Minecraft City/Building Critique – Feb 2023

Foreign hello today I’m I don’t know okay I don’t know why there’s Flags there but uh don’t mind that uh today I’m reviewing some builds in Terra so this is one of our worlds on Cube community and I asked some of the members that build Interra this is a world for

Builders and up uh to send some of their builds so I’ll uh check them out so first up we have this one here so it seems to be an office building it looks pretty cool I like the design I see we’ve got some interesting side fins

Down here uh this here I don’t know how I feel about that I don’t know if it’s uh no okay so it is a single layer uh what I might recommend here is instead of having you know like the the leaves built into your glass I would probably

Separate it it looks cool but I don’t know if it actually like Works realistically I also see you have a gap here so maybe with these slabs right here just double them up and just use full blocks also here so you have one block between floors and I can see your

Flooring here uh maybe change that and then this here so see how there’s this giant Gap here but one big issue with having a gap this big is essentially you’re gonna try and like heat this space above right and then the more surfaces you have that touch the

Exterior that just means you have to insulate it and that means you’re going to lose a lot of heat down through this bottom part here especially since the sun’s not going to hit it so yeah you’re gonna you’re gonna lose a lot of heat I know this is Minecraft but maybe just

Something to consider if you’re looking towards realism you seem to have a lot of materials going on here so you have this these neither bricks here and then you have this one and then you have this orange down here and then these like sort of orange red bricks then you have

Cobblestone and then there’s black and then there’s a lot of green and then there’s blue up here it seems to be a little bit overwhelming in terms of color and I think there’s a bit of biome issues here with this one uh so maybe consider cutting down on the colors yeah

See and then you’re using lots of green here and then blue here and then like there’s yellow like there’s a lot of colors going on here so maybe try and reduce them down although I do like this up here so these colors are nice they work quite well together I use this

Color scheme quite a lot so you have your PV panels here you have these green roofs yeah so that looks pretty nice I’m assuming this way is south let’s find out yes it is okay very good very good lots of HVAC equipment up here looks

Pretty nice if you want you can add some extra HVAC equipment I’ll see if I can find some stock footage of some another issue with this is I don’t actually know how you get onto the roof like there’s no overruns I don’t know if you do you have

Staircase okay you have elevators but I don’t see any staircases maybe there’s one back here no there isn’t okay so definitely add at least two staircases on opposite sides of the building uh for fire safety if you have two staircases side by side then it doesn’t really matter because everybody’s gonna die in

A fire anyway because if I’m on this side of the building and both staircases are way over there and the fire is in the middle here I can’t get there but yeah just something to consider so if we go in here uh there’s a distinct lack of

Structural columns so I see let’s see here so this one does not line up uh let’s see what about this one so since this one and this one line up maybe what I would suggest is in the middle here or actually that’s that’s pretty wide so you could have one

Extra column in the middle here or divide it into thirds and then have one right here and then another one over here and then just extend those down to the bottom floors as well so for your layout it’s uh I don’t I don’t know if I particularly like this uh it is quite

Open I do like the design of the cubicles here but there’s way too many uh you need washrooms here you need your offices you need conference rooms you need a break area there’s a lot of stuff that you are missing and also overhead lights as well and at night I’m guessing

It would be pretty dark like I see you have these here but definitely include some overhead lights here so over here oh okay okay you do have a meeting room okay so I missed that so that looks good I like the pattern of the glass at one

Point I also did use this as well like this blend of full blocks and then glass panes I do think it’s interesting and I think it can be used very well in the right context okay so for your elevators so these are very very open uh so something that I would recommend doing

Is take a block and then put it like this so that you have to step into it so that you have this extra spot here these elevators are very wide so what is this one two three four these are four by three so these are like the size of

Service elevators uh when you have to like bring big equipment up and stuff like that so maybe I would try and get this down since this is an office try and get it down to two by two these are very very large and also don’t bring it

Up all the way to the top here maybe do something like this so you have one two three like that and then again just compress it down to two so I’ll delete this and I will let you do that because I don’t want to alter

Your builds this back here so this is a little bit of a waste of space so what I would recommend take this entire Shear wall here and move it in the middle so essentially just gut the whole place and maybe redo your floor plans uh colors look fine you’ve definitely got the

Right idea and I do appreciate that it’s not just a box I like that you have this uh part that Jets out here and very nice view of the river nice placements uh but yeah you have the right idea uh just a couple things to improve on all right

