Build a Modern House in Minecraft

Hop onto any populated Minecraft server and you're virtually guaranteed to see great examples of medieval architecture — castles, keeps, and stone walls are abundantly popular. Because of this, one way to break from the mold is to make your in-game house a modern one. Learning how to recreate a few trends in modern architecture in-game only takes a few minutes and allows you to make your building projects stand out from the boring old "cobblestone and wood" crowd.

Steps

Modern Architecture Basics

1. Use sharp lines and "square" surfaces. This isn't especially hard with Minecraft's block-based building system. An easy way to mimic this design style is to make your house's walls different heights. It doesn't matter if one or more of your walls go up past the roof — on a modern house, it counts as art!
   • Real-life example: This page has a good example of the "squares and lines" approach to modern houses. Note that the house itself is on a simple rectangular plot of land, but that the creative assortment of scattered rectangles in its design makes it look much more interesting.
   • Many modern houses are designed to create clean, visually pleasing areas of contrast. They do this by incorporating many squares, rectangles, and straight lines into their exterior. Though it might seem like this would make the house look like a "jumble" of shapes, the actual effect is striking. This is a great way to add visual complexity to your house while still using an easy rectangular floor plan.
2. Pair clean white walls with natural materials. Finding wood and stone in Minecraft is easy. White building materials can be a little trickier — quartz, sandstone, wool, or lighter varieties of stone may be your best bet.
   • Real-life example: Here you can see an interesting use of contrasting building materials. The clean white surfaces of the roof "clash" with the brick supporting walls and the wood-paneled chimneys for a look that's both natural and man-made.
   • A common theme in modern house architecture is the connection between the orderly world of humans and the chaotic beauty of nature. Modern houses use often use numerous unadorned white concrete surfaces on the outside of the house to give it a "pristine" feel. Pairing these with panels or walls made from rich natural materials like wood and stone creates gorgeous contrast. More rarely, another neutral color like grey is used in place of white.
3. Have big glass windows. You'll need lots of sand for this. Building your house on the beach gives you a scenic view and an easy source of sand for your windows. Don't forget that you can always build multiple furnaces to speed up glass production!
   • Real-life example: The famous Stahl House in the Hollywood hills shows off this design feature. The house's numerous glass walls offer an amazing view and make it seem as if you're living on a wide open cloud above Los Angeles — a one-of-a-kind experience.
   • Modern architects love using large, rectangular panes of glass. These allow you to give the occupants of your house a great view — a must if you've built your house somewhere cool. They also create the impression of clean, open spaces and can be used to form contrasting squares and rectangles on the outside of the house.
4. Don't focus on symmetry. Feel free to indulge your imagination with your house's shape. Standard "box and roof" constructions are to be avoided. Your house can be lopsided, uneven, or even outright bizarre-looking — it's up to you.
   • Real-life example: This modern house in Mexico exemplifies this trend. The main entrance and hallway are located off to the left, while the big, boxy structure on the right looms over the rest of the house. The way it juts out creates a powerful impression — it's almost intimidating.
   • Homes and mansions from past eras often strove to create grand, awe-inspiring symmetry (see: the Palace of Versailles). Modern homes sometimes do the same thing with the opposite approach. Many modern houses seem to deliberately go out of their way not to be symmetrical, challenging the viewer with their lopsided designs.
5. Keep interiors un-cluttered. The insides of modern houses are usually designed to give the effect of large, open spaces. Use clean neutral-colored floors and natural materials like wood and stone to create the same sorts of spacious contrast that you used for the outside of the house. Simple stairs, high ceilings, minimal furniture, and glass openings to awnings and balconies can enhance this effect.
   • Real-life example: This page shows off the clean, stylish interior of a modern house. The simple but elegant arrangement of furniture and the large, contrasting black window panes make for a space that feels open and cozy at the same time.
   • Have a wall without many windows? Show off your modern, artsy sensibility by showing off a selection of paintings. You can craft one from eight wooden sticks around a block of wool (any color).
6. Add a (square or rectangular) pool. Modern houses often seem to have a pool in the backyard — perhaps it's because this allows architects to play with an additional surface, adding a new dimension to their design. Don't forget that you'll need a bucket or two and a source of water if you want to fill your pool. You can craft a bucket from three iron ingots arranged in a "V" at the bottom of the crafting box.
   • Real-life example:This gorgeous mansion in Brazil has a simple but elegant rectangular pool mere steps away from an offset rectangular entertainment area — the perfect example of modern luxury.
   • Use a square or rectangular shape for your pool so that it matches the right angles of the house. Keep it level with the ground.

