2010 Entries
(voting has ended, but here are the 2010 Entries)
Entry One: 40 Day Z POD
Entry Two: SS Huckleberry
Entry Three: Mountain Getaway
This one was based on an individual that escapes from the zombie horde by balloon attached to his house seeing no way out from the zombie engulfed city. Of course, being attached to the house doesn’t allow for much steering, so the man drifts along until he decides to set himself down in a mountain crevice. Of course the landing causes the house to split up and he has to makes due with hand built ladders and walkways. But he dose have his living quarters with in the house and they are still functional. Time passes and the man realizes that the zombies have evolved and are beginning to scale the mountains to reach him. So while they are scuttling around the base of the mountain he begins tunneling and fortifying the mountain with safe havens and traps. The mountain walls have spikes made form the trees that were once on top and in the mountain, save one (for prosperities sake), and a pit with spikes with a shaky bridge discourage uncoordinated zombies from making it into the living quarters that can only be entered through a small hidden passage. Of course should the zombies ever break the forts defenses the two means of escape are by the balloon, thereby taking the useful part of the house with him, or by boat, which scoots along out the mountain an down twisty rivers. Ok, there are some logistic problems, but it was more fun to draw it like this.
Entry Four: Sears Roebuck 003-b
Some of you younger people might not know this but back many – many years ago you could order whole houses from the Sears and Roebuck Catalog. Yes, whole house kits would be shipped to you’re site. In the spirit of that I thought that what if our survivalist couldn’t make it out of town. Well if he had the forethought to purchase one of this kits (with a 5 year warranty), when the apocalypse ensues and the derelict buildings with just their steel skeletons dot the landscape remain, you can put up your zombie fort, complete with all the amenities of home and completely impenetrable. Roof garden and solar cells on roof not shown.
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Zombie Safe House Competition 
[…] Source/credits | zombiesafehouse.wordpress.com […]
[…] The idea of building zombie safehouses is not a new one. Most recently in 2011, a contest was held for the best idea in a zombie safehouse. Dozens of entries were posted. To find the entries to the 2010 contest, click here. […]
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[…] paar Menschen die Zombieapokalyse überleben, wo würden sie leben? Wie sehen ihre Zufluchten aus? 2010 und 2011 gab es eine Zombie Safe House Competition, die tolle Entwürfe präsentiert, wie Menschen […]
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I'm a software developer. That's what the bulk of the STEM H-1Bs are going to be doing (a number of them have been my co-workers). So I should be the one objecting to them driving down my wages. No, I say JUMP ON THIS DEAL. The random &qots;diveruity" lottery is ridiculous, hence Downes complete lack of defense. I'd rather than immigrant compete with me than pay less taxes than they'll receive in social services and cause social dysfunction.
Looking at the different safe houses I can see a lot of good points to each. Except using toxic waste from zombies as fuel. If people can come back after a gun shot without a bite or scratch (remake of Night of the living dead) then its air born. Using the sludge would create toxic clouds causing the living to become infected or carriers faster. Then there’s the zombie powered hamster wheel. Good idea until Murphy’s law takes affect. The first few body part to fall off “WILL” clog the wheel causing other zombies to fall, creating a huge mess. Now lets look at building up the land, creating your own personal mountain another good idea until they start communicating with one another (Land of the dead) and if they were experienced rock climbers when alive then they will remember.That bring us to other talents like swimming,pilots and even a captain of the smallest vessel. Now we have another problem. The animals that feed on the infected (birds in Resident Evil). Great! Now we have zombie critters which should exclude the towers. And burying yourself underground isn’t the best option (Dawn of the dead).Another situation, you think your helping someone to safety then realize they have totally lost it or never had it together to begin with (Zombie Diaries) and you find yourself fighting zombies and the insane. With all these situations and others I haven’t thought of or may not know.The only thing we can do when it happens, if it happens! Stay a comfortable safe distance and monitor their progress,don’t bring attention to yourself and try to figure things out as they happen. Good luck, stay strong and use your supplies and ammunition wisely.
[…] Architects Southwest ha patrocinado un evento interesante, hermoso y divertido a un tiempo: una competición entre arquitectos para diseñar la mejor fortaleza posible para sobrevivir a un Apocalipsis Zombi: Zombie Safe House Competition. […]
Number 3 is gay you will get killed right away. Its design is very stupid.
[…] hier kann man alle Beiträge zu der 2010er Competitions einsehen. […]
[…] del videojuego Zombies Ate My (Stupid) Neighbor (imperdible para los cultistas del juego), el mejor lugar donde estar en caso de plaga zombie y Kim Jong-il mirando cosas. […]
[…] about the 2010 Zombie Safe House Competition before the deadline back in August. There were only four entries, overall, but I think the winning SS Huckleberry, shown above, would’ve been hard to beat […]
Having lived on the Mississippi in Wisconsin for 30 years, the SS Huckleberry is designed wrong. You’d want a barge to push the rest. If you were to use a tug to pull it, it would get blown all over the river and ground or reach shore when you don’t want to. Look on the river, ever see a boat PULLING anything larger than a skier? Just sayin’.
