Safety as Part of the Project: How New Construction Projects Are Adapting to Constant Shelling
Constant shelling is changing the logic behind residential design in Ukraine. A shelter is no longer a separate structure built to meet a formal requirement and rarely used—it is becoming an integral part of the architectural and engineering design during the building’s planning phase. This is confirmed by both legislation and the practices of developers, who are already implementing specific solutions to ensure residents’ safety.
A multi-level approach is currently taking shape: a standard shelter or dual-purpose structure remains the basic element of protection, while developers are simultaneously testing additional solutions—ranging from safety rooms located directly within apartments to reinforced construction and autonomous life support systems.
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What the New Law Changes
On March 9, 2026, the President signed Law No. 4778-IX, which makes the presence of protective structures a mandatory requirement for putting a facility into operation. Shelter plans are now integrated into urban planning documentation as early as the planning stage, before construction begins.
The requirements apply to multi-unit residential buildings, educational institutions, hospitals, social welfare facilities, and places where large numbers of people gather throughout Ukraine, regardless of region. Shelters must be accessible to people with disabilities and other groups with limited mobility. Consequently, in new shelter designs, shelters are increasingly less likely to be separate structures added to an existing building. Instead, they are becoming an integral part of the overall architectural and engineering design.
A separate innovation concerns underground parking garages: starting September 1, 2026, they will be designed as dual-purpose structures—for both vehicles and as shelters for people during an emergency. Mobile and modular shelters with a capacity of up to 50 people, designed to accommodate occupants for at least 48 hours, are also permitted. The government aims to ensure that 91% of the population has access to shelters by 2034.
The technical specifications for the structures themselves are defined by DBN V.2.2-5:2023 “Civil Defense Shelters”—the basic building code currently used to design shelters in new buildings. The standard does not yet specifically address safe rooms inside apartments: this concept is evolving more rapidly in developers’ practices than the regulatory framework can keep up with.
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Safe rooms in apartments
Alongside traditional underground shelters, a new type of shelter known as a “mamad” has appeared on the market—a compact, protected room inside the apartment itself, named after the Israeli model. Such a room typically measures 3–4 square meters, while versions designed for larger families can reach 12 square meters. Structurally, it consists of a reinforced concrete frame, a protected ventilation system, and a minimum of vulnerable external elements, such as windows and protruding structures.
According to estimates by developers who are already working on this concept, it increases the cost per square meter by approximately 3–7%, depending on the specific technical solution and the room’s size. This type of shelter does not replace the standard shelter for all residents of the building—according to regulations, it serves as a supplement for situations where a person does not have enough time to reach the basement before a missile or drone strikes.
Perfect Group is developing a concept for safety rooms in apartments—ranging from 3–4 square meters in the standard layout to about 12 square meters in the version designed for a family of four. The company is piloting this solution in one of its club houses.
KAN Development plans to include security rooms in most of the apartments in the premium-class "Biorhythm" residential complex, which is scheduled for completion by the third quarter of 2028.
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Not just shelter
Experience in recent years has shown that a home’s resilience during wartime depends on a much wider range of factors.
One of these is the structural stability of the building itself. PBG “Kovalska, ” for example, primarily uses monolithic-frame construction technology with high-strength concrete. This structural design ensures high spatial rigidity of the building and allows loads to be redistributed among the load-bearing elements in the event of localized damage.
"Creator-Bud" uses reinforced concrete structures, increasing their resistance to damage.
Another aspect is the autonomy of utility systems. After all, an attack could result not only in damage to the building itself, but also in prolonged outages of electricity, heat, or water.
"Intergal-Bud" uses rooftop gas boiler rooms and backup power systems in its projects. The DIM Group provides backup power for elevators and heating systems, and in some projects, autonomous water supply sources.
Thus, the modern model of safe housing is gradually taking shape and consists of several components: accessible, code-compliant shelter; a structurally sound building; backup life support systems; and, in some projects, additional protected space within the apartment itself.
From Individual Decisions to New Standards
Security rooms in apartments remain an experimental solution for now. Integrating them into a high-rise building complicates the design and increases construction costs, so we shouldn’t expect the entire market to switch to this format anytime soon.
At the same time, this trend itself is already indicative of a fundamental shift in the approach to residential development.
In private construction, the demand for the design of shelters has already become widespread. According to estimates by industry experts, nine out of ten requests to architects for private construction projects include a requirement for a shelter.
The situation is different in high-rise construction. However, the first projects are already underway. In the multi-family housing segment, they first appeared as early as 2023–2024 in western Ukraine and the Kyiv region. The main constraint is economic: a several-percent increase in the cost per square meter is felt most acutely in the budget segment, where the bulk of demand for new construction is concentrated. For club houses and premium-class housing, this barrier is less critical, which is why this format is developing the fastest in those segments.
Today, safe housing refers to a home in which safety is taken into account at various levels: from the structural design and underground spaces to the self-sufficiency of the building systems and the layout of the apartment itself.
Bottom line.
The new regulatory framework formalizes what part of the market had already been implementing on its own initiative: a protective structure becomes a mandatory element of the project from the very first drawing.
The practices of developers who are members of the Ukrainian Association of Developers show that this transformation is already underway. The next step should be a shift from isolated solutions to a systematic housing standard tailored to the actual security needs of Ukrainians.
