Half-timbered house planner
Medieval half-timbered houses in four styles: German Fachwerk, English Tudor, Normandy colombage and Dutch-Flemish. Choose the storeys with jetties, the roof and the timber pattern in every panel, or make a whole street of houses that are all slightly different. Build it layer by layer.
Street
House
Roof
Timber frame
Distance from post to post. The tool divides the wall as evenly as possible.
Windows and door
Elevation
What stands further back is darker. Click a panel: it gets an outline and the explanation below works it out. That also opens its layer.
The street is at the bottom. The dotted line is the front wall of the ground floor.
Build breakdown
Houses in the row
From left to right. Click a house to have its front explained.
| House | Size | Storeys | Roof | Pattern below / above |
|---|
Per layer, from top to bottom
Click a layer to view it.
| Layer | Timbers | Infill | Glass | Roof | Total |
|---|
Build tips
- For each storey, build the frame first: the sill beam, the posts and the top beam. Then fill the panels.
- Build a jetty by laying the sill beam of the new storey 1 block further out. Put upside-down stairs under it as brackets.
- Place stair braces while looking at the top or bottom half of a block. That decides whether the stair is upside down.
- Stripped logs and plain planks both make good timbers. Choose "Per part" in the block palette to give timbers, infill and roof a block of their own.
- A street comes alive with different heights and ridge directions. Try Variation: Lots and a few seed numbers.
3D and layer-by-layer build plan
To Minecraft
Download the design as a schematic file and paste it into your world with WorldEdit, or build along with a hologram in Litematica. The block you choose becomes the roof. Timbers, infill, plinth, windows, shutters and doors get the blocks you chose above.
Shopping list
Put the amounts of this design on your list. There you see everything together, converted to stacks and shulker boxes.
How it is calculated
History and fun facts
What is timber framing?
In a timber frame house the wall is a frame of wooden beams. The open panels between them are filled with woven sticks and clay, called wattle and daub, or later with brick. The filling is often painted white.
The wood carries the house, the filling only keeps out wind and rain. This way you could build a strong house quickly with little stone.
Where does it come from?
Timber framing is very old, but the famous half-timbered houses mostly date from the late Middle Ages and the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. There was a lot of oak in the forests, and stone was expensive.
Each region had its own style. In Germany it is called Fachwerk, with crosses and figures in the panels. In England the Tudor style was popular. In Normandy and Alsace it is called colombage. Holland and Flanders also had many wooden houses.
Jetties and patterns
Many timber frame houses have a jetty: each floor sticks out a little further than the one below. This gave more room upstairs on a narrow plot, and it kept the lower wall drier.
The diagonal beams make the frame stiff. They got names like St Andrew's cross, K brace, herringbone and the Mann figure, which looks like a small man with his arms spread. Rich owners showed off extra decorative timber.
Why did it disappear?
Wooden houses in a crowded town burned down quickly. After big fires, rules were made that required stone or brick, for example in Amsterdam and London.
In Holland many wooden fronts were later replaced by brick fronts. The Houten Huys in the Begijnhof in Amsterdam is one of the few that still stand.
Where can you still see them?
In Germany, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Quedlinburg and Goslar are famous for their half-timbered houses. In England you find Tudor houses in Chester, York and Shrewsbury.
In France you see colombage in Rouen, Honfleur, Colmar and Strasbourg. These streets are often used as models for fairy tale villages in films and games.
Did you know?
- The old town of Quedlinburg has been on the World Heritage list since 1994, mainly for its half-timbered houses.
- The Tudor period in England lasted from 1485 to 1603.
- The black and white colours of many English Tudor houses were often only painted that way in the nineteenth century.
- The Rows in Chester are first floor galleries that have existed since the Middle Ages.
- The Houten Huys in the Begijnhof is one of the two wooden houses still standing in the centre of Amsterdam.
About this tool
With this Minecraft timber frame house generator you design medieval houses with wooden beams. You choose from four styles: German Fachwerk, English Tudor, Norman colombage, and Dutch and Flemish. You can make one house or a whole street of houses that are all a little different.
You set the width, depth, number of floors and the jetty. The roof can be a gable roof, a steep gable roof, a hip roof or a half hip roof, with dormers and chimneys. For each floor you choose the beam pattern: posts only, St Andrew's cross, K brace, Mann figure, herringbone, curved braces, close studding, diamond or a mix.
You also choose the colours: dark oak, black, ox blood red, spruce or light oak for the beams, and white lime, cream, ochre, brick or clay for the filling. You add windows, shutters and a single or double door.
You see the house from the front, side and back. The layer plan, the 3D preview and the materials counter with beams, filling, glass and roof help you build it. Download the design as a .schem file for WorldEdit or Litematica.
Great for a medieval village, a fairy tale street or a market square in Minecraft. Also see the Dutch gables and the roofs.
Frequently asked questions
How do I build a timber frame house in Minecraft?
For each floor, build the frame first: the bottom beam, the posts and the top beam. Then fill the panels and add the diagonal beams. The roof comes last.
Which blocks should I use for the beams?
Stripped logs and wooden planks both make good beams. Dark oak with white calcite or white concrete is a classic choice. In the block palette choose Per part to give the beams, filling and roof their own block.
How do I make a jetty?
Place the bottom beam of the new floor 1 block further out. Put upside down stairs under it as brackets. The layer plan shows exactly where this happens.
How do I make diagonal beams?
You make diagonal beams with stairs. Look at the top or bottom half of a block when you place the stair. That decides whether it is normal or upside down.
Can I make a whole street at once?
Yes. Increase the number of houses side by side and choose Variation: Lots. Each house then gets a different width, height, pattern or ridge. A different seed number gives you a new street.
Does this work in Bedrock?
The layer plan works in every version. The .schem file is for Java Edition with WorldEdit or Litematica.