Next build here first impressions I really like these balconies here I think these trap doors along the side really pull pull the whole thing together so a little trick here you have the facade and then these balconies here and then since it does wrap around it makes it

Feel like it’s kind of pulling this side around here right you kind of see what I mean here and then same thing here so you’re using the same trapdoor and then it pulls it around here as well and then it kind of continues here with the same

Trapdoors here same thing and then it loops around here so it makes the building feel a lot more complete see they use the same trick on the bottom here so you have these ones and they just wrap around the entire base here so as you’re walking along it does feel

Very very complete I like your windows here I like to use this trick as well with the light gray glass panes and then the dark gray ones as well so it does create this slit right here I am using OptiFine on top of cute pack so it does

Create this like double effect I like the use of the Jungle fence gates pushed into the side here it gives it a nice effect really good job with the continuity going up and down here so you have this part here right with the trap doors and then it continues downwards

And it’s very nice it’s not just like a depth of one I like how you use the depth of two here so when you look from this way it just makes it a little bit more visually interesting this back part here it looks very very nice I love the

Staircases here I love it when you have Windows in your staircases so that you can see them from either side uh very nice you have your overruns looks good you have all this nice HVAC equipment a little cell tower or something don’t worry I won’t tell them your elevator

Overruns I’m assuming that’s what those are nice area with your green roofs up here lots of gravel for drainage yeah a little Skylight HVAC equipment and then this here I’m not sure what this is it might be for window cleaning but yeah it looks it looks great oh a nice community

Garden over here too that’s always a nice plus to have so let’s actually start from the top here oh yeah these are end rods which is a fantastic way to have sort of like discreet lighting instead of just putting like a block of Glowstone or something

Uh okay so three bed three bath nice you have your elevators a little bit of a biome issue here that’s okay two bed two bath Okay cool so is it uh two units per floor I’m guessing since I don’t see any other doors yeah okay that’s nice that’s

A lot of a lot of chairs here for your kitchen but uh yeah it works it’s a little bit overwhelming maybe I’d recommend either two or three maybe take off this one on the end here because it does feel pretty cramps coming in here you already have these two blocks here

But this extra one just makes it feel like a little bit of a hallway walking through here nice little spot in here you have your sink you have lots of covered space lots of counter space it looks good oh that’s interesting use the uh the garbage cans for the the vents

Here that’s smart I like it you have this oven yeah it looks good little window here nice then over here we have okay that’s very very very very close so pull this back one although it will make it a little bit more cramped here uh so maybe try

And actually okay start by pulling this back by at least one block and then maybe take out this chair and then try playing around with this corner a little bit uh maybe even remove this entirely if you wanted to honestly probably just make this an island that starts right

Here and it’s just like this size right here and then cut off this part here and then just have two chairs there so that’ll give you a lot more space it’ll allow you to cut this off uh maybe a little bit more Decor in this corner although the piano looks cool

Nice balcony you could uh maybe add some chairs or something out here nice big TV yeah definitely pull this coffee table out or if you wanted to you could probably get rid of the coffee table and then just have like one of those console things that’s just under the TV this

Painting is a little bit much so in qpac this is actually one painting it just looks like it’s three separate ones so if I look at it like this the wall is four across but then this is three so it does feel a little bit odd so maybe what

I’d recommend is just if you’re going to have a painting just have one that’s two by two like this because this feels a little bit odd next to this so let’s go in here nice dresser this is cool yeah it looks good nice minimal bed you have

Your gaming PC here very cool it’s a little bit backwards but that’s okay I’m not going to judge you I appreciate that you have some lighting up here that’s very good and then a nice ensuite here yeah good size and then what’s over here so you have

Okay so it is a bathroom it’s dediment ensuite I mean I guess an ensuite is a bathroom but uh you know what I mean then in here you have another bedroom yeah that looks good another ensuite here and then a little balcony that’s nice I’d probably add

Some doors on here you don’t want to leave everything open and then in here you have a third bedroom yeah it looks good nice and minimal yep pretty good maybe I’d recommend putting an upside down trap door right here just to have a little bit more of a

Distinction that it is an entryway and then I’d also recommend changing this block right here to something that’s similar to the walls but not exactly the same material because this is a very harsh transition also I don’t know how I feel about the tile in this Corridor

