Who owns underground bunkers

Super-rich building luxury doomsday bunkers. Owners have access to their homes and the facilities at anytime, whether a disaster is imminent or they just want to get away from it all, and the complex features a pool, general store, theater, bar and library. The condo association sets the rules for the community, and during an emergency, owners would be required to work four hours a day. Long-term luxury. If you prefer to spend the end of days solo, or at least with hand-selected family and friends, you may prefer to consider The Oppidum in the Czech Republic, which is being billed as "the largest billionaire bunker in the world.

The top-secret facility, once a joint project between the former Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia now the Czech Republic and Slovakia , was built over 10 years beginning in The site now includes both an above-ground estate and a 77,square-foot underground component. While the final product will be built out to the owner's specifications, the initial renderings include an underground garden, swimming pool, spa, cinema and wine vault.

While many might see the luxury amenities at these facilities as unnecessary, the developers argue that these features are critical to survival. Still under construction, the elite ,square-foot bunker is invitation-only and each privileged invitee is allocated up to 5, square feet of living space. Future residents are free to customise their living space.

The chambers will nod to high-end yacht design and feature lots of marble, polished wood finishes and leather upholstery, and buyers can opt for extras such as private swimming pools, movie theatres and gyms. Bedrooms will be sumptuous and wonderfully comfy, with quality king-size beds, fine wood cabinetry and calming mood lighting, plus the sleeping areas will feature the latest technology, from 4K TVs to smart automation. Although residents can have a private pool installed in their personal chamber, they'll also get to swim in the sizeable community pool.

The pool area leads out into an underground nature garden lit by simulated sunshine. If the end of the world really is nigh, then it's likely some of the residents will want to put their hands together and pray, so Vivos is building a medieval-style chapel within the complex, which will feature a carved wood beam ceiling and virtual stained glass windows.

Perfect for binge-watching films or TV shows from the pre-apocalyptic days, the Vivos Europa One movie theatre will provide residents with a mind-bogglingly massive library of content, from romcoms to cookery shows. The complex will also house a bar with a micro-brewery. A sort of Noah's Ark, Vivos Europa One will have its very own zoo, with a specially selected collection of animals to safeguard their survival should a mass extinction event occur.

Besides the zoo, the complex will include a mini museum and artefacts room, as well as a DNA and seed vault. Built during the Cold War, the underground complex can withstand a 20 megaton blast.

The retro subterranean shelter can accommodate up to 80 people when the apocalypse draws near. Comparing itself to a four-star hotel, the huge bunker is comfortably furnished and decorated. At 10, square feet, it has been designed to accommodate residents for one year and is fitted out with plenty of food and medical supplies. The deluxe main living area feels spacious with foot-high ceilings and a formal dining area.

Filled with plush leather sofas, wall art, towering faux ferns and plush carpets, we wouldn't mind hiding out here. Although arranged in bunks, the beds come with double mattresses and are laid with high-quality thread count sheets. The bedrooms also have wardrobes and abundant storage space, so all you need to bring with you is your clothes, along with any medication.

The bunker also houses multiple luxury bathrooms, a repair shop, gun safe and patient care centre. There's no need to worry about law and order either, as it even has a detention area to keep residents in line. The state-of-the-art kitchen has everything you'd ever need and is stocked with 60 varieties of food including freeze-dried and canned goods.

If you're stuck down here for a while, you won't be without fresh produce either as the bunker has a hydroponic garden that can grow vegetables such as tomatoes and courgettes. The bunker has every need catered for, including those of your four-legged friends, with an array of kennels to keep pets.

It also has a sound-proofed engine room that houses two generators with enough diesel to power the shelter for over a year.

In the s and s, the US government persecuted and prosecuted many survivalists in an effort to stamp out the movement, which by that time included up to three million Americans. Their suppression gave rise to wider frustrations and further anti-government sentiment. Determining that people were becoming "paranoid", the government then ratcheted up surveillance, which just led to more militancy. Most preppers today, in contrast, take a distinctly defensive stance in an effort to distance themselves from the politics of early survivalists, focusing more on practicalities than partisan ideological debates.

Yet media-driven perceptions often paint crude portraits of them. Walking through the multi-million dollar Survival Condo, built with full planning permission from the State of Kansas, it is obvious that a lot has changed in a few short decades.

When Hall took me on a tour of the condo in , he explained that "the whole idea was that we could build a green doomsday structure that someone can use as a second home that also happens to be a nuclear-hardened bunker".

Hall called it a safe, self-contained, and sustainable "experiment in architecture" — the subterranean equivalent of the Arizona State University Biosphere 2 project. Biosphere 2, also known as the "Greenhouse Ark", was one of the most ambitious projects in communal isolation ever orchestrated.

The three-acre complex had seven "biomes" under glass. In , a crew of four men and four women locked themselves into see if they could survive in a closed system for two years. It concluded with "infighting among the scientists, malnutrition, and other social and environmental pitfalls", according to one of the original crew members.

Hall, however, remained convinced he could improve on the model:. People try to build systems like this on their farms and they get infiltrated by bugs Hall said that his bunker was good practise for closed systems, such as space travel.

Bunkers like Survival Condo, found as far afield as remote villages in Thailand, are distinctly private endeavours that seek to use renewable technologies to decrease dependence on state infrastructure. Survival Condo is also part of a growing desire to "prep" in the most sustainable way possible without necessarily forgoing the comforts of late capitalism. This is a worldview steeped in dread about the speculative unknown. But it's not cheap to buy your way out of the existential conundrum.

Since "doomstead" mortgages are yet a thing, only cash buyers need apply. Incredibly, not only has Hall sold every space in the first silo, he's now building out a second one, 20 minutes away.

This fact reflects an obvious, and growing, unease about the future. Originally built during World War One to store munitions, these bunkers are now fast becoming the largest prepper community on Earth. Back in Kansas, I followed Hall through one of the 16,lb 7. The system can filter 10, gallons 45, litres of water a day into three electronically-monitored 25,gallon ,litre tanks.

Power to the bunker is supplied by five different redundant systems — so, if one goes down, there are four backups. This is crucial, since as a life support system, losing power would kill everyone in the facility. At some point we know that wind turbine is going to go too. Survival Condo has both private and communal areas, as you might find in any high-rise development. But in this tower block, during full lockdown mode there can be no external support.

It must function as a closed system, where people are kept both healthy and busy until they are able to emerge. Experiments in enclosed life-support systems conducted by the military for submarines and scientists for spacecraft have often neglected to consider social systems after lockdown. Hall says he recognises that sustainability is not simply about technical functionality. On my tour he opened another door to a 50,gallon ,litre indoor swimming pool verged by a rock waterfall, lounge chairs and a picnic table.

It offers spacious condos with many amenities including a community swimming pool, dog walking park, rock climbing wall, theatre, and even a general store. According to the website, all of these facilities are underground and encompassed by walls that are 2. Another such real estate project — The Oppidum, located in the Czech Republic, claims to be the largest billionaire bunker in the world.

The two-tier underground quarters feature a swimming pool, a spa, wine cellar, garden with simulated natural light, and medical and surgical facilities, among other things. It covers a total space of 77, sq ft with 13 foot high ceilings. Constructed during , at the height of the Cold War, the bunker can provide accommodation to residents for up to 10 years - without the need for external supplies. According to the website, this acre above and below ground hardened facility is capable of withstanding a nuclear blast, a direct airliner crash, biological and chemical agents, massive shock waves, earthquakes, electro-magnetic pulses, flooding, and virtually any armed attack.