In Lungern, new cavities in the Alpine massif transform the rock into an infrastructure for storing goods, merchandise and activities related to resilience

The rock face that overlooks Lounging, in the Canton of Obwalden, is not just a component of the Alpine landscape. In the subsoil of the Brünig massif For years, an unusual set of infrastructures has been concentrated: tunnels, storage areas, training spaces, and environments carved directly into the mountain. Now that expertise in underground engineering is being used for another function: creating protected surfaces for custody of goods and merchandise and develop activities dedicated to safety and resilience.

It is on this model that it operates Brünig Mega Safe AG, a company founded in 2019 by the Gasser family and based on the experience gained in Lungern in rock excavation techniques. The project does not coincide with a single vault. The company has organized its activities around three main areas: the high-security spaces of MonSec, the Brünig Lagerhallen for underground storage and Bruenig Institute, dedicated to applied security.

The common denominator is physical rather than technological: using the mountain's mass as part of the infrastructure. It's a choice that brings to the forefront an element sometimes overlooked in contemporary discussions about security. Protecting assets, goods, or critical activities isn't just about controlling information and access through IT tools. It also means deciding where to physically place what needs to be protected, what barriers separate it from the outside and what operational continuity can be guaranteed under abnormal conditions.

Rock becomes a component of protected infrastructure

The peculiarity of the Lungern model consists precisely in the integration between underground engineering and safety. The Gasser family has been working in rock construction technology for decades, and Brünig Mega Safe presents this experience as the industrial foundation upon which its new business activities have been developed. The company cites over forty years of industry expertise in the construction of MonSec spaces.

A wide variety of activities already existed in the massif. The area includes an underground shooting range, infrastructure used for fire training, and an explosives depot. The progressive functional occupation of the mountain therefore preceded the current development of vaults and warehouses: over time, the Brünig has become a sort of specialized underground district, in which geological features are exploited for functions that require isolation, access control or particular protection conditions.

With MonSec, this logic is applied to valuable goods. The brand, introduced in 2022, offers individually configurable environments inside the rock for the storage of, among other things, precious metals, works of art and other physical assets. Therefore, it is not a traditional bank safety deposit box, but rather underground real estate volumes that can take on different sizes and configurations.

The planned dimensions show the distance from the classic vault concept. In 2025, Swiss radio and television SRF reported spaces of approximately 20 square meters with prices exceeding half a million francs and a plan comprising approximately 20-25 cavitiesThese figures describe a specific market: not the standardized storage of small objects, but the availability of spaces that can accommodate collections, cars, works of art, or other activities compatible with the structure's characteristics.

Demand, according to the company, has intensified in parallel with the increased perception of geopolitical and security risks. This statement should be distinguished from an independent measurement of the market, but it signals an interesting shift: physical protection of assets It is once again being considered as a variable in risk management, alongside cybersecurity, insurance, and geographical diversification.

From vaults to warehouses, the scale of storage is changing

The second component of the model is less tied to high-value goods and closer to logistics. In 2024, Brünig Mega Safe introduced the Brünig Lagerhallen, underground areas intended for storage and available, according to the company, both for lease and through acquisition. A new phase of construction of cavities in the massif also began in 2026.

This step broadens the economic significance of the initiative. A mountain warehouse doesn't necessarily have to hold gold or paintings: it can meet businesses' needs to maintain sensitive stocks, materials or goods in environments physically separated from the outside. In a supply chain that for many years focused on inventory reduction and just-in-time processes, the crises of recent years have brought renewed attention to strategic inventories and supply continuity.

In this case, the mountain functions as a permanent envelope. This does not eliminate the need for technical systems: ventilation, power supply, fire protection, access routes, monitoring, and operating procedures remain crucial. The safety of an underground structure depends on the interaction between geology, design, plant engineering and management, not just from the presence of a thick layer of rock.

Another element distinguishes the project from a conventional warehouse. Brünig Mega Safe claims that its underground spaces can be associated with property and operating rights guaranteed by public lawFor an infrastructure intended to be used for long periods, the legal dimension becomes almost as important as the engineering one: a physically resilient environment has economic value only if access, availability, responsibility, and continuity of use rights are defined.