Here maybe I’d look into some other ones just to see if you can make it feels a little bit like harsh and it’s it’s very gray I know I’m guilty of making my builds also very gray but if you do want to add a splash of color then maybe this

Is the place to do it so let’s check out this one this one is a two bed two bath so nice again you have lots of these stools here so maybe sorry I get distracted maybe bring this number down a little bit hidden fridge very cool

Yeah nice uh nice space lots of storage here that looks good I like this table looks nice yeah there you go see this is a lot better size so you have like this walking room here and then yeah this feels a lot better than the other one

The other one felt very cramped uh nice so you have this nice spot here balcony out here nice view of the city it’s good I like the painting nice bed nice just enjoying some sushi while you work nice Skylight over here yeah it looks good maybe I try and integrate

This glowstone into the ceiling somehow um it does feel a little bit awkward but uh otherwise I think it looks pretty good I like that you have sort of this like carpet looking here to make it feel a lot more cozy yeah so let’s go check out these rooms here so bathroom and

Then you have the other bedroom here very nice oh cool yeah bunk beds oh yeah that’s interesting yeah I like it okay so I’m assuming the other floors are the same as well so I’m just going to go down to the ground floor I don’t think the ground floor was furnished but

I’m gonna check anyway no okay so it’s a work in progress okay gotcha top floor is the showroom not sure what that is but that’s okay and yeah I’m guessing there’s going to be a Lobby in here maybe maybe if you wanted to include some shops down here

But uh yeah no it’s a it’s a cool build all right for this next build I was actually teleported right in the middle of these three so I don’t know which one’s which uh so I’m just gonna review all of them so we’ll start with this one

So first of all the pattern is really cool uh I see you’re using the detector rails in qpac and then the trap doors as well the first thing I noticed is this crazy base here and I would say it’s unrealistic however I did find this building when I was exploring out in

Vancouver that had something similar right here I would say definitely make this bigger uh actually it is it is a pretty good size but it feels like you just cut it right into the glass so maybe make it more distinct maybe cut these up a little bit uh these fins here

And then change the blocks directly above here definitely change these blocks here because this again is a really rough transition so let’s come in here I like the cross bracing here uh I know it’s probably more for a design feature but realistically if you are using these for structural purposes I’d probably make

Them a lot smaller because trying to find members of this size is going to be pretty challenging so you have your core here a nice staircase I like that now this here for your elevators I’d probably bring the doors out onto this one here it does feel quite deep

Definitely don’t forget to furnish this elevator elevator very nice so I wish you would have kept one of the elevator doors open it makes it a lot easier to explore so let’s look up here okay cool so you have these like double floor openings interesting maybe what I’d recommend uh

Using double floors like this for every floor seems a little bit like a waste of space maybe if you’d like to you can have the occasional double floor and okay this is this is a triple floor definitely consider using atriums in different sections of the building and

Then doubling up the floors where you can up here this is interesting uh maybe I don’t know how I feel about these iron bars as a parapets especially for water runoff you’re definitely going to need something solid here so it’s going to rain and then all the water is going to

Go down here and then just directly off the building so what you want to do with the parapets is have like a full block here so you can control the flow of water and then move it to drainage where you need it I like that you have your

Solar panels up here that looks pretty good it’s a bit shaded here so you’re going to get less from this one and okay nice spot up here you have your doors this year I don’t like that this is the same material as this section right here so probably actually change

This to Glass and then make this solid so you can separate that doorway from this glass here also once you do get those solid pair of pets in there you could probably remove this glass here since it won’t make much of a difference if you’re using it for the safety of the

People that are using the space also maybe consider putting some sun protection up here because if I’m up here in the summer it’s gonna get pretty hot pretty quick nice solar panels up here too very good you have the top of your staircase uh you definitely need

Two staircases if you’re able to fit it nice green roof I like the pads I like your HVAC equipment as well and then yeah okay so it looks pretty good just change those couple of things on this one so for this one here let’s check this out okay so very cool oh and

The reason it looks weird is because they frame out the other Towers beside it with glass so that’s why you’re getting this weird Shadow with these solar panels here you definitely want to elevate them Above This lip here otherwise you you are going to get shading during portions of the day and

Then it they’re going to be less effective another trick too when I’m using vertical elements like this uh when you have different layers so this will be your first layer and then this is your second one if you do want to create some visual separation what I

