Crafts and workshops
Build the workshop of a craftsman as it stood in different cultures: a Dutch gabled house with a stall shutter, a German half-timbered house, an Italian bottega with a stone arch, a stall in the souk, a Roman taberna, a Japanese machiya, a Chinese shophouse, a log workshop from the North or a mud-brick workshop from Ancient Egypt. Pick one of twelve crafts, from smith and baker to weaver, tanner and goldsmith, and the workshop gets the right workstations. Below you can see how everything is calculated.
Point at a block for the explanation. Click a block to mark it as placed. The side view shows the section at the chosen column, Layer shows the chosen layer from above.
Build plan
Per layer
| Layer | Parts | Blocks |
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A number is the count of blocks of that part in that layer, in the colour of the part. Click a layer to see it from above.
Build tips
- Put crafts together as they were: in a town, smiths, bakers and weavers often had their own street. Think of Smith Lane or Tanners’ Row.
- Every villager profession in Minecraft has its own workstation. A building with the right workstations does double duty when villagers live in it.
3D and layer-by-layer build plan
To Minecraft
Download the workshop as a schematic file and paste it with WorldEdit, or build it with a hologram in Litematica.
How it is calculated
History and fun facts
Why crafts sat together
In medieval Europe craftsmen organised themselves in guilds from the eleventh and twelfth centuries. A guild watched over quality, prices and training: you started as an apprentice, became a journeyman and could only become a master after making a masterpiece.
That is why crafts often sat together. In many towns street names still remember it: Smith Street, Tanners’ Row, Baker Street. Customers knew where to go, and the town council could easily keep watch over fire and waste.
Fire: smith, baker and potter
Those who worked with fire were often sent to the edge by the town. Smiths liked to sit by the town gate or on the edge of the village, and in some towns bakers were given rules for the oven and the chimney. A stone chimney that rose above the ridge kept sparks off the roof.
In Pompeii there were dozens of bakeries with a brick oven and millstones of lava stone, where donkeys turned the stones. Potters needed room for a kiln and sat near a supply of clay, as in the Kerameikos in Athens, the quarter from which the word ceramics comes.
Water and stench: tanner, dyer and brewer
A tanner used lime, bark and other materials to turn hides into leather, and that stank. That is why tanneries lay outside the walls, downwind and by running water. Dyers and fullers needed a lot of water to rinse wool and cloth and sat by a stream or canal.
The Chouara tannery in Fez, whose round vats are world-famous, goes back to the eleventh century according to tradition and still works. Brewers needed water, grain and fuel and built a brewery with a kettle, a cooling room and a barrel cellar.
Workshop and shop in one
Most craftsmen worked and lived in the same house: the workshop below, the family above. In the Middle Ages a craftsman often sold through a shutter to the street. The lower shutter folded down into a counter, the upper one formed a canopy. The hanging sign showed which craft sat inside, even for those who could not read.
In the Roman town the taberna had a wide opening to the street and a masonry counter, often with large jars (dolia) set into it. In a Japanese machiya the shop sat at the front, with a workshop and a courtyard behind it. It is often told that the front was narrow because tax would be worked out by the width.
Crafts in other cultures
In Ancient Egypt the craftsmen who built the tombs in the Valley of the Kings lived in Deir el-Medina, a village that has been excavated. The houses were of mud brick and the workshops lay on the village street. In a souk in the Moorish world each craft sits in its own street, like the smiths of Marrakesh or the coppersmiths of Fez.
In the Song dynasty (960 to 1279) the scroll ‘Along the River During the Qingming Festival’ shows a town full of shops with wooden shutters, including a pharmacy. In York’s Coppergate the workshops of Viking craftsmen of the tenth century were excavated, with remains of wood, leather, metal and antler working.
From craft to factory
At the end of the eighteenth century the guilds disappeared: France abolished them in 1791 and in the Netherlands they went in 1798. Machines and factories took over much handwork. Many crafts stayed on as a small workshop, and some, like the Delft pottery De Porceleyne Fles of 1653, still work.
Did you know?
- On the Ponte Vecchio in Florence only goldsmiths and jewellers were allowed a shop from 1593: a decree by Grand Duke Ferdinando I drove out the butchers.