The project thus brings together two different time scales. The security and control systems are subject to evolution and updating, while the space dug into the mountain is conceived as a long-term real estate assetIt is precisely this separation between permanent structure and replaceable technological components that makes the model interesting from the perspective of infrastructural innovation.

From asset protection to resilience training

The third direction shifts the focus from physical spaces to skills. The development of the Bruenig Institute, conceived as a center dedicated to applied safety. The activity includes training, courses, risk analysis and topics related to resilienceAccording to local information, the institute has started its activities in Lungern and is gradually expanding its offerings.

This choice completes the industrial model. A protected infrastructure can reduce exposure to some hazards, but it doesn't replace procedures, personnel preparation, and the ability to respond to an emergency. Resilience depends on the combination of structures, organization and people. Placing training and infrastructure in the same environment potentially allows for working on scenarios in which the theoretical dimension of risk management meets real-world physical conditions.

It's also an indication of how the concept of security is changing. For years, digital transformation has shifted the focus to cyberattacks, data protection, and IT system continuity. These risks have not diminished, but they coexist with physical vulnerabilities: power outages, sabotage, fires, natural events, logistical problems, and threats to infrastructure.

From this point of view, Brünig offers a case study on the convergence between physical security and business continuity. Mountain is not a new technology; what is new is the possibility of systematically combining its properties with contemporary control, logistics, and risk management systems, transforming an underground work into a modular service for different users.

La Switzerland For historical reasons, Brünig has a special relationship with underground infrastructure. Shelters, military structures, railway and road tunnels, and technical installations have generated specific expertise in the excavation and management of Alpine environments. Some structures originally built for public or military purposes were later converted to civilian functions, including protected IT infrastructure. Brünig Mega Safe follows a different path: the spaces are being developed directly around new business models for storage, protection, and training.

The test will be the real use of the new cavities

The project, however, remains tied to a market that is difficult to measure from the outside. The confidentiality required by potential users inherently limits the availability of customer information, while indications of growing demand come primarily from the company itself. Safety performance must also be assessed by distinguishing the intrinsic characteristics of the underground location from the technical specifications of the individual spaces and the chosen layouts.

The protection offered by rock constitutes an important physical barrier, but it does not automatically make an infrastructure invulnerable. Access, ventilation, energy, communications, and procedures inevitably represent points of contact with the outside. Therefore, the quality of such a system is measured not only by the thickness of the mountain, but also by the design of its components. redundancies, controls and emergency procedures.

Then there's the economic issue. Excavating and equipping volumes in the massif requires investments that must be matched by sufficiently stable demand. The estimated cost of more than half a million francs in 2025 for one of the smaller cavities places MonSec in a specific market segment. Larger storage areas, however, follow a different logic, tied to the amount of space and the ability to utilize the infrastructure for business needs.

Three activities transform the vault into a diversified model

It is precisely the presence of multiple functions that makes the Lungern case more significant than a simple

“vault for the rich”.

MonSec, Brünig Lagerhallen and Bruenig Institute They address three aspects of the same problem: protecting valuable assets, creating physically defended logistics capacity, and developing capabilities to address risk situations. Diversification can also distribute infrastructure usage among different customers and needs.

For Lungern and Obwalden The project also represents a unique form of territorial economy. A seemingly immutable characteristic, the presence of the mountain, is transformed into a productive resource through excavation and design expertise. This model is difficult to replicate without suitable geology, technical knowledge, and extensive experience in underground construction.

The decisive phase will therefore be the actual occupation of the spaces under construction and the evolution of the three business lines. Brünig Mega Safe was born in 2019, MonSec entered the market in 2022, the underground warehouses followed in 2024, and the Bruenig Institute was launched in 2025. The sequence shows the transition from a vault-centric idea to a more complex infrastructure platform.

In the Brünig Massif, innovation ultimately doesn't consist in inventing a new protective material. It consists in using what has existed for millions of years as a component of a contemporary system. Rock, installations, usage rights, procedures, and expertise are assembled into an infrastructure in which the security returns to having an explicitly physical dimensionThe actual outcome will depend on how many of the new cavities find users and what functions they will actually serve: it is on these elements, rather than on the evocative image of the Alpine vault, that the maturity of the model can be measured.

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