Would do is actually let me just show you so if I select that and then I come over here and then I select this one and I just do walls zero see like that so now it feels a little bit more separate and it feels like two distinct layers rather than that it

Feels like you’re just going up and then ignoring the layer behind it it feels like you don’t want to show off that second layer I’m not sure what these are uh you seem to have lights here maybe I’d probably put them right here and I guess if this building is lower than say

This taller one and this taller one you probably don’t need lights on it I don’t know the exact code but if you’d like to still have lights then maybe just put them on the corners instead I like the greenery it’s very interesting I like the material choice too so you have the

43 colon 8 I forgot what the name of it smooth stone slab or something I don’t know I just know my ideas because I’ve been building for quite a while and then you have your blue glass here so yeah that’s definitely interesting it does feel like a bit of an older build just

Because of the materials not because of the design but it does look interesting same thing here maybe I’d try and switch this up a little bit it seems odd that you’d have a solid wall with no windows here yeah yeah like you have this floor

And then it’s just it’s just dark I love this though the skylight’s really cool if you wanted to you could incorporate more of it over here but yeah definitely yeah it’s very very dark definitely include more windows here this is also pretty narrow maybe widen this if you

Can so let’s check out this other build let’s go across here again very dark so definitely include more windows save comments about the parapet up here this is a lot of HVAC equipment so maybe cut it down to about half of this although it does look pretty interesting I do

Like the greenery it does seem a little bit excessive though for the three buildings you have it on essentially every open surface that you can maybe except for the windows on this one same comment here about these trap doors here and then for all of the buildings you definitely need more structural elements

This one less so this one I think is okay if you want to you can use some tension members like those diagonal members that maybe cross here but for these ones I see okay you have these here I don’t know if these are structural or not but if you look inside

It seems quite empty this one here too like you have your Shear wall and everything but definitely include more structural columns but again pretty cool builds I love the shapes I love what you’re trying to do with the designs but just a couple things to improve okay I had to turn

Shaders off because it was lagging too much here but this is our next build and it’s very interesting because it’s very stepped and I always appreciate these types of builds uh because I know these steps they do take quite a bit more work than say just a typical building that’s

More of a rectangle but I really do appreciate all the effort you put into this and my first impressions I think it looks really really good so first of all let’s talk about the colors so I really love that you have consistent colors you have these bricks this masonry that

Covers the whole thing I like that you’re using this white here as sort of this accent the consistent wood color just pulls the whole thing together and when you combine it with all this Greenery here I think it looks really nice I really like the balconies here

That are not necessarily in line with each other I do like the randomness of it I think it does ADD quite a bit of character to it this ground floor is really nice I like that you have this back here oh I love this that’s great I

Actually might steal this Design This is actually really good this is a really good garbage can design check that out two blocks you have a button there you have a button on I can’t walk there on the other side this here this is a jungle fence gates then

You have a carpet on top yeah this is really nice then you have your ventilation here yeah this looks great I like the stairs up there yeah this is this is a really nice build so far we’ll see how I feel about the upstairs so okay modern low rise this is definitely

Not a low rise this would be considered a mid-rise I really love these big open Windows here and something that I really love to see is when you have the separation between like this main section of window and then the upper section so since this window the

Sunlight is getting blocked a little bit by here it’s perfectly okay to add your designs up top here and it’s not really going to affect anything even if it wasn’t I think it’s still a good idea to have those and again they’re using the trick with the light gray glass and the

Dark gray to create that separation in between I really like that for this post here and uh I guess the other ones too you used walls so what this allows you to do is have a little bit of separation between the actual post and the section above here instead of just having one

That goes directly up there and connects to there I always like to have a gap between the edge here and that so this is a great way to do it one thing with your Greenery and I do notice this uh here and there is the colors are

Somewhat inconsistent and I know in Cube pack this one this one and this one they’re all the same type of flower but clearly the colors are different and I don’t necessarily know if it works super well for what you’re trying to do if you’re trying to do more like wild stuff

Like this like this is a big open area of grass and Greenery I think it works quite well just because you’re more just throwing stuff in there but this should be a little bit more curated since it is designed to be a part of this building so maybe what I would suggest is

Actually I don’t know how I feel about the dandelions here at least where I’m from in Canada dandelions are kind of seen as like a pest but keep the green and maybe pick like one or two other colors and keep it consistent across here and when you do pick two colors

