Ideas Factory/ the foundry

29 on the go · 3 materials
nothing here is finished

The bunker family room, lit only by lamps, with no windows. A long run of oak kitchen units with a limestone top and a ceramic butler sink is on the left, under open oak shelves of jars, tins and pottery, lit from beneath. Floor-to-ceiling oak shelves of books and board games fill the right. In the middle, a linen sofa with a patterned throw, a worn leather armchair and a heavy oak coffee table with a chess set and a teapot, on limestone flags under dark oak beams and lime plaster. In the foreground is an oak table with a half-finished jigsaw. At the far end, a pair of oak doors stands open onto a corridor with a heavy dark steel door closed at its end. Off brief: the kitchenette is a full kitchen run with a large butler sink and bridge tap, where the brief asks for a small deep sink. The rugs are chunky jute rather than undyed wool. The steel door is seen whole and face on at the end of the corridor, where the brief has only its edge just visible as the one hint. Against the drawings, the steel door anyone sees from the clean side is the gas-tight door. The blast door is in the stair core, beyond the airlock and decontamination room.

← the floorStorm Watch House/levels·if / 071

Bunker level

581 m², the whole lower floor, built against forced entry, fire, ballistics, blast and fallout, and sealed for two weeks.

The card

levels 02 of 03

Bunker level

levels 02 of 03idea_071

The notes

rendered

The whole lower floor is the bunker, 581 m² inside, under a 600 mm reinforced concrete roof at −4.20. It is built against forced entry, fire, ballistics, blast and fallout, and sealed for two weeks. The bunker floor grew in Rev C because the old courtyard space is now enclosed, and it is built to a higher standard.

the plan

The hall is the spine of the bunker and reaches everything. The air plant sits at the east end beside the tunnel and is ducted along the service corridor. The battery room is fire separated and has its own vent to outside.

Everything stays below rather than doubling as the house: a bunkroom for six, a family room with its kitchenette, a cinema, a gym, a sauna and plunge, cellars and aquaponics. The office with the comms is down here too.

Arrival from the house runs in one direction only, and so does the tunnel from the barn. That sequence has its own page.

inside

The same as upstairs: lime plaster, oak, limestone flags. The family room is meant to feel like a cosy, well-loved basement snug rather than a shelter. The only hint of what the place is should be the steel doors.

rooms

Space Area
Dry stores 26 m²
Water reserve 15 m²
Office + comms room 39 m²
Aquaponics: trout + greens 23 m²
Air plant + filtration 27 m²
Bunkroom, 6 berths 46 m²
Hidden stair + lift 13 m²
Airlock 18 m²
Decon showers 15 m²
Gym 30 m²
Battery room 20 m²
Cinema 42 m²
WCs + shower 16 m²
Family room + kitchenette 45 m²
Wine 10 m²
Root cellar 10 m²
Bulk stores 39 m²
Sauna, plunge + showers 45 m²
Tunnel airlock 11 m²
Corridors 93 m²
Bunker internal 581 m²

the renders against the drawings

Both bunker renders show a steel door off the clean side. In the Rev C order, the only door the clean side meets is the gas-tight door. The blast door faces the stair, on the far side of the airlock and decontamination room. The bunker hall prompt was written before that order was corrected, so its render shows the blast door where the gas-tight door should be.

The drawings

2 sheets
Bunker level plan, sheet A-100 rev B, 1 m grid, inside a sealed, filtered-air envelope under the house. The hidden stair and lift arrive in the stair core, and the blast door leads from it into the airlock, then the decontamination showers, then the gas-tight door into the bunker hall. Round the hall and a cross corridor are the dry stores, water reserve, office and comms room, bunkroom with six berths, aquaponics with trout and greens, air plant and filtration, battery room, gym, cinema, WCs and shower, the family room with its kitchenette, wine, root cellar, bulk stores, and sauna and plunge. At the north-east corner, a tunnel airlock leads off to the barn, about 35 m away.
01 · Bunker level plan
Section A-A, sheet A-201 rev B, cut north-east to south-west through the courtyard. On the lane side, natural ground drops to the sunken forecourt and the entrance hall. The courtyard garden is open to the sky at ground floor level, with the kitchen and dining behind it and the storm porch on the south-west face looking out to the weather. Over the house is a planted earth roof with 600 mm of soil, and the flue pier in the field wall is beyond. Below is the 600 mm concrete bunker roof, then the office and comms room, decon, corridor, family room and cellar in a sealed, waterproof concrete box to BS 8102 Grade 3 with a land drain. Levels are +3.40 at the roof, ±0.00 at ground floor and −4.20 at the bunker floor, and the ground falls away to the ha-ha on the south-west side. The drawing is shown 60 px wider than the source so that the level labels are not cut off.
02 · Section A-A

The plates

2 · lift any one out
The bunker family room, lit only by lamps, with no windows. A long run of oak kitchen units with a limestone top and a ceramic butler sink is on the left, under open oak shelves of jars, tins and pottery, lit from beneath. Floor-to-ceiling oak shelves of books and board games fill the right. In the middle, a linen sofa with a patterned throw, a worn leather armchair and a heavy oak coffee table with a chess set and a teapot, on limestone flags under dark oak beams and lime plaster. In the foreground is an oak table with a half-finished jigsaw. At the far end, a pair of oak doors stands open onto a corridor with a heavy dark steel door closed at its end. Off brief: the kitchenette is a full kitchen run with a large butler sink and bridge tap, where the brief asks for a small deep sink. The rugs are chunky jute rather than undyed wool. The steel door is seen whole and face on at the end of the corridor, where the brief has only its edge just visible as the one hint. Against the drawings, the steel door anyone sees from the clean side is the gas-tight door. The blast door is in the stair core, beyond the airlock and decontamination room.
01 · The bunker family room
The bunker hall, a long corridor with lime plaster walls, dark oak beams, limestone flags and a long jute runner, with heavy oak doors either side, oak console tables, a bench and brass wall lights. One oak door on the right has a small glazed panel with the ducts and cabinets of the air plant room behind it. Small steel air grilles are set in the ceiling. In the near left wall, a massive dark steel door about 25 cm thick stands fully open on heavy hinges, with its row of locking bolts showing on the edge. Through it is a bright lime-plastered room, then a second steel door standing open, with a stainless steel shower beyond. Close to its prompt. Off brief: the steel door is at the near end rather than midway along the hall, and dark charcoal rather than green-grey. Against the drawings, the prompt itself is out of date: in the Rev C entry order the clean hall only meets the gas-tight door. The blast door faces the stair, on the far side of the airlock and decontamination room, so the door in this view should be the gas-tight door with the decon showers immediately behind it.
02 · The bunker hall