[…] web he visto una cosa curiosa/graciosa: un concurso para arquitectos, que tienen que diseñar un refugio a prueba de zombies. Te cagas la de tiempo libre que tienen […]
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dude im thinking a castle with a draw bridge and big ass glass lined moat filled with hydrochloric acid would work best. you would have to build some sort of open tent like structure around the moat to keep the water out of it. im no scientist, but i think acid doest stop eating away at something until its 100% gone so u wouldnt have to change it. im not illiterate i just dont care about .’F(caps) stuff like that. if i wanted to make a REALLY dumb suggestion it would be get 10million cardboard cout outs of the jersey shore chick snookie and lay them all out. when the hoard of zombies sees that they’ll eat themselves…. if i saw that today i would.
Love these mate! I think the boat idea is the best but it would be best done as a floating militia with a division specifically to raid ports and another specifically to fend off other floaters.
Yeah, the first one doesn’t have coherant architectural drawings. And the fire shoots towards the inside of the house?! The third one is a great drawing, but the second would probably be my choice. The armour on the fourth is superfluous in many areas (especially the staircase, which is only ever partially covered).
Wow. These are the most retarded/logistically impossible zombie safehouse ideas I have ever seen.
Pressure sensitive chainsaws? Rooms that “sense” if a Zombie is inside? A balloon that floats your house away? An automated process to turn zombies into diesel fuel? Seriously wtf. Anyway, #2 is the least retarded, but was there any sort of “realism” requirement for these?
(Nick) Basically yes you are right, some of the suggestions made are far out of reach and seem unlikely, but no limitations were set and therefore up to interpretation. Be sure join the FB page for updates on the 2011 Zombie Safe House Competition, solving the zombie apocalypse issue will take more than these 4 entries. (thanks for the comments)
“realism” really – it’s zombies – you know, those made up creatures – they’re not real you know.
You’ll be one of the first to go
You’re asking if there were realism requirements for a zombie safehouse? It’s a ZOMBIE safe house. Is it really that disappointing that the entries aren’t realistic?
From reading other websites that posted links to this comp, this was just a fun competition amongst coworkers that exploded. Thankfully, because of the seemingly unexpected interest throughout the inter-webz, this competition looks like it will be a yearly thing with much more entries.
Thanks for the fun Architects Southwest.
I think the entry 2 needs a 2nd tug at the rear, similar to a locomotive. I am very skeptical that the Mississippi River is wide enough to do a 180 turn with a train of barges. Even if maneuverability would be possible, the use of a second tug would act as a fail safe in the event the tow line broke on a particular barge.
The ZPod is just absurd and in many ways wrong about standard zombie lore (Zombies don’t sleep – EVER. The dead have no need for sleep.) and the chainsaws would only make lots of noise and attract more zombies, and would eventually gum up with zombie gore anyways.
The Mountain Getaway has no apparent means of providing food or other basic necessities for survival. Also, zombies that evolve to climb are not really standard to zombie lore either, though are present in at least some versions.
The Roebuck is interesting but insufficient. A roof garden will not provide enough food long term for survival, and the building sticks out like a sore thumb – surviving a zombie apocalypse also means surviving the other survivors, many of whom will turn to raiding other survivors.
The SS Huckleberry is clearly the superior design among the four. It certainly isn’t without it’s issues, but among the designs it’s really the only one that addresses the practical issues of surviving in a zombie infested world. It also has the advantage of being modular – you could add, remove, or rearrange the barges as needed. Also, having multiple tugs would be helpful in this regard. Most of the problems with it can be addressed in one fashion or another.
The fuel source is the big problem. Zombies would be a bad fuel source, even if they are plentiful. You put yourself at high risk when you go out hunting large packs of zombies needed to fuel your boat. The chemicals needed to break down the zombies would also become an issue, as you won’t just be able to go down to Home Depot and get more when you run out. There’s also the issue of having to constantly deal with zombie stench, which will affect morale. Fortunately, there are possible alternatives. Assuming you’ve been building this before the apocalypse, you could rig up a system based on oil producing algae technology. The only real possible problem remaining with fuel is if your fuel barge catches fire, but this can again be solved with multiple tugs – if your fleet consists of at least two or three barge groups, you’ll have backups.
The only other problem I can see is security – you’ll need to put gun emplacements and other security measures on the barges to help deal with hostile survivors. Some kind of armored railing would also help, since you’re wide open to gunfire with the current design.
The only thing I don’t like about the SS Huckleberry is the lack of variety in the food. Wheat generally needs to be milled into flour — I’d ditch the wheat, expand the beans, and add chickens for meat & eggs and a few sheep for milk, plus their wool might be useful for something. I’d take it to the East Coast rather than the Mississippi and have gear do to some fishing. But yeah, I vote Huckleberry.
