The task was to create a cosy and safe home in the depths of the earth.
“If you don’t listen to the world with an open heart and mind if you don’t pay attention to what’s going on around you, what the air smells like, what people say, the world starts dictating its cruel, cruel rules,” says the founder and creative leader of Ukrainian design, architecture, and ceramics studio, Serhii Makhno.

We offer you a short trip to a depth of 15 metres and below. There is an autonomous house, which competes with ground residences in terms of comfort and equipment.
From the outside, Plan B resembles the entrance to a museum of modern art, or even to a military base. We tried to create a simple and concise form, which in all its perspective would speak of reliability, but also be aesthetically attractive, it would not intimidate and lets you in from both the ground and from the air.

TECHNOLOGICAL "PIE"

According to international recommendations, the upper floor is at a depth of 15 metres. Penetrating deeper our “pie” has the following layers: a living space, a floor with a water treatment system and generator, a layer of electrical equipment, and at the very bottom — a well.

The Plan B bunker has three exits, and the fire-resistant evacuation “ring” can be reached from almost anywhere. This is done in case of the event of danger inside the bunker, its inhabitants do not spend time getting out (especially given the floor area), but can immediately get to the evacuation route, for example, from the bathroom or gym.

Of course, all systems in the Plan B underground building are autonomous. Water supply, sewerage, closed ventilation system with recuperation, intake, and air purification. Whatever happens on the Earth’s surface, life in Plan B will continue.
The systems will be developed in detail at the project stage together with specialized contractors. At present, we have developed a design proposal for the bunker, our vision.

The main building mass is reinforced concrete, the strongest duo, and the optimal cost. The doors are automatic but have the option of manual control. Directly next to the entrance to the bunker, there is a disinfection shield, and behind it — is a quartz zone.

The main spiral staircase and elevator lead to the underground building, as well as two flights of spiral staircases for staff and loading stocks — so the flows are distributed and do not interfere with each other.

RESOURCE
Let’s start with the fact that we have arranged a fish pool. In a separate room, there is a garden with Phyto equipment, where you can grow vegetables and some fruits. Also on the living floor, there is a large warehouse of food. Staff rooms are grouped in a separate areas.

In the underground building Plan B, there is a separate room for medical care, with an isolator and a closed area for storing stocks of medicines.

“Security comes first. My priority was ensuring comfortable sleep, temperature, quality food, water, and air. The rest is just for comfort,” says the studio’s chief engineer Olha Sobchyshyna.

MASTER BEDROOM "MICKEY"
At first glance, these apartments are no different from the terrestrial ones. A minimalistic and calm space, where a Kaws guards your dreams, and above the bed, are the author’s KHMARA clouds from Serhii Makhno, which never rains. But if you pay attention to the architecture of the design, you will notice the lack of sharp angles — the shape of the room is almost cylindrical. This technique is not often used in terrestrial architecture, but here it immediately helps us to create the illusion of infinity as if the walls do not exist.

Opposite the bed, there is a stone garden, which ends with a highly sensitive screen window, the view of which can be changed at a touch of a button on the control panel of the Smart Home system — for example, snow-capped mountains or a sleepy morning street in Kyiv. Moreover, you can “open” the window and feel a light breeze or the smell of freshly cut grass.

MASTER BEDROOM "IVY"
Again, we do not divide the space by walls in the usual way. Between the thematic areas — only weightless partitions, which are as part of a maze that begins far beyond the horizon and ends somewhere on the other side of the world. On a physical level, it feels like there is something behind them, leading into infinity.

In this room, for the first time in our project, stainless steel appears. When we thought about which of the materials we would like to take with us underground, this was one of the first. Concise, practical, and suitable for different types of premises. Here it simultaneously divides and connects the wardrobe and the shower room.

The second trick we used in this room was a game with several levels of light. The design of the ceiling provides an allusion to a light lantern: in the ceiling, there is a dome with a LED system, which gives the impression that above us there is the floor with windows and in these windows, there is the sky.

The space is as empty as possible, it is a place of peace, where there is nothing to be bored with during a long stay in these walls. Of the decorations, there is only quiet ivy, which does not need the sun for happiness.

“Modern people are too accustomed to freedom and lack of restrictions. Life in a bunker, even a very comfortable one, is life within frames. We tried to design the space so that people could feel them minimally, ” says a co-author of the project, architect Ihor Havrylenko.

FAMILY VALUES
Places of common use are as close as possible to how we used to live on Earth. Here is a large dining table where all inhabitants can gather together. A library where you can stay alone, but where you will not be alone. A cinema with comfortable chairs, powerful acoustics, a 5D system, and a collection of the best films of all time.

HEALTHY BODY, HEALTHY SPIRIT, AND FUTURE

We paid a lot of attention to the areas of sports, recreation, and recovery. The physical and spiritual bodies are integral units, and when one feels bad, the other cannot feel good.

Let’s start with the pool area. It is separated from the general sports zone by a screen and due to lighting it strongly differs in the mood. There is no daylight in the pool, the main source of light here is greenish lighting at the bottom of the pool. Bluish walls, islands of “earth” — it seems like you are swimming in the night sea, not in a soulless sports pool.

The area of exercise bikes is filled with the same drive as disco halls: lighting and acoustics are appropriate here. The zone of multifunctional simulators is already a classic gym with daylight and concentration on achieving the set goals.

Thanks to such solutions, we create different scenarios, anticipating different moods: from meditatively drifting by in an imaginary sea to a hardcore workout on the back muscles.

And once more we meet the rounding of the space, it doubles in the mirrors, the flow of walls into the ceiling — all to create a feeling of lightness, infinity.


"FOR COMFORT": BIKE PATH AND WALKS WITH A PET

Plan B did not forget about possible pets, equipping a special area for walking dogs. Here everything is at a maximum as on the street: wood, stones, grass. The evacuation circle can also serve as a place for long walks and cycling.

We tried to convey the physical world as much as possible at the expense of materials and simplicity of decisions. And the intangible world — at the expense of architectural techniques, technologies, and human imagination.