Transforming Concrete Bunkers into Eco-Hostels

We've all heard the expression "hunker down," but what about "bunker down?"

It could be the hot new expression if a proposal by a pair of graduate students to turn hundreds of thousands of abandoned concrete bunkers in Albania into eco-hostels ever gets realized.

Politecnico di Milano graduate students Gyler Mydyti and Elian Stefa have devised a 105-page proposal to transform some 750,000 bunkers scattered throughout Albania into a network of beautifully-adorned hostels, cafés, gift shops and other tourist-attracting sites.

The domed bunkers, called Pillboxes because of their shape (see image below), were built by Communist dictator Enver Hoxha, who ruled the country from the end of World War II until his death in 1985. According to the students' Web site, Hoxha was extremely xenophobic and paranoid of an invasion, and so he built the bunkers to protect the people. Of course, the invasion never came and the bunkers, which were built at enormous expense, remain haunting symbols of the country's Cold War isolation. Today, there is one bunker for every four Albanians!

The students, who call their structures "Concrete Mushrooms," say the project would not only transform the empty bunkers into economic assets, but also reclaim them symbolically. On their Web site, the students write that the bunkers "can become the icon of a paranoid past transformed to the symbol of a bright future."

The proposal suggests different functions be assigned to the bunkers based on their size and location. Apparently, there are three major sizes scattered across three different types of territories, including beautiful hilly plains, mountains-capes and even along gorgeous, sunny beaches.

On the site inhabitat.com, blogger Daniel Flahiff compares the project to the Das Parkhotel, hotel rooms made from giant abandoned sewage pipes in Linz, Austria.

A documentary on the history of the bunkers, their current status and their impact on the residents of Albania is set to be released in January 2010. Watch the trailer below:

Concrete Mushrooms Trailer - Albania's 750,000 inherited bunkers from Concrete Mushrooms on Vimeo.

Top photo courtesy of Concrete Mushrooms. Middle photo courtesy of Wikimedia.