How to Plan a City | Minecraft Architecture

Why do we like cities wouldn’t we be more happy living in a cabin in the mountains maybe for some however the reason we like them so much is because cities are complex cities give us a new place to explore cities are a symbol of economic opportunity and a fresh start ladies and

Gentlemen my name is matt i work in project management in the field of architectural engineering and in this video i’m going to be showing you how to plan a minecraft city before we get started if you could hit the like button for the youtube algorithm it makes it so

I can make more videos like this in the future i would also ask that while watching if you enjoy this content please consider subscribing this video will be referencing the city of andia on cubed community which was planned and still in the process of being built by myself and the team on

Cube community you can visit the city using the ip on the screen this is the same city reviewed by corrales andy’s yoda and city beautiful dave from city beautiful is a real urban planner and i highly recommend his videos links to their channels are in the

Description if you do check them out be sure to leave a comment saying alpine sent me the city of andia is built in cubed pack so please download the texture pack in the description before you explore it in game india has an urban planning document used to develop the city messy cities

Are not pleasant to look at so the better plan the city is the better it will turn out every great city should have a vision statement india’s vision statement is the goal of andea is to be a walkable atmospheric realistic contemporary city in the downtown core with various styles

Of architecture set in zones around the city many sections of andia are inspired by real world cities such as toronto vancouver barcelona marseille and los angeles the very first step is to determine the type of map you’re going to use personally i find an island works best

World painter is a free program used to generate custom minecraft worlds and is the go-to software for professional minecraft city builders please only use superflat if you intend to build incredibly tall towers please keep in mind that there is a 256 block height limit in-game some of the tools that you’re going to

Use while building your city are google maps google street view and different urban planning documents if you are playing on a java creative server they likely have a plug-in called dynamic map this is incredibly helpful for planning large projects and roads india is planned around sustainability which affects the number of roads size

Of the public transportation network and the general feel of the city considerations should be made regarding the climate what climate are you in temperate tropical use your real-life city references to find out what type of trees and greenery they have in that area another feature of andea is that it has

A proactive response to homelessness with significant social safety nets and infrastructure projects in place such infrastructure projects include communal housing scattered throughout the city india also has limits on house and apartment sizes to prevent significant price inflation if you don’t control the prices of housing it will skyrocket and

Become a city for the rich if it becomes a city for the rich no one will want to work the lower paying jobs for the simple reason of not being able to afford the cost of living road networks are an essential part of any modern day city i recommend five

Block wide lanes plus one for road dividers however you can have smaller roads for lower density residential areas cars are typically three wide and larger vehicles such as buses or trucks are four to five the absolute maximum slope should be five run per one rise on hills

Where you have no other choice otherwise aim for a one to twenty ratio when making a sloped road gradually slope the roads into the hill do not go from flat directly into a steep road your roads need to make sense if you think your road network is confusing

Have a friend try and navigate it keep in mind where your citizens live where they work and how they will commute if you are on an island you can assume there’s a mainland somewhere nearby outside the map india assumes there is a mainland to the west and two bridges and international

Checkpoints are planned for the north and south end of the island you should not have a crazy amount of highways going through your city one or two through the edge of the city is fine however try and avoid having them through central areas if you need to

Have one through your city try and hide it you can use trees have it lowered or raised cover it with buildings or greenery another option is to have a loop around the exterior of the city a highway loop can be very effective when mixed with public transportation by

Minimizing the use of highways and roads your city’s citizens have two options they can either move to another city or use public transportation you’d better hope your public transportation infrastructure is top notch this will be discussed later in the video interchanges are used when one highway switches to another the key point of

Interchanges is to make it so vehicles never have to stop exit ramps are used when you want to exit a highway onto a much slower street please ensure you have sufficient length to join and exit these ramps weave lanes are also very helpful for constricted spaces it drives me insane

When large highways turn into an intersection please don’t do this use exit ramps highways should have a bare minimum turn radius of 100 blocks realistically engineers will try and avoid tall to ram impossible if you have to go through mountains having your highway curving through valleys is much more pleasant to look at

Rather than tunnels all the way through significant elevation changes may also require a split of the divided highway or having one side higher than the other if your highway is near buildings please use a sound barrier or trees to block the noise personally i prefer trees since they are