Make sure they work well together because I don’t know I think it’s just pink that’s throwing it off but otherwise the placement of it looks great I like that you have gravel around here that’s very nice nice spot for bikes here that’s very good and I really like the grade separation

Here so you have this walkway down here and then you have this big open courtyard that’s uh how much is this two blocks up it looks great it’s a nice area in here maybe you could put some trees in here maybe like I don’t know a fountain or something in here just to

Make it a little bit more lively because it does feel pretty pretty empty and vacant because you have all these shops around here right and you want people to you want to attract people to walk up here so right now if I’m walking by I’m

Like oh it’s kind of an empty space I don’t really want to go up there and I’ll keep walking but if you have trees and benches and it sort of feels like an urban park then you’re going to attract a lot more people and then they’re going

To spend more money in your stores and then you’re going to make more tax dollars the shop looks great I like the security camera up there that’s pretty good very nice you have these benches this is probably my favorite plants it’s very nice I like that looks good

Nice display window here it’s very creative and here what do you got not sure what those are but uh I like it looks cool then you have is this a clothing store yes it is very cool like one of those like micro shops looks great and then

You have like a sushi place a big restaurant in here yeah it looks nice I like the color theme it’s very muted nice bar in here that’s good if you want to for your bar you could add some stools here I’d make it a little bit more interactive yeah I think it looks

Great I like your HVAC equipment I really appreciate that you left it exposed because as someone who works with HVAC systems occasionally just for University I I appreciate seeing the inner workings of it back here you get uh what is this kitchen very nice a little bit dark in here it probably had

Some lights nice fridge in there yeah it looks great so let’s check out the rest here oh wow it is furnished okay I don’t know if I’m gonna check out all of it uh but let me see if I can find a way in

Okay so it is a bit of a shell up here I guess he did say it was unfinished but let me just go through here this is nice yeah I like the color scheme that looks great nice uh small decor color scheme looks great I love this flooring that’s nice it works really

Well it makes it feel very grounded which I like then the accents of you have your green and then your closet here and then aha you use this trick again very nice I might have to start doing that because I think that looks pretty cool nice you have a plug right there

Hallway let’s see is this similar yes it is nice more plugs here nightstand bed overheads yeah it looks great let’s come down here another bed then in here nice it’s a nice little spot in here I guess this is from the new cute pack update I haven’t really

Had a whole lot of time to explore all the new blocks uh but there is quite a few new things here it’s very interesting I like that nice little table here if you’d like you could maybe combine these spaces like if you wanted to remove these three

Trapdoors right here so it is still good like if you’re sitting here you still see the TV and it does still block out like if somebody’s sitting here and you’re watching TV you’re not gonna be like staring them in the eye since that TV is there so if you did want to remove

Maybe those three blocks uh it could help it make it uh feel a little bit more connected to the rest of the apartment and then since you had to remove these ones down here I’d probably just go ahead and remove that one this kitchen is really nice look at that

Yeah this is really well done very very well decorated nice you have your oven your stove nice coffee maker very nice the colors are very well coordinated so that looks really good nice balcony out here wow this is a good size yeah if I lived here I definitely

Spend a lot of time here oh cool we got new chairs I didn’t know about these those look pretty cool nice yeah oh this looks great nice bookshelf and then here what is this you have a washroom oh cool you have like a like a

Green wall so you’re going to get a lot of humidity from the shower and then plants love humidity so yeah no this is perfect yeah this is really well decorated okay so let’s go out here I don’t want to check out the entire thing because I don’t know if I have

Time uh but okay so you have your elevators you have a big open staircase and then more units this way yeah this is really well done I can’t remember if I saw another staircase if you do not have another staircase you definitely need one so since this is sort of uh a u-shape

So you have one right about here or sorry it was over where was it was it right here is this where it is yeah it is okay so you have one staircase right here I would highly recommend having another one over here on this end so that if

There’s a fire in the middle here and then someone lives over there if there’s no staircase then they can’t get there and then they’re gonna be stuck there and probably die so definitely have another one there and have another one right about here oh okay I see you

Already do very nice seems like you’re one step ahead of me so yeah okay I think that looks pretty good so three staircases one there one there and then the one you already have right in the middle yeah this is a really nice builds I think it’s very well done I like the

Alternating patterns of your glass here the randomness is very Tastefully done and I think this is a really nice building this is probably one of my favorites that I’ve seen in a while Thank you