The Safe House: Should You Have One?

By Lori Melton

Home automation and remote home security monitoring have become a popular trend for today's tech-savvy homeowners who reside in the current Smart Home age. You can turn lights on and off via control systems like Insteon. You can program and manage your thermostat with NEST and watch and control home security cameras with a Guardian security system, all from a smartphone or tablet.

Some homeowners have taken home security a step further by incorporating a panic room inside their home, to serve as a heavy-duty bunker against an attack, an intruder or extreme weather. Some panic rooms are openly visible, while others are hidden behind a bookshelf, stairway or some other hidden passage.

KMK Promes blends home automation and the panic or "safe room" concept and takes it to a whole new stratosphere with the "Safe House." It's a virtual concrete fortress that requires matching multiple security entrance codes before entry is allowed. Then, the entire home "opens." A drawbridge lowers to connect to a swimming pool, automated walls move, remote shutters open and an aluminate gate rises to reveal an expansive garden. When it's closed, the massive concrete structure reduces to a gigantic square.

This kind of ultimate modern fortress is truly innovative in its design and could probably serve any number of wealthy and/or eccentric home buyers well. The concept is arguably rather sci-fi in design, but extremely clever. Clearing multiple passcodes for entry is more difficult than just entering one passcode or turning a key. And, when you go away, the entire house is closed up like a huge, square, reinforced fireproof safe or safety box. You don't just lock your door; the entire premises goes on an airtight, impenetrable lockdown.

While this type of advanced security home doesn't seem like it would appeal to the masses (we can't see a developer build a subdivision full of them), it's still fun to entertain the idea of a "Transformers"-style house. Similar to Optimus Prime and Bumblebee morphing from enormous galaxy-defending robots into high-speed vehicles, the Safe House morphs from a Minecraft cube-shaped dwelling into a sprawling concrete domain. Pretty cool, huh?