Green and provide much more texture to the cityscape a great way to decorate highways is to have overhead signs speech signs highway information signs exit signs truck weighing stations and toll booths another benefit of toll booths is that it creates an incentive for citizens to take public transportation

Bike lanes and trails are imported to keep your city happy and healthy well-designed bike lanes have a clean unobstructed path aside from street light intersections overhead pedestrian and bike lane bridges are a fantastic addition to any city if you have bike lanes near roads mark them with green pavement please have

Some sort of divider between cars and bikes this technique prevents accidents you may use planters greenery trees or almost anything else you’d like split paint markings should be used when crossing a perpendicular road for main trails it is nice to split up the walking and biking trails to give more space

The biggest takeaway is keep the bike lanes and trails separate and uninterrupted when possible bus lanes and transportation only roads are important in major cities you can plan for bus lanes to be shared with bikes since buses make frequent stops make sure you plan out your bus routes

Before you build them in real life bus routes get really complex really quick however a simple planning technique is to have buses that run north south and other buses that run east west obviously this may change depending on the orientation of your roads andea uses a red texture for bus lanes

And has bust lane symbols for the actual buses if your city is large having double length or two floor types on the main roads makes the city feel more dynamic transportation and emergency vehicle only roads are also very useful having them in ground provides separation from regular traffic which makes public

Transportation significantly faster for main roads please do not have them on a coastline have them set back from the coastline and use it wisely in heavily populated areas you may artificially extend the coast do not spam the city with major roads space them out and have smaller roads connecting them since main

Roads carry more traffic it is likely that there will be more pedestrians therefore is a good idea to have on-street parking as well as first-floor shops do not have random turns in your main roads for no reason it looks very messy and poorly planned a good

Technique is to use one or two lane roundabouts for potentially congested roads for vehicle bridges don’t have huge suspension bridges for small crossings keep them realistic grid networks are commonly used in north american cities i recommend having no more than five to eight city blocks in a

Row before a change otherwise the city will become very boring very quick real cities can get away with breaking this rule because there is no render distance limit in real life it is useful to have a road occasionally on a diagonal or on a curve to break up a city

Large cities using grid networks will often have smaller access roads behind buildings for deliveries and garbage collection some of these roads go through the whole block others only a bit this allows the main grid network to look pretty and keeps the mechanics hidden out of sight styling your roads will make them look

Amazing india’s road markings are based on a typical north american city white lines for same way traffic and yellow lines for opposite way traffic major to mid-sized non-highway roads for public use should always be lined with a blend of medium or tall trees smaller trees may also be used but don’t have

Them so low that they block the driver’s line of sight don’t spam them have just enough so your citizens feel enclosed but not overwhelmed trees give a player-sized perspective to your city and amplify the true size of buildings main roads should always include overhead street lights alternating on

Each side of the road spaced at 30 to 40 blocks per side adding banners on streetlights also adds a lot of texture to the human scale brass strips should be placed along every road unless there is a significant space constraint the edge of the sidewalk adjacent to the road should be

Roughly 50 to 80 grass with your choice of one meter tall greenery with the occasional tall fern please do not make your greenery two blocks tall unless your goal is to completely separate the street and sidewalk i recommend a mix of grass two types of leaves ferns one or two types

Of white flowers and one or two similar colored flowers main roads should also be decorated with benches garbage cans fire hydrants planters with greenery different signs crosswalks and bus stops where needed on-street parking should always be used in areas with high pedestrian density such as shopping areas downtown sections or tourist attractions

Please be careful with your greenery near street parking people need to get from the sidewalk to their cars little details help such as parking meters parking signs or disability only parking spaces parking meters should be placed one for every two parking spots power lines may be used in mid or low

Density areas please do not use them in high density areas pretend they are underground the underground metro should be planned to serve frequent stops throughout the city depending on the size of the city you can have somewhere between one to 15 metro lines andea has four metro lines

One light rail transit loop and one intercity train line also a pro tip go into spectator mode and fly underground to make it much easier to plan and build underground networks anything underground should be planned around the metro network do not interrupt it you can also have metro lines that go

Below water provided the water isn’t too deep above ground monorails light rail transits or magnetic levitation trains are a great method of transportation and it also makes your city more dynamic these lines should be used in conjunction with the underground metro and act as a high speed version of the metro

