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Thursday, November 5, 2020

Free Building Plans Resources



At one point I had intended to do a series of gridded building plans based on one of these resources. Years later, I only ever did one. I find these old architecture books on Gutenburg to be a valuable way to quickly come up with a building layout I can describe to the players.
The trick to these is to find the list of illustrations or plates, these usually provide clickable short cuts to the floor plans. Otherwise keep scrolling, they're in there somewhere.

The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius - classical roman architecture, covers temples, forums, villas and houses    

History of Indian and Eastern Architecture by James Ferguson - mostly building elevations and details, but there are some floor plans in there, including a couple of temples located in caves. 

Chaitya Cave, Bhaja


The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles by Ella S. Armitage - what it says on the cover. You don't get interior layouts, but you do get site plans of castles for intrepid adventurers to sneak into or assault.

Problems in Periclean Buildings by G. W. Elderkin - plans of classical Greek temples and buildings.

Virginia Architecture in the Seventeenth Century by Henry Chandlee Foreman - not a lot of plans and many lack detail, but there are a number of drawings of Native American structures that can be used by your barbarian and orc villages.

Palace and Mosque at Ukhaidir by Gertrude Lowthain Bell - despite the name it includes Greek house plans, a plan of the Roman fort at Housesteads as well as more oriental dwelling plans, along with the palace and mosque layouts. 

Rural Architecture by Lewis Falley Allen - moving to America this book has detailed floor plans for farms and plantations. It includes plans for outbuilding such as a piggery and smokehouse. 

Woodward's Country Homes by Geo. E. and F. W. Woodward - a couple of dozen house designs from the Reconstruction period. Also plans for outbuildings like an ice house and carriage house

Bennett's Small House Catalog 1920 by Ray H Bennett Lumber Company - dozens of floor plans suitable for eldritch horrors to ooze out of when playing Call of Cthulhu. With price lists and pictures of internal details.

Convenient Houses by Louis Henry Gibson. Fifty Gilded Age domiciles 

     There's more books on Architecture at Gutenberg, but they are mostly antiquarian volumes on specific architectural details, rather than floor plans. Nice for color, but don't help design an adventure.

Update:  All the links broke overnight, don't know if it's Blogger not letting me link to Gutenberg or what happened.  Fixed them 11/08/20.  If not just search for the titles on Gutenberg and you'll find them. SOrry if you came and none of the links worked - RDT

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