I had a little trouble figuring out what I should discuss today but after a little surfing around a little on the Internet I found a webpage detailing some anti-burglar house designs. The line between burglar and zombie is somewhat blurry and these designs could in theory be modified to prevent home invasions via the undead so I will detail the pros and cons of each design and designate my favorite.
This house design has potential. The entrances have strong reinforcements (they have support beams buried in the earth below the house) and the small point of entry creates a natural bottle neck to prevent a large group of people (or ghouls) attempting to enter all at once. I like the large sliding windows and the strong reinforced doors. The problems I have with this design is both the size of the house and its lack of safe exit. The house is just too small. Granted I'm not planning of housing a ton of people post-apocalypse (how would I feed them!!) but still I don't like the idea of no elbow room. What would you do if ghouls got inside? I'd be trapped in such a small area and it'd be really hard to defend myself. Also, no escape route. The designer of the house says that the house would be surrounded by soft-tilled soil (which I think doesn't make sense with the support beams dug into the earth to support the house, but I'm not an engineer) so in theory a person could jump from a window to the ground without hurting themselves. However, if your home fortress is surrounded by ghouls you a) don't want to do something so unsafe as to just jump out your window while in theory holding supplies and guns and all the stuff you need to escape and b) no matter what you say, jumping the second story window of any building is dangerous. It's hard to run away from zombies with a sprained ankle. Verdict: More trouble than it is worth
Now this second house design serves as more of an add-on to a fortress that you have personally designed, like picking headlights for your already tricked-out car. In a pre-apocalypse world, I like this doorway a lot. You tend to see them in movies that take place in big cities, like in New York. This one is basically a fortified foyer with a window and surveillance system. The door to the outside is controlled by an electric locking system (useful against a burglar, since you would then call the police. not so much against zombies...who you gonna call?). This type of fortification would be more useful during the initial onslaught of the undead where a survivor would have to be wary of not just the undead but also perfectly un-infected alive people who would like nothing better than to rob you. I do however like the idea of a double entrance, especially with a strongly reinforced containment area. The problem I have with this design is that it mainly relies on electricity (the surveillance system and locking mechanism) which may or may not be accessible after the world ends. Also, I don't like the idea of having two doors to unlock if I have a group of ghouls coming after me and I need to reach safety in a hurry. Verdict: Has promise, but not 100% MY FAVORITE-->
This design is my favorite because while it seems kind of moronic it has great potential (like me!). The front door is not just a front door, but a booby trap that leads to a fortified containment area separate from the rest of the house. If you replace the revolving trap door with a more simple design this type of fortification could be extremely useful. Imagine yourself out searching for supplies only to find some ghouls on your tail. You hurry home, climb in your fortress and wait for the zombies to come follow you. Poof they fall into a containment area 15 feet below. You wait til it's all clear, pick off the zombies at your leisure and poor some lye on the bodies instead of burning them thus ridding yourself of them without risking danger to your home with fire. Granted, its a lot to assume the ghoul is going to stand right on the exact spot the trap door is but again, the idea is sound. And imagine if you were protecting yourself from a non-infected person. This would be an extremely useful counter-measure. My problems with this design mostly center on the actual building and design of this feature. The revolving door is extremely impractical. It involves pulleys, possibly hydraulics and a whole bunch of moving parts that if broken would render the device un-usable and thus a detriment instead of an asset. If you could develop a simple trap door mechanism I would feel better about this design. Then there is the containment area. Constructing that small room would probably be reasonable inexpensive (not exactly a bomb shelter) but it would still be time-consuming and labor intensive. Verdict: A good idea if given enough time and money pre-apocalypse to construct. 
This design is completely impractical against the legions of the undead beyond a warning system of approaching zombies. That and the metal cage surrounding the house would actually prevent its living occupants from escaping in the event of an emergency as that cage gets in the way of every exit. The dog deterrent does nothing to prevent the entrance of someone who isn't afraid of dogs, like an undead mobile corpse. All it would really do is make you a lot of dead dogs. It actually might be more a detriment, since a barking dog makes a lot of noise and all the zombies in the area would come flocking towards the sounds. You would be better served keeping the dog inside the house and using all that really expensive chain-link fencing to cover the windows of the first floor. Verdict: Not a good plan at all.
