THE QUICK NOTES:
I’m currently collaborating on a project or two, and it got me thinking: How can you break up the boring and rigid cubic feel of a Minecraft city without going crazy with diagonal roads or organics? How can you create a more unique and eye-catching vibe? Circles.
Allow me to elaborate, straight to the point with example tips and ideas for your city:
World Edit recommended, always. Each link shows a related example from my builds.
- Circular windows, roofs, archways – I sometimes come back to this article from the Guardian for good inspiration: Cracked walls, wrinkled faces: Paris’ modernist housing estates in pictures. You can add curves to a building in surprising and surprisingly simple ways, like a circular window trim.
- Fake curved building – You can create a double-facade on a building, meaning a second front wall layer, and have circular patterns on it, or otherwise shape it to dress up a boring box.
- Stadiums and theaters can be made circular/semi-circular using the //hcyl command to create ever expanding rows of seats, then walls, roof, etc. It’s not hard if you’re careful. To create ovals, you need to do “//hcyl X,Y” where X and Y are width and length of your circle.
- Add a roundabout – the middle ground between doing an unrealistic tiny junction or a hilariously oversized interchange (like a clover-leaf). Roundabouts are fairly easy to make and can be used as an impressive, large centerpiece with a plaza/park in the center.
- True curved building – With careful planning it’s surprisingly effective to make a curved building, such as by creating a half circle using //hcyl and “//set 0”, and stacking up the outer walls. Inside the building, you can cheese the layout by making boxy rooms and filling in small gaps at the awkward curved outer wall.
- Urban parks – Go crazy and experiment! Overlap some circles on the floor to make a cool pattern. Create circular sheltered walkways. Make a circular statue or obelisk. Use //move to create wiggly modern sculpture art. You know. Stuff. Imagine you’re a town planner with unlimited budget.
- A centerpiece landmark – Even a single curving building, bridge or park can work wonders to an area if you sculpt it deliberately – just experiment! I recommend the mod Arceon for some tasks.