We haven’t seen the original Cloverfield film, and having seen trailers of it, the found footage nature of it doesn’t really appeal to me anyway. This one, however, seemed much more interesting so we were keen to give it a go. John Goodman doing a turn as the creepy guy in a bunker was brilliant and terrifying at the same time. And I absolutely loved how kick-ass Mary Winstead’s character was, resourceful and clever, brave without being irritating.

My interest in forts, bunkers and castles is well-documented, and recently I managed to squeeze in a visit to another place of interest that falls into this category. Somehow, it is both fort and castle, as Hurst Castle on the south coast was initially a Tudor dwelling, converted into a sea defending fort during the war. The castle is at the end of long shingle walkway that takes it out of you if you try and walk it. Well, so I’m told. Naturally, I took a boat.

As I’m sure you’re aware, I’m always on the lookout for things of a subterranean nature, and Steven very kindly pointed out this Cold War mansion in Las Vegas, as featured on The Verge. 26 feet underneath Las Vegas, a worried individual built a bunker to resist any Cold War activities. What I love about this, and what I haven’t seen in underground dwellings in the past, is the way there’s a fake outdoors. The building has a roof, there are trees, a golf course, all sorts.

There have been quite a few bunker items in the news and wider media recently, none of which I have managed to write about. So here, instead, is a summary of five of the most recent. This was pointed out to me by Mr C who saw it on Twitter from someone else (crediting is hard when you have terrible memories like us), but as the end of the world is rapidly approaching… again… people are starting to notice that burrowing underground or under the sea could be useful. The Daily Mail have gathered together some of the so-called best bunkers. The hotel in the Maldives that has rooms underwater is really quite freaky and also very cool! Meanwhile, this Doomsday Preppers thing is catching on. Apparently there is a program on the National Geographic channel following some, er, dedicated types as they prepare for the worst. There’s also a game based on the concept too. Both of these things I have not seen/tried but will have to check out soon. A while back, I was pointed in the direction of a marvellous underground home that was built in the remains of an old reservoir. It looks stunning, if a little like the Teletubbies hillock, but my main concern is if it is in a former reservoir, will it not fill up with water when it rains. The always excellent In Focus photo site has a recent post about polygamists living in the rock in Utah. Let’s ignore the religious/political aspects of this, living in the rock seems very caveman and very cool! Except the part where you have to blow massive holes in the rock in the first place with explosives. That sounds less cool and more dangerous. Finally, I found some photos of old bunkers that were created under the streets of Moscow, when there was concern about the threat of nuclear war. Now they have been turned into a museum/bar/restaurant/strip club. As you do. It looks very odd, kind of like a space ship, but hey, making use of crumbling bunkers is always fine by me. Annoyingly, I also know that there was a recent episode of Grand Designs where they looked at yet another underground establishment. Mr C and I made a point of watching the celebratory 100th episode of the show, and the underground one was the very next week… but we missed it. D’oh!

My love of all things bunker/fort/island led me to googling everything I could find about Spitbank Fort. Aside from the fact that it’s not the greatest name ever, it’s also a round concrete fort situated off the South Coast that’s been turned into a hotel. It’s amazing! Photo credit: Anthony Abbott As the website states: “Spitbank Fort is the most exclusive venue on the south coast, and is its own private island for hire, available for exclusive use, special events, private parties, wedding receptions, music videos and corporate hire. There are few venues in the world that can offer the privacy and exclusivity of Spitbank Fort. With accommodation for 18 and function space for up to 60 people, this is the unique venue that you have been searching for that will quite simply blow all others out of the water.”

When we were watching Mission Impossible II, Mr C and I were very taken with the fort that featured at the very end of the movie. Whilst we were meant to be enjoying the big motorcycle sequence, we were busy saying “Where is that? We need to live there.” Because, whilst an underground bunker is the ideal, there is also a lot to be said for living on a bit of an island, in a military designed fort.

Recently, an underground house in the Swiss Alps started doing the rounds on the web. The house has one side facing out to the world, similar to the property in the Grand Designs episode I live-blogged about previously. The rest is buried underground so as not to prove an eye-sore in the beautiful landscape. Apparently, Swiss planning laws say you have to have a timber frame version of the building put up on site before they will grant it. For this underground house, they skipped that part!