These trains should be slightly larger than metro trains and should make less frequent stops a general rule of thumb for every five metro stops there should be one above ground train stop at the same station this planning technique makes it so that these trains are used for quick transit

While the metro is to get you to your final destination if planned correctly it will be significantly faster to take public transportation rather than drive creating a greener and more sustainable city the greater toronto area is a fantastic example of this concept you should plan this above ground train

In a loop around your city connecting the midsections of each outline metro line india has an underground intercity train in the central park area attached to one of the main metro and light rail transit stations these trains should either have one or two stops in your city at major

Stations before heading out into the distance make your city walkable if you can’t see lots of detail in an 8 chunk render distance it is too spread out you can have large buildings but in areas where you have sidewalks everything on the ground should be human scaled this means don’t spread out a

Bunch of buildings you should have small trees benches trash cans and other things the same size as your player dedicate a section of your city for downtown industrials airport and single family residential if you want here are the current districts in india with lots more on the way we currently

Have northern marina southern marina central district financial district bellevue expo industrial hidden hills and north point if you really want your city to be great you should write a page or two about the city’s history please be creative with this india’s history goes something like this the andean

People have lived on the island for centuries however french settlers invaded the archipelago from 1896 to 1904. the french built a port city in what is now southern marina there was a canadian occupation from 1922 to 1930 and plenty of industrial buildings were built however many of them were

Destroyed in world war ii legend has it that canada’s prime minister at the time invaded the andean archipelago because quote it was too cold in canada buildings from both these occupations can still be found around the city during these two invasions the andean people built a vast network of bunkers

Connected by underground tunnels in the northern mountains which is now a tourist attraction between the end of the canadian occupation in 1930 and the end of world war ii in 1945 india saw little economic growth as it was recovering from the two occupations and damages of world war ii

However after the end of the war india saw an exponential growth in finance manufacturing and higher education institutions this led to a significant increase in trade tourism and construction now that your city has a history we can use that to develop the architectural styles of each district let’s use andia

As an example the financial district uses a contemporary modernist and generally canadian style taking inspiration from toronto and vancouver it has lots of white gray and blue towers defined by a significant amount of glass facades curtain walls and white balconies following a parametric design a grid road structure with access roads

Is used in this area the towers are relatively uniform in the vertical direction which signifies order and control lower brick buildings are included to add warmth northern marina is a contemporary canadian style district it is defined by white black and grey towers uses bricks for lower portions of

Towers and row homes and includes a significant amount of first floor retail shops and on-street parking it also includes a cruise terminal that proudly hosts minecraft’s two biggest cruise ships if you visit them beware because they will easily lag out your computer central district uses a blend of styles

Such as contemporary french and eastern north american architecture this district contains andia central park which has the coolest sign you’ll ever see there are lots of low rises but the west end also includes mid and high rises to make central park feel enclosed southern marina is a southern french and

Southeastern spanish style with a contemporary twist in places it generally follows a warm orange glowing feel blended with green trees blue water and white contemporary structures corrales and andy zioda noted that the city felt cozy and atmospheric this is a carefully planned design element using a warm color palette and

The feeling of enclosure from the french style buildings boats on the water and the marina as it angles inwards it was well planned to be a walkable human scaled and overall comfortable area making it a fantastic tourist attraction we have plenty more districts in the city but i’ll leave those for you to

Explore height maps are important because they make the city feel like one entity rather than a bunch of scattered buildings if we look at real life examples we can see cities generally follow a line here is toronto and here’s new york city random placement of high-rises in non-designated areas results in a

Chaotic and uncoordinated look the density of your district should be directly related to the building heights unless it is a historic area if you have an airport planned for your city make sure there are no tall buildings that may be in the way of landing or departing aircraft

In this picture from the urban planning document the red signifies taller buildings orange is medium and yellow is medium low having a city of only skyscrapers is terrible for pedestrians if you do this i will personally shame you when planning an area for high-rises don’t have two high-rises blocking each

Other’s view have them set up diagonally to make it feel a little more open please remember height maps indicate an average billing height please include lots of low-rises and mid-rises to add texture to your high-rise areas view corridors are an advanced urban planning method used to deliver a top-notch city