Ideas for Creative Projects

1. Incorporate smooth curves and rounded surfaces. Minecraft's block-by-block building style makes it easy to replicate the "squares and lines" style of a modern house. More abstract living spaces that incorporate curves are a little trickier. This guide to making convincing circles and spheres in Minecraft can be a huge help when it comes to recreating these difficult shapes.
   • Real-life example: This house puts a curvy twist on the basic "white surfaces and squares" modern house design. The curved roof and overhangs give this swanky pad a sleek look — a little like a giant iPod.
2. Use bold, daring mash-ups of geometric shapes. If you want to get adventurous with your house design, don't limit yourself to squares and rectangles. Tossing together odd combinations of shapes and surfaces can give your house a truly unique look. This is best for larger houses, as it's difficult to make clear, defined geometric shapes out of just a few blocks.
   • Real-life example: This bizarre house gives a one-of-a-kind impression. The sharp, angled polygons and triangles used in its design make it look almost like a jagged rock jutting up out of the earth.
3. Consider "impossible" structures. If you really want to push the limits of what can be called a "house," feel free to go absolutely nuts with your architecture. You don't have to worry about whether your house will actually stand up or not in Minecraft, so don't be afraid to unleash your creativity. You can even make floating houses by building a bridge out over a cliff or canyon, building your house on the bridge, and then getting rid of the blocks connecting it back to the cliff!
   • Real-life example: Though this building obviously wasn't quite impossible to build in real life, it definitely looks like it was. The many different structures jut out at unpredictable angles, defying explanation.
4. Incorporate well-manicured plant life into your house. A well-placed tree or garden can give your modern house a bit of natural flair. Plus, it's a good way to mimic the "green" designs that have become somewhat popular in modern architecture. If you connect a grassy area to an area of plain dirt with a string of connected dirt blocks, the grass will spread to the new area very slowly. You can use this to make unique gardens, like a lawn on your house's roof. You can also cut down wild flowers to collect them for your garden.
   • Real-life example: This modern house has a very minimalist garden. The grass and trees are used almost just like the other surfaces — carefully confined to offer striking contrast, not allowed to grow where they please.
   • You probably won't want to go for lush, sprawling gardens here — modern architecture tends to use tidy arrangements when it comes to plants.
5. Consider your building location for maximum impact. When it comes to making an amazing house, where you build can be just as important as what you build. There's no "right" place to put your modern house, but you may want to look out for especially exciting plots of land. Just a few location ideas include: on the beach, on the top of a hill or mountain, carved into the side of a cliff, on a platform in the ocean, or buried deep underground.
   • Real-life example: Falling Water, the famous modern house built by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, is perched on top of a small creek and waterfall. The water flows underneath the house, making it not just a gorgeous sight but a serious feat of engineering as well.

Tips

• All of these ideas will be easiest in creative mode — you won't risk dying to hostile mobs or having your work sabotaged by other players.
• If you do want to try to build one of these in survival mode, you might want to scout out a location far from the spawn point to make it less likely that your house will be found by griefers.
• Make your house away from trees so any mobs will burn.
• If you want color, good colors for a modern house are gray (light/dark), lime, orange, brown, light blue, and cyan.

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Sources and Citations

See also

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• Change Your Minecraft Skin with MC SkinEdit
• Build the Choedan Kal in Minecraft
• Build a Bunker in Minecraft
• Change Your Minecraft Skin Using the Launcher
• Make Snow Golems Useful in Minecraft
• Add an Entity to a Team in Minecraft 1.11
• Survive Your First Night in Minecraft
• Make a House in Minecraft
• Play Minecraft

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