The First Zombie-Proof House | Hacker News Reader

The First Zombie-Proof House

all-that-is-interesting.com

60 pointsSwannie31 comments

Have we learned nothing from watching zombie movies? It's not the zombies you need to watch out for, they are slow shambling wrecks. It's the other human beings' reactions as society crumbles that'll really scare you.

Very true, people's emotions tend to take over any rational thinking, and the results are pretty scary.

That said, your comment reminds me of a particular part in the game Left 4 Dead(a zombie FPS) where you see graffiti scrawled along the walls on one particular safehouse that reads, "MAYBE WE ARE THE MONSTERS, NOT THEM!" with an arrow pointing to another bit that reads "Hey asshole, have you looked outside?!" :)

Speaking of which, I highly recommend World War Z by Max Brooks. It is a brilliant book and provides an amazing insight into human and society behaviour in time of crisis.

http://www.amazon.com/World-War-Oral-History-Zombie/dp/03073...

Hell is other people!

It's easy to make a "zombie-proof house," but it's not easy to make one that you can withstand a long-term siege in. You'd have to either beat off the zombies or come up with a way to feed yourself, otherwise you've just made a nice-looking coffin for you and yours.

Agreed. It's clearly not zombie proof, as there is no attached garage with a APC in ;-)

Clearly built to withstand a non-casual attack until the police get there. But once they are on the roof, I suspect it is game over, as it appears there is solar heating. Unless the pipes for that are locked down too...

As somebody who lives in the Eastern hemisphere, I've never understood the apparent zombie obsession of the West.

I understand that in video games and movies we need "bad guys" whom we won't feel bad killing. And for that, zombies and merciless aliens (the UFO kind) are ideal. But making an actual house based on the premise of a zombie apocalypse?! That's serious.

Zombie films are rarely about zombies, they're about us. The humans become zombie feed because they are incapable of working together, even when faced with unfeeling, unwavering brain eating machines. George Romero beats this one over the head in his latest film, where is set in the midst of a blood feud.

It's also worth pointing out how, even when humans work together, a single bad decision can make even the most elaborate plans fall apart. There's always one person who has to deviate from the group only to become feed, or in the case of 28 Weeks Later[1], giving a janitor access to the most restricted areas of a military base brings about the second wave of infection.

[1] Yes, technically they weren't "zombies" but that's not what's being debated :)

> As somebody who lives in the Eastern hemisphere, I've never understood the apparent zombie obsession of the West.

Sadly, it is more than an in-joke:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_King_riots

Thanks for the context. After reading that article, I took a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots_in_popul...

The riots really do seem to have had a significant cultural effect.

Everything in Wikipedia has “a significant cultural effect”, because just about any fool can put down the TV remote long enough to add an item to the “In Popular Culture” section of a Wikipedia article.

The riots were a big deal when they happened, but I don’t think they really explain why zombies are popular twenty years later.

It's not so much an obsession with zombies as it is an obsession with post apocalyptic scenarios.

I followed the link given elsethread the original homedsgn.com article, which says that this house was built on the outskirts of Warsaw. Perhaps the owners are concerned that in the future, a large number of working-class Poles will have second thoughts about that whole capitalism thing. Or maybe they travel a lot, and they want to feel assured that nobody will rob or vandalize them while they are away.

It's that type of hubris that gets you killed by a zombie horde. (The commenter the first time around said it well too http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2501608)

Yup. It still is a pretty awesome piece of architecture though of course. :)

http://www.homedsgn.com/2011/04/10/safe-house-by-kwk-promes/

I don't know... That roller door looks like a weak spot. Especially if the zombies have velociraptors.

Roller doors can actually be pretty tough: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gtiQ9qSYj8

It'd be hard to keep it so strong in the middle for such an unusually large shutter, though.

My sentiments exactly. Especially if said raptors are equipped with lasers.

Bah, we have been zombie proofing housing in Europe for years:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle

http://hcpoca.co.uk/images/House-boat-on-River-Murray.jpg <-- actually Zombie-proof house design.

Ok, is it just me or does reading the text on that page give you the feeling that it's computer-generated?

There are so many odd word and phrasing choices (that don't seem like the kind of mistakes a non-native speaker would make), that it seems like it was run through a content munging algorithm or something.

Immediately I see a huge flaw: If the electricity gets shut off before they are able to close up the place it suddenly becomes among the least of zombie-proof houses.

I scarcely think anyone in that mindset to go to that length and expense would overlook backup generators. I would be surprised if the roof were not tiled with solar panels as a second resource.

But if the article is touting it as such I think they would have mentioned those.

That'd be nice if such a contraption be nuclear blastproof and chemo / biohazard-proof too.

Looks like a real winner though, if zombies were a reality. )

It looks pretty much zombie-proof, but you'd need to get those doors and windows closed before the zombie hordes reached you.

That's what they all say. Then the horde arrives.

Does it come with a garden that fights zombies?

this is amazing! I want one.

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