Sorry, but the ship is a death trap. A fire would render that thing a killing machine faster than a zombie horde floating in the water. (most zombies will float ya know).
It’s too big to have any real speed and would be IMPOSSIBLE to turn around in the river. One zombie (or any life threatening situation) on board and you’d have to be swimming through swamp waters infested with more than just zombies.
And What about repairs. This baby will only have a certain lifespan or what if there is a malfunction, you’ll eventually have to come to shore to fix it, and then you’ll have to fight the zombies.
Fire would make any safehouse a deathtrap. However, the only dangerous area would be the z-diesel barge, so in case of a fire you could simply set it adrift, possible sacrificing the greenhouses since explosions would break the glass anyway.
Floating zombies would not be a problem, since they can’t get on a barge from the water. And even if they somehow got aboard, the elevated living quarters give more safety.
As far as shelter goes, islands and ships are good safe havens. Land-based shelters tend to get overwhelmed by herds of zombies.
A cargo ship with dried food, a tanker to provide fuel and you could keep a city alive.
You’d have to keep a tight control on who or what enters, obviously. Most safehouses fall when an infected person is allowed in. (In Highschool of the Dead, Air Force 1 is downed when the president’s wife turned zombie after a bite earlier.) Keeping zombified family members locked in a room almost always ends in disaster, as is keeping one chained up for ‘research’ purposes…
definitely entry two
ZPod- aside from how bad an idea ‘touch activated chainsaws’ are the rest of the design makes little to no sense. Zombies dont sleep during the day. that would be vampires. you have the incinerators aimed inwards to cook the human. though to be honest, i’d love to be flambéed to death if i had to live in a ‘ZombiePod’ (fail)
SS Huckleberry- there would need to be a fleet of these with interchangeable bargeloads or more living quarters for the event of survivors- (best idea presented)
Mountain Getaway – an inaccessible hot air balloon or a sailboat in a mountain. the two slowest possible escape vehicles, with no livingquarters presented.
while it is a well thought out drawing- no doubt part of a grander design. (minimum passing grade)
Sears Roebuck 003b – while it is the most technical drawing. what am i looking at? a heavily armored Staircase and an open air building? you’d die from the elements before the zombies ever had a chance to get you. impressive drawing, but not good enough. (fail)
Zombies need to rest, sleep, go to work, and take coffee break to cast a vote!!! other wise we will turn into a Zombies.
Um, none of these make any damn sense. These people obviously know nothing about zombies.
While I approve of the concept of the SS Huckleberry (keep moving! Stay isolated!), the Mississippi would be a terrible waterway to be on in case of civilization failure.
While it was clear and navigable in Mark Twain’s time, nowadays locks and dams block the river at every major city from St. Louis to Minneapolis – and you’re not getting past those unless there are humans to operate them and electricity to power them.
Not to mention all of the bridges across the river that may have been dynamited to try and stop the spread of zombie hordes.
If you want to be on a boat during the zombie apocalypse, the American Pacific coast is probably the best place to be.
Of course, the solution to the issues with the Mississippi is to take the flotilla out on the intracoastal waterway. You’ll want someone who has some weather knowledge so that you can watch out for hurricanes and the like. But other than that, you have access to the entire Gulf Coast and with a short jaunt around Florida, the East Coast.
You could also upgrade that tug to a larger, better armed vessel, say a Coastie Cutter with a 3″ gun, and just shoot your way through locks and downed bridges.
Fail. There are no locks or dams on the Mississippi, at least not from St. Louis to New Orleans. However, in Mark Twain’s time navigating the river was a relegated to local ‘river pilots’ who could safely direct a steam boat down the river channel and avoid sand bars, etc.
Note that I said, specifically, “From St. Louis to Minneapolis”. New Orleans to St. Louis is entirely south of the region I specified. Reading comprehension fail. My point about downed bridges still stands, though.
Zombies do not sleep! ZPod Fail! SSHuckleberry ftw.
SS Huckleberry has great profound concept , mobility=security, a future Noah’s Arch , well explored, thumb’s up
We absolutely love this competition and posted a call for votes on our websites Bustler and Archinect. Eager to see who’ll be the winning design!
#3 for the win! Love the steampunk-esque style.
YEAH! 3 is best
Steampunk = FAIL Keep dreaming you will be a zombie soon.
#2 FTMFW
This is a most useful coirtibutnon to the debate
I don’t agree with Ileana. Monkey is not at all an unusual animal. It does not deserve to be among top 10 unusual pets. In my opinion it is just a common animal even if it is very similar with people. There are many other animals which could be part of these top 10 unusual pets.
im thinking the ss huckleberry would be the only outfit i would go for, think about it, some guy says “come with me if you want to live” yet has no details to back up his claims??? just sayin
I like Huckleberry for the “scientific” approach it takes, but if it was required to be land-based, it would probably be the Sears one. The steampunk one is kind of cool, but the z-pod just doesn’t make sense.