Building Advice Wanted!

I've decided that I want to improve my building skills, so I'll be posting some pictures here. Any advice or criticism would be very much appreciated!

I have started with some medieval buildings, mostly because the current spawn and new spawn have a medieval style.

Small blacksmith


Small village house

 

First and not only for medieval houses - I would use wooden stairs for roof, instead of planks. it makes roof smoother.
Then, try to make walls of more different materials. I recommend to make frame of wooden logs, as many medieval houses were timbered, see wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timber_framing

 

Also, for medieval buildings, use some cobble, either for the floor, or, for some of those made by poor people, make the walls of cobble, roof of wood, the floor... hmmm...

 

^ +

Using logs for corner pillars, or as walls often makes structure alot better. More different kinds of materials, aswell as a lack of cobble can help!

 

I've been at work again!

First attempt at timber framing...Based it off a picture on wikipedia:




Did more work on my other house:





Tell me what you think!

There should really be a creative ranking system with bigger plots...


Edit: Also touched up my little blacksmith's shop:

 

The updated pictures definitely show that you're on the right track.

1. Avoid making too many buildings in the standard rectangular/square shape. Make buildings in an L shape and add Gables.

2. Don't flatten terrain before building. Have the build flow with the terrain. Pick a level at which your floor will be, and just below that, fill in all areas with stone brick in an outline of your build. This creates the effect of building on a stone brick base.

3. Use at least 3 different materials in exteriors. Ideally, use about 4-5 materials.

4. Don't be afraid to look at others' builds and draw inspiration from them! At times, I'll look up real life architecture and build off of that as well.

 

Also dont be afraid to add lots of depth to your builds. Flat exterior walls are boring. Get fancy with dem stairs and make cool shapes as borders and things like that!

Yeah also make the sure materials you use flow well together. I know sandstones are not commonly used but they can look very nice in some designs