Stellos Brief · Market

The Swiss Dual-Use Model: 60 Years of Shelter-Parking, and What Poland Can Learn

Whenever a country gets serious about civil shelters, it ends up studying the same one. Switzerland has guaranteed a protected place for every resident since the 1960s, and it did it without freezing vast volumes of real estate, by making shelters earn their keep. As a Swiss parking company, this is the model we know in our bones. Here is what it teaches.

Stellos operates parking technology across Switzerland and Germany, trusted by teams at Google, Swisscom, Implenia, Wincasa, CWS and Sony.

A shelter place for everyone, and it pays rent

Switzerland is, famously, the only country with roughly one shelter place per resident, a duty in law since the 1960s. The trick that made it sustainable was not spending without limit; it was dual use. A Swiss shelter is rarely an idle bunker. It is a cellar, a storeroom, a gym, or, very often, a working car park, that can be reverted to protective use when required. The protection is real, but the space is never dead capital.

How the dual-use bargain actually works

The bargain has clear edges. Owners must keep the protective fabric intact, the structural envelope, the armoured doors, the ventilation, and accept periodic inspection. In return they get to use the space commercially the rest of the time. The system is overseen by BABS, the federal civil-protection office, and a duty to build couples with a replacement contribution where building on site is not sensible. Crucially, an underground car park can be planned from the start to flip between revenue and refuge, which is why some of the best-known examples are city-centre garages.

The lessons that transfer to Poland

Three carry over directly. First, design for dual use up front; retrofitting protection is far costlier than planning for it, which is exactly why Poland's 2026 rule targets the design stage. Second, make the space earn; a shelter that is also a car park is politically and financially durable in a way an idle bunker is not. Third, keep clear rules on what owners may and may not touch, so dual use never compromises protection. Poland is, in effect, choosing the Swiss path with its emphasis on adapting existing space (the market read).

Where parking economics meet protection

This is where our world and the shelter world converge. A garage that is also a sanctioned shelter point earns as parking almost every day of the year, the very economics in our ROI and NOI methodology, while discharging a legal duty. For Polish owners weighing the 2026 obligations (the act), the Swiss record is sixty years of evidence that protection and a profitable asset are not a trade-off. This is general information, not legal or engineering advice. Shelter rules, technical specifications and funding amounts change and vary by location. Verify the current requirements with the relevant authorities (in Poland: MSWiA and the State Fire Service; in Switzerland: BABS) and a qualified planner before acting.