Place safe rooms by walking time, not by plan symmetry: with a 214-second warning and 30 seconds to raise the alarm, a slow walker at 0.7 m/s covers only 129 m, so one central refuge cannot serve the edge of a settlement of 150 m radius. Put a reinforced room in each housing cluster as well as in the hall, entered from inside, away from fire sources, with a second way out and its door facing away from the likely approach.
Part of Safe Rooms & Refuge Points
Location and access design for a safe room is the choice of where it stands in the settlement and how people reach it, enter it and leave it.
The Best Room Is The One Everybody Can Reach In Time
The defensive-architecture guide puts the safe room ideally in the gathering hall, already the strongest building, or as a reinforced room within each housing cluster, and counts underground, earth-sheltered spaces as naturally hardened. Strength is only one criterion. The room has to be reachable by the slowest person within the warning the settlement actually gets, and it has to be safe from the dangers inside the settlement, above all fire.
Worked Example: How Far Can The Slowest Walk
Inputs: warning 214 s, the time a walker at 1.4 m/s takes to cross a 300 m outer zone on a path (Threat Categories & Likely Scenarios); 30 s to raise the alarm (assumed); walking speeds of 1.0 m/s for a mixed group and 0.7 m/s for the slowest, both assumed; a settlement of radius 150 m with the refuge in the middle.
- Time left to move: 214 − 30 = 184 s.
- Distance covered: at 1.0 m/s, 184 m; at 0.7 m/s, 0.7 × 184 = 129 m.
- The farthest house is 150 m from the centre, which the slowest walker needs 150 ÷ 0.7 = 214 s to cover, 30 s more than there is.
- A refuge in each cluster of 4-8 houses, within 30 m of its doors (the fire guide’s water-point distance is a useful size for a cluster): 30 ÷ 0.7 = 43 s.
So a single central refuge fails the outer houses for the slowest members, and cluster rooms solve it at the price of several small rooms. The settlement also loses time if the path to the refuge passes the front door of the attackers’ approach, so the route should lie on the sheltered side of the buildings.
What You Need
- A map with walking times from each house to each possible refuge, measured with the slowest member
- The hall’s plan, to place an inner room
- A list of fire sources (forge, kiln, bakehouse, fuel stores) to keep clear of
- Doors and routes that can be rehearsed in the dark
Method: Place And Connect The Rooms
Step 1: Measure the walking time to each candidate site with children and the slowest adults.
Step 2: Compare it with the warning (minus the alarm time). Add a cluster room wherever the hall is too far.
Step 3: Put each room away from fire sources: at least the fire guide’s 10 m from a fuel store, and not under a thatch roof (Fire Prevention in Settlements).
Step 4: Make the entrance from inside the building where possible, so the approach is not in view from outside, with the door facing away from the likely attack side.
Step 5: Give each room a second way out onto a different side.
Step 6: Mark the route to each room in a way that works by touch.
Step 7: Keep the corridor clear. A stored cart in the way costs more than any wall.
Common Mistakes
- Putting the refuge where it is strongest, not where it is reachable. The slowest members are the ones it is for.
- A single entrance facing the approach. Anyone at the door is visible and exposed.
- A refuge beside the kitchen hearth or forge. A fire there traps the occupants.
- Underground with one entrance. Earth-sheltered spaces are hardened but need two ways out and fresh air (Safe Rooms & Refuge Points).
Safety
Reachable, ventilated and escapable
A refuge that is far from the people it serves, has one exit or has no air fails them. A room holding more than a handful exits outward by pushing; the safe room is a small exception with a bar one person can lift and a second way out. Do not site it below a roof that can burn or beside a fuel store.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Supplies & Duration Planning — stocking each room
- Combine with: Reinforced Community Buildings — the hall’s inner room