Architecture Dedicated to Civil Protection as an Element of Sustainable Urban Development. The Searching for a ‘New Fallout Shelters Standard’ (NFSS) for European City Centres

The design of fallout shelters is located at the intersection of many disciplines, so this is a multifaceted challenge with a high level of engineering complexity. Nonetheless, it should be considered as part of sustainable development in a broader sense—as an investment in the resilience of the urban infrastructure, the safety of the population and the continuity of the city functioning in crisis situations. One can identify the research gap indicating a lack of contemporary model solutions for shelters and this article aims to fill this gap. A comparative analytical method with an interdisciplinary approach based on a comparison of 10 existing shelter infrastructure solutions in different parts of the world was proposed. Supporting research aspects were formulated and synthetically represented in table: (A) functional integration into the city; (B) minimisation of impact on the urban fabric; (C) self-sufficiency and renewability of resources; (D) inclusiveness vs. exclusiveness. The analysis show that the existing model of the shelter as a segregated exclusive military facility does not fit the contemporary world. The result is a set of practical design recommendations based on case studies that could provide a starting point for the development of the New Fallout Shelter Standard (NFSS) for urban shelters as a sustainable civil resilience infrastructure in the 21st century.