- De Porceleyne Fles in Delft was founded in 1653 and still works. It makes Delft blue earthenware.
- The Guildhall in Lavenham, built around 1530, belonged to the wool trade guild and is one of the finest timber-framed buildings in England.
- Deir el-Medina, the village of the tomb builders of the New Kingdom, has been excavated and shows houses, workshops and tombs.
- In Minecraft every villager profession has its own workstation: the smith a blast furnace, the weaver a loom, the stonemason a stonecutter.
- We owe the word ceramics to the Kerameikos in Athens, the potters’ quarter.
Sources and further reading
Read more about the history here. The links go to museums, archives and heritage organisations outside this site.
- Historic Centre of Florence (opens in a new tab) UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Description of the historic centre of Florence, with the Ponte Vecchio. - Medina of Fez (opens in a new tab) UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Description of the old city of Fez with its souks and craft quarters. - Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata (opens in a new tab) UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Description of the excavated towns, with shops, bakeries and workshops. - Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (opens in a new tab) UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Description of ancient Kyoto, the city of the machiya and the weavers. - Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis (opens in a new tab) UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Description of Thebes with its necropolis, where the village of Deir el-Medina belongs. - Royal Delft (opens in a new tab) Royal Delft
The pottery of 1653 in Delft, with its history and tours. - Lavenham Guildhall (opens in a new tab) National Trust
The sixteenth-century guildhall in Lavenham, with an explanation of the wool trade. - JORVIK Viking Centre (opens in a new tab) JORVIK Viking Centre
The museum on the excavation site in Coppergate, York, with Viking workshops. - Guild (opens in a new tab) Encyclopaedia Britannica
An explanation of guilds: how they arose, what they regulated and when they disappeared.
About this tool
With the craft planner you build the workshop of a craftsman in Minecraft. You choose a culture, such as a Dutch gabled house, a German half-timbered house, an Italian bottega, a stall in the souk, a Roman taberna, a Japanese machiya, a Chinese shophouse, a log workshop from the North or a mud-brick workshop from Ancient Egypt.
Then you pick one of twelve crafts: smith, baker, butcher, potter, weaver and dyer, carpenter, stonemason, brewer, tanner, apothecary, bookbinder or goldsmith. The tool puts the right workstations in the building, such as a blast furnace and anvil for the smith or a loom for the weaver.
You adjust the sizes, choose the awning, the shopfront and the materials, and see the building in 3D. The build plan shows every layer, the list counts all blocks and you can download the building as a schematic for WorldEdit and Litematica.
Frequently asked questions
How do I build a smithy in Minecraft?
Pick the smith under Craft and, for example, the Dutch gabled house or the log workshop under Culture. Switch on the yard option for an anvil and a tub outside. Build the walls and the roof first, then place the workstations from the build plan: blast furnace, anvil, grindstone and smithing table.
Which workstation belongs to which craft?
The smith uses a blast furnace, anvil and grindstone. The baker a smoker and a furnace. The weaver a loom and a cauldron for the dye. The potter a furnace and a cauldron. The stonemason a stonecutter. The apothecary a brewing stand and bookshelves. The bookbinder a lectern and a cartography table.
Can villagers work in the workshop?
The building has a workstation and a bed, as a villager needs. Whether a villager picks the block depends on the paths in your world: there must be a free path to the block and the bed. So do not fill the workshop too full.
Which culture suits which country?
The gabled house suits the Netherlands and Belgium, half-timbering Germany, England and France, the bottega Italy and southern Spain, the souk Morocco and the Moorish world, the taberna the Roman and Greek world, the machiya Japan, the shophouse China, the log workshop Scandinavia and Russia and the mud-brick workshop Egypt.
Can I build several workshops next to each other?
Yes, that is really the idea: build a street of smiths, or a souk with a row of stalls. Download each workshop as a schematic and paste them side by side with WorldEdit.
Does this work in Bedrock Edition?
The layer-by-layer plan works in every version. The schematic works with WorldEdit and Litematica for Java Edition. For Bedrock you build the building by hand with the plan.