Beyond Survival: Integrating Subterranean Bunker Infrastructure into Urban Planning for Reclaiming Civic Resilience

Abstract

At a time of geopolitical uncertainty, pandemics, and climate danger, underground bunkers have resurfaced not as Cold War artifacts but as vital civic infrastructure. This paper draws together lessons from the Vita-Subterra project in Pakistan, cultural theory in "Becoming Atomic," and technological vision in "Hidden Metropolis" to rethink the urban bunker. It advocates for the integration of self-reliant, inclusive, and peripherally linked bunkers within city master plans. Bunkers need to change from places of upper-class safe haven to an infrastructural safe and inclusive place accessible for all social classes, re-defining urban spaces.