Finnish-style apartment shelters: Developer plans to bring civil defence standards to Poland

A major Finnish developer wants to transplant decades of Nordic civil defence experience into the Polish housing market. Alongside standard residential projects, the company is preparing the first apartment building in Poland with an integrated, modern shelter and is offering to help upgrade existing protective infrastructure.

The move comes amid an ongoing public debate in Poland about the state of shelters and how cities should prepare for future crises, from military threats to natural or technological disasters.

Finnish civil defence model as inspiration

According to industry service propertynews.pl, Poland has become one of the key growth markets for the Finnish development group YIT, which has been present in the country for more than ten years. The company now wants to go beyond standard residential construction and introduce solutions that have long been mandatory in Finland and other Nordic countries.

In Finland, shelters have been an integral part of urban planning for decades. Representatives of YIT point out that the country’s existing protective infrastructure is designed to offer shelter space for around 80 percent of the population. These are not only sealed concrete bunkers hidden from daily life. Many are multifunctional spaces that operate as sports, recreational or community facilities in normal times and can be converted into shelters when needed.

Dual-use shelters instead of closed bunkers

YIT promotes the concept of so-called dual use, which assumes that protective spaces are fully integrated into everyday life. A shelter can function as a gym, community hall or recreational area and only in an emergency is it reconfigured into a protected space for residents.

Such an approach is intended to solve two problems at once: it makes better economic use of limited urban space and ensures that infrastructure is maintained, inspected and modernised as part of regular building operations, rather than being forgotten, sealed basements that only exist on paper.

Upgrading Poland’s existing shelters

The Finnish developer is also interested in participating in the modernisation of existing shelters in Poland. The company declares readiness to work with local governments to assess the condition of current protective facilities and propose technical upgrades.

Based on analyses cited by YIT, around 75 percent of existing shelters in Poland could be adapted to current requirements. In practice this often means upgrading ventilation, power, communication systems, access routes and sanitary facilities, as well as adjusting layouts for quicker conversion from normal use to protective mode.

The remaining part of the infrastructure would require more extensive work or a change of use where renovation is not economically justified. In such cases, the dual-use model is also promoted: instead of a permanently closed bunker, cities could gain infrastructure that combines everyday functions with emergency readiness.

The first apartment block with an S1-class shelter

The most tangible element of YIT’s plans is the announcement of the first residential building in Poland equipped with an S1-class shelter. This standard is well established in Finland and results from years of specific building regulations that require new multi-family developments to include dedicated protective spaces.

On the Polish market this will be a pilot solution, but the company expects that demand for such features will grow together with public awareness of safety and resilience. The developer’s goal is to show that shelters do not have to be associated solely with extreme scenarios, but can be integrated into modern, comfortable housing projects.

Leszek Stankiewicz, CEO of YIT Poland, points out that adding a shelter to a residential building does not have to dramatically drive up costs. According to figures quoted by the company, integrating such a space typically increases the total investment budget by around 6–7 percent. YIT argues that this is a relatively small premium for additional safety and can still be compatible with the economic viability of projects.

Technology and design behind modern shelters

Modern shelters, especially in the Nordic model, rely on construction and building technologies that allow rapid change of function. Structural elements are engineered to withstand specific types of loads, while systems for air filtration, independent power supply, water, and communications are integrated from the design stage.

Digital tools also play a growing role: building information modelling (BIM) supports the design of dual-use spaces, and cities can link shelter inventories with public apps that help residents find the nearest safe location in an emergency. Although such applications are still in early stages in many countries, combining accurate data on facilities with navigation and alert systems is seen as a natural next step.

YIT’s concept suggests that similar technologies and standards could gradually be used in Polish projects, turning standard residential investments into part of a wider, technology-enabled civil defence network.

Poland’s debate on preparedness enters a new phase

In Poland, the state of shelters and the country’s general level of crisis preparedness have been intensely discussed for several years, and these conversations intensified after 2022. Private initiatives, including projects for individual or luxury bunkers, have attracted attention, but they usually reach only a small group of wealthier customers.

The Finnish approach goes in a different direction: it assumes that protective infrastructure should be embedded in ordinary housing, public facilities and urban planning, not treated as an expensive accessory for the few. If YIT’s pilot projects prove successful on the Polish market, the model of residential buildings with integrated shelters and dual-use public spaces could become one of the more visible trends in how technology and architecture respond to new security expectations.