Build-a-World Project

My sister-in-law and I have started a Minecraft project which I will refer to as the Build-a-World Project (mainly because we haven't quite figured out what we want to call it).

For a while we've been talking about building a city of some sort, so this is how this world started. As we started to build, we noticed that our first structures had a very Japanese feel to the architecture. This is what prompted us to decide that we were going to build a world with different cultural influences. Our first area is themed around the Japanese architecture that we started with.

As we progress, we are going to build additional towns with roads between them. Each town will have a different theme. We decided to go with this method, rather than build one large city with multiple districts, because we are tired of starting Minecraft worlds and only building in a small corner of that world.

Following, you'll find a breakdown of each area we have built and/or will be building. I've included links to references we used and/or will use.

Overall References
Here are a few links that lead to pages which include references for multiple areas we are working on:
 * - some flooring ideas

Japanese Area
Our Japanese-themed area is built in a forest and many of the trees have been incorporated into the architecture. We left as much of the forest intact, which makes the area feel like a Japanese garden.


 * Completed structures include a pond with two bridges across it and a large house on the hill overlooking the pond.


 * Works in progress for this area are the Shinto temple grounds.


 * Additional structures that we would like to build in this area are a tea house, a dojo, and an imperial style castle.

Medieval Area
The next area I would like to work on in our world is a medieval village. I would like to have things like a castle or keep, a blacksmith, some cottages and farms, a church, and a mill with a waterwheel.


 * We do not have any completed structures for this area.


 * We do not have any works in progress for this area.


 * Additional structures that we would like to build in this area are a traditional castle or keep, a blacksmith, some cottages and farms, a church, and a mill with a waterwheel.

Fairytale Area
Our fairytale area is located in a forest full of large trees, that is surrounded by mountains and snaking rivers.


 * Completed structures for this area are a fairytale bridge, a pumpkin cottage, and the three little pigs houses.


 * Works in progress for this area include a giant tree with living areas inside and a wizard's tower.


 * Additional structures that we would like to build in this area are a fairytale castle, the old lady in the shoe, and a fairy ring.

Egyptian Area
There are a couple of really nice desert areas in our world and we decided we wanted to build an Egyptian themed area in one of them. We plan on building some pyramids and possibly a sphinx here.

Dwarven Area
I'd like to build a dwarven area, similar to the city of Ironforge from World of Warcraft. We'll need to find a nice big cavern (like an underground ravine) to build it in, as I'd like to build the houses and other buildings into the sides of the "natural" terrain, rather than tunnel something out. There is a brazier design that I have used in some previous builds that will work very nicely for the city streets. Also, for interior lighting in the houses, an idea I got from watching a video on YouTube is to use lava inside the walls, with iron bars for "protection" but they will still let the light through.