Why settle for a simple bunker underground when you can have an entire skyscraper delving into the depths of the earth? The BNKR Arquitectura company (great URL, by the way), have come up with a concept for an upside down pyramid for the middle of Mexico City. Starting with a wide opening at the top, the pyramid piles layer upon layer going down into a single point. There’s a great full-length picture here, whilst the top looks something like this.

Stumbled across this video from March last year of a proposed underground mansion. Actually there are two videos, the first is a report from Granada which gives a clearer idea of what the mansion is all about. The second video has more images and less chatter from irritating presenters - it’s actually got no sound at all which is a little disconcerting. Here’s the first though: Video no longer available.

I’m sure you’ve seen it by now, but the best way to avoid a zombie attack has been doing the rounds on the internet for a while now. A concept house designed to withstand any form of attack but specifically the undead kind, this fortress looks incredible. I call it the Zombie House, but officially, the title is The Safe House, and you can see why. When opened up, it looks like any somewhat regular, if a little fancy, house you might see on Grand Designs. But it has the ability to fold in on itself and create a sealed concrete castle.

As briefly mentioned in my Film Watch post of Red, John Malkovich’s character Marvin is a bit paranoid about the world around him and he has a bunker. Rather than having a hatch like in LOST, or a big door highlighting where his bunker is, he is so paranoid that he’s hidden the entrance as well. It’s marvellous. Here’s a clip of Malkovich’s first scenes in the movie, and more importantly, how he gets into his bunker (ignore the bit about LSD).

You can’t blink without seeing talk of WikiLeaks at the moment, and I have little to say on the political side of things. Mr C, though, pointed out this video of where the controversial site is now hosted - deep in the heart of Sweden. It really looks like the kind of spy bunker you will see in James Bond films, take a look. I particularly like the moon room, although for meetings it must be just like sitting in a fish bowl. I also like how much greenery they have going on, and I am wondering if there is any particular reason they have painted the floor blue.

You’ve got to love it when randomly browsing the web, you come across a company who have named themselves after the exact thing you are trying to achieve. Step forward Underground Living Ltd. It looks like they do one thing, but they try and do it well. It’s more of an addendum to a house, rather than a complete underground living area, but the gallery and the animation on the site look lovely and clean and tidy.

It was a warm, sunny afternoon in August, and Mr C and I found ourselves sitting in a large back garden with a cup of tea. This is unusually civilised of us. We surveyed the extra-long grass, and discussed what size plot you would need to fit an underground bunker. Quite big, is the answer. We discussed the pros and cons of more than one storey, and the concept of bungalows being more expensive because they take up more land, and how this translates to the underground.

Channel 4’s fantabulous program Grand Designs featured an Underground House in the third series, so this evening I watched the show via 4OD and took copious notes! Here’s what I found out as I watched. They built their house in a conveniently house-sized gap in a quarry that was already dug. The guy said he wanted a house like that to both “hide away and not impose.” Sounds about right. She was more into the eco effort, which we are less worried about. They only have one bit that sees daylight, so all of that was glass. The back of the house was lit by sunpipes. More on that later. She was expecting a baby! Big surprise. They dug down and found a big hole. That’s a problem. And another hole! The architect is called Mr Bodger. What could possibly go wrong? Base layer of concrete, then insulation. No heating required. Six times the insulation used in a normal house. Next layer is waterproof layer. Leaks would be catastrophic as there’s no way of repairing it once you’ve buried a house. They are just filling the holes in with earth that they dug up from somewhere else. 76 tonnes of concrete. 300mm base layer. House weighs 500 tonnes - two and a half times a normal house. Big ol’ brick things for the walls that Kevin McCloud couldn’t even pick up they were so heavy. Lots of steel and concrete in the walls to withstand horizontal pressure from the earth. Kevin finally uses the word “bunker.” Woohoo! Sheep! Internal walls also made from concrete. She’s not doing very well on the eco side of things, but concrete is the only way. It’s raining. Quite a lot. Kevin says building an underground house is a bit like building a swimming pool, except you’re trying to keep the water out. The sides are being waterproofed the same as the base was. Something about bitumen and sticky back plastic.

A while ago, Mr C compiled a list of things you cannot podcast near to, and they are (including but not limited to): near train stations in windy locations anywhere close to police or fire stations next door to noisy neighbours in an owl sanctuary Owls are a surprisingly common problem. A week or so ago, I offered a throwaway comment on Sidepodcast, suggesting if we had the funding, we would build a bunker and never come out. I think that was actually a reaction to some traffic based issues, but the more I think about it, the more this seems like a good idea for noise issues as well.