Dwellings

A simple overview of a variety of dwellings.

Wigwam

Small wood framed houses covered in woven mats of sheets of bark strapped to frame with lengths of rope or rough fibers. Three shapes are common: cone-shaped, dome shaped, and rectangular shaped with arched roof.

Longhouse

A long and large wigwam capable of housing multiple families, even and entire band. Due to the large size a longhouse has a second story used as sleeping space. Screens and hangings divide the longhouse into separate rooms.

Tepee

A cone shaped tent formed by an assembly of poles covered in hides or waxed/oiled cloth. They can range 12 to 24 feet in height. While a tepee can stand for protracted periods they are meant to be easy to break-down and transport.

Grass House

A wooden frame bent into a beehive shape or erected as a cone is covered in layers of grass thatch. They can be large due to the relative lightness of building materials.

Wattle and Daub House

Such a house has a wood frame with woven walls coated in plaster, the roof will be shingled or thatched.

Chickees

These are stilt houses mainly consisting of thick poles and a platform topped with a thatched roof. There are no permanent walls in times of heavy wind swept rain tarps and hangings will be used to block rain, they may also be used in densely populated communities to provide an increased degree of privacy.

Pueblo House

Rectangular homes made of adobe bricks and cemented together with additional loose adobe. Multiple story homes can be built by combining multiple apartments stacked next to and on top of each other.

Sod house

This earthen house is built by stacking strips of sod one atop another. The roof will typically be of the same material. May  have a semi-subterranean section dug into a hillside.

Earth Lodge

Walls of earth are built up in a pile around a central frame. Will have a semi-subterranean section dug into a central pit.

Hogan

An earth lodge with a shingled, plank, or thatched roof (for part of the structure). May have additional subterranean spaces.

Plank House

Long flat planks of wood are stood upright and lashed or pegged to an interior framework. Plankhouses can be very large and with multiple stories.

A-frame

A wooden frame house essentially a standing roof with front and back walls topped by singles or thatch.

Cabin

A house built of timbers where the timbers stacked to provide the walls and structure. Typically roofed with planks, shingles, or thatch.

Pole House

A timber house where large timbers are set vertically to provide the structure. Walls will be planks, or wattle.

Trullo

A dry stone (i.e. stacked stone) hut with a conical roof. Wide lower walls of stone packed with smaller stones support a roof of stacked rock and shingles.

Roundhouse/Rondavel

A house built in a circular plan with main posts supporting walls of wattle and daub bearing a conical thatched roof.

Palloza

A round or oval house with dry stone walls and a thatched roof.

Beehive House

A circular house made of mud and a guiding frame of wooden poles (not a support frame) with a domed roof of similar or identical material to the walls.

Jacal

a rectangular shaped house with slim close –set poles field in with mud, clay, or grasses. Sometimes there will be an outer reinforcing shell of stone or adobe built to protect the interior but provide little in the way of true structural support. The peaked roof may be simple thatch or shingles but is sometimes a  woven frame or planks covered in mud or clay.

Kubo

A stilt house of rectangular shape with steeply pitched roofs built with a wooden frame with light weight material walls (typically wood or bamboo rods). There are many paneled windows to allow comfortable air flow.

Orri

A simple dugout built into the side of a hill with an external facing wall of stacked stone.

Hall House

A large house built about a central room (the hall). Timber framed houses that incorporate plank or wattle and daub walls for most stories, some will have stone ground floor at least part way up.

Bastle House

A fortified stone house with shingled roof.  The second story is the living quarters and difficult to access.

Tower House

A tower that serves as a house.

Keep

A heavily fortified structure.

Peel Tower

A small fortified keep or towerhouse meant for local defense and to host signal fires.

Castle

A heavily fortified structure of interlocking elements and multiple lines and points of defense.

Hovel-

simple one room house.

Cottage

simple but sturdy house with one or more rooms. Superior in quality to a hovel.

Insula

Multi roomed, (potentially) multistory homes built of stone or brