (£100,000), measures 21.2m long, 15.5m wide, 5.6m high and displaces about 140 tons of water. Lu, from Urumqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, admits it's not much to look at, but is confident it will serve its purpose.

RUIN

2012-03-22T18:22:00-04:00

An animated short set in a post-apocalyptic universe.

Subculture of Americans prepares for civilization's collapse

2012-01-23T15:08:00-05:00

Tegeler, 57, has turned her home in rural Virginia into a "survival center," complete with a large generator, portable heaters, water tanks, and a two-year supply of freeze-dried food that her sister recently gave her as a birthday present. She says that in case of emergency, she could survive indefinitely in her home. And she thinks that emergency could come soon. "I think this economy is about to fall apart," she said.

ApocaLego: Building end-times with plastic bricks

2011-11-02T15:55:00-04:00

Kevin "Crimson Wolf" Fedde (work pictured above) builds some of the most detailed and creative ApocaLego dioramas around. Kevin, a college student from Ft. Collins, CO, layers his models with intricate detail and mini shorelines, making them seem almost plausible. While he revels in the requisite "Mad Max" skirmishes, I love how he also shows how people's shanties look like. This is how they scrounge electricity. Those details are far more interesting for me than any battle.