These next three designs are a)almost ridiculous especially in an era of highly sophisticated burglary alarms and b) are not effective deterrents against legions of the undead. That being said, they are electricity-free and may be useful against un-infected invaders. The first (far left) is a set of nozzles that when triggered by someone opening windows from the outside releases solar-heated hot water onto said climber. Not exactly good against zombies, but as a warning system and deterrent against living invaders trying to break into your fortress it could be useful. Its best feature is that it is completely electricity free. Its worst feature is it involves installing little nozzles and window catches to make the mechanism work. That and it wastes valuable water. Verdict: good idea but wasteful. The second (center) is more a useful surveillance set-up which would in theory be fairly useful. It's basically a set of periscopes that are set up on the four corners of the home via the gutters on the outside. Granted, during a rainstorm these would be rather useless but in theory they would be good since you wouldn't be sacrificing visibility to obtain useful reconnaissance. The only real downside is the work put into installing these devices. Verdict: Smart and possibly worth the work. The last (right) is downright useless and impractical. It's a trellis and vine booby-trap system that is hooked up to tea gas nozzles. Not only is this completely silly (tear gas + zombies = zombie-shaped tear gas bombs) its impractical and wasteful. Even if you planned to use these against a living home invader, they would have to use that trellis or that specific vine to attempt access into your home. On top of that you'd need to install nozzles and get tear gas. Verdict: Meh. Not worth it.
This design leaves me dumbstruck. Why in heaven's name would you build a pool around your house? Ok. Lets look at this logically. Castles had moats. Moats, especially deep ones are reasonably effective at keeping people out of where you don't want them to be. However there are several problems with this design, just as a plain old house in pre-apocalypse times. Its a moat around your house! Moats throughout history leak. Why would you do that to your house!? Flaws as a zombie-fortress are as follows 1) When the world comes to a stop there will be no more pool maintenance people to keep the pool in working order. The pool will become stagnant, which will be a magnet for disease carrying insects. 2) Its wasteful. Water is life and leaving perfectly drinkable water (well, kind of) out under the sun to evaporate is downright dumb. 3) Its unsafe. What if you can't swim? 4) Its not overly effective as a zombie deterrent. zombies may not be able to swim but they float and may float in the direction of your door. eech. 5) That retractable walkway is probably electric and will become useless when the power goes out permanently. Verdict: Kind of dumb and useless. Bad Idea.
I know why this design exists. Its because of those people during the 50s and 60s who built secret bomb shelters in the back yard. And underground bomb shelters do provide a great haven against legions of the undead when built correctly and stock with provisions etc. However all underground shelters are not created equal. Just looking at this picture makes me shudder in fear. Its a death trap. It has one entrance and exit. That entrance slopes down (perfect for a zombie to just fall into your shelter) and painfully small. The shelter has what looks like an electric air system (useless post-apocalypse). The shelter is tiny. It has no water access. It has no heat access. Wow. Its just plain dumb. Even as just a burglar deterrent, what if no one knew you were down there and you got hurt? You'd be stuck! How would a EMS person get a stretcher down to carry you out? Geez. People are dumb. Verdict: Imbecilic. NEVER BUILD THIS.
I like the idea of people using their brains to create unorthodox ways of protecting themselves, especially when the ideas are generally non-lethal and creative. That being said I wish more people would think outside the box as to the downsides of their anti-burglar designs. Sometimes it would seem it'd be safer to be robbed! As anti-zombie designs these each have some potential but obviously all need some sort of modification, as is the case with most fortresses. These are all decent suggestions for fortification on the fortress I am sure you are planning. Just remember to use your noggin when planning and be creative. Good luck and happy planning!
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