View corridors are a planned path of empty space through an urban area which ends with a focal point they are carefully planned and should be protected many real-life cities use this usually to focus on buildings or a natural landmark having specific bylaws for builders and parts of the city can help a lot

Consider using the stepped style of building where instead of a one-wall skyscraper you simply stagger the building backwards as it goes up this will make the build feel much taller than it actually is make your city more complex give it more texture and most importantly not block sunlight on the street

Using point towers also does wonders point towers are commonly found in vancouver and consist of a base with the tower set on top these bases are usually two to five floors and can be shops office spaces townhouses or anything else that would make the city feel more engaging to pedestrians

Now that you have planned your city we can talk more about the little details because they are just as important if not more here are some general tips if you have world edit use it i have a basic world edit tutorial coming soon so hit that subscribe button

Even if you don’t play on a server single player world edit on java is really easy to install make your city have elevation changes make it feel enclosed use retaining walls and slight inclines don’t make your city one big hill elevation changes should use stairs for pedestrians concrete is commonly used however don’t

Use it in excess a good tip is to cover the concrete with greenery it is also great if you use these elevations to frame a focal point urban parks are a fantastic way to keep people happy i also have another video regarding that try to avoid empty view corridors keep

Render distance in mind india is planned for a maximum of 32 chunks but if you use optifine you can have up to 64 which makes for great screenshots keep a relatively consistent color scheme throughout districts and use other colors as accents colors affect moods so use them wisely

Green makes you comfortable orange gives off warmth and blue gives a sense of calmness mix these three together to create a fantastic city for roads and paths use diagonals and curves remember when in doubt use a squared plus b squared equals c squared yes your eighth grade math teacher was

Right the pythagorean theorem has useful real life applications be careful when you make diagonal roads diagonal buildings look great but are significantly harder to build filler buildings are essential cities with too many iconic buildings look messy these filler buildings don’t have to be bland but keep them relatively

Repetitive and blocky for the top seventy percent for the scale of buildings you should have a minimum of four block high ceilings otherwise you will not be able to fit interior details you should have a minimum of two blocks between floors unless we are clever and use trap doors on the ceiling

This allows you to place lighting on the ceiling without affecting the floor above make your city feel alive use cars trucks buses trains other city vehicles cranes planters benches smaller pedestrian lights garbage cans signs small advertisements places for bikes markets tables and chairs with umbrellas small patches of greenery food trucks

Helicopter pads and bus stops my favorite way to get inspiration for street decorations is to use google maps trees trees trees greenery is essential cities without greenery are terrible types of trees that you should have are small narrow trees such as palm trees tall narrow trees medium sprawling trees

For density small sprawling trees for texture and small bushes you should build 10 to 20 tree templates and use them throughout your city if you use default trees in your city i will find you and i will pelt you with timbits yes that is a threat use patterns ground patterns and open

Spaces can be an effective way to get scale use one texture pack personally i think cubed pack is the best for java city building there’s a link in the description cube’s pack also uses biome dependent textures which allows for more blocks than your average resource pack spread hidden gems throughout your city

Hidden gems are often the best part of a city andea has more than one underground nightclub hidden in some really weird spots see if you can find some fields inspired by real life can add a lot to your city however i would recommend staying away from very iconic

Buildings such as the cn tower some ideas for you to include in your city are medium and large parks border crossings airports hospitals police stations fire stations government buildings schools universities small urban parks different types of parking such as above ground underground and parking garages and much more

For large cities aside from street side parking please avoid above ground parking lots 95 percent of the time they are ugly and terrible some inspiration sources for your city include google maps google street view exploring andia and game pinterest and instagram cough cough follow me overall

If i only had to give a few pieces of advice i would say one make the city feel human scaled using small details like trees and benches two make it complex and lay out a plan before you start and three stick to a theme and only vary the architectural style when changing districts

Above all when in doubt use google maps ladies and gentlemen thank you all for watching please hit the like button for the youtube algorithm so i can make more videos like this in the future if you want to help build in the city of mandia you can join cubed community

Using the ip on the screen once you are in game you can apply for builder by typing forward slash apply and following the instructions once you are granted the rank of builder and have demonstrated sufficient building skill you may ask staff to build an india everyone including guests have access to

Full world edits even if you are not a builder you can still have a plot in the guest plot world to improve your skills You