Terms and Concepts of Civil Defense Facilities in the Residential Architecture

Civil defense shelters are an integral part of modern urban planning and residential architecture. As threats to public safety increase, design approaches to civil protection must also evolve to reflect the changing conditions of urban life during wartime. The development of protective structure design is crucial for ensuring the viability of cities, their resilience to crises, and their adaptability to new challenges. It is essential to establish proper terminology and classification of such structures, enabling their effective integration into the system of residential architecture design.In professional literature, the following terms are used: civil defense shelters, shelters, radiation protection shelters, dual-purpose structures, rapidly constructed protective structures, and simplified shelters.According to the Civil Protection Code, civil defense protective structures include: Shelters – hermetically sealed structures designed to protect people, where conditions are created for a certain period to prevent exposure to hazardous factors arising from emergencies, military (combat) actions, and terrorist acts; Radiation protection shelters – non-hermetic structures designed to protect people by creating conditions that prevent exposure to ionizing radiation in the event of radioactive contamination of the area; Rapidly constructed civil defense protective structures – protective structures built from special components within a short time to protect people from the effects of weapons during a special period. To protect people from certain hazardous factors arising from emergencies in peacetime and from the effects of weapons during a special period, dual-purpose structures and simplified shelters are also used. A dual-purpose structure is an aboveground or underground facility that can be used for its primary functional purpose while also serving as a protective shelter for the population. A simplified shelter is a fortification, a ground-floor or basement space that reduces the combined impact of dangerous consequences from emergencies, as well as from the effects of weapons during a special period.