With the zombie craze reaching brain-consuming new heights, ever more emergency shelter ideas have risen to meet the fantastic challenge of defending against the undead. Here are a few of them, recently submitted to a rather unusual sort of architectural contest.

The first-place winner of the Zombie Safe House Competition, Austin Fleming, took a nomadic camouflage approach in the form of the Vagabond Mobile Safehouse Device, reasoning that a portable one-to-two-person shelter would be essential for traveling to find safety, food and water, while disguising oneself against legions of the infected.

Biomimicry, reflectivity and flexibility come together in this quickly-deployable photovoltaic backpack shelter for two, able to be anchored to any surface for defensive purposes, provide a thermal barrier and generate energy. Another runner-up, the Oil Silo Home, is a more extensively self-sufficient space designed to be difficult to invade (at least by mindless attackers). It’s also entirely off the grid, able to generate its own energy, recycle waste and gather water indefinitely. Theoretically, of course.

The Lookout House likewise provides an elevated and sustainable refuge, but with an underground (and underwater) twist so that one can escape by tunnel and sea if need be. Subterranean shelters are definitely a smart way to go about protecting oneself during a zombie (or other) apocalypse.

Other runners up planted their zombie-proof dwellings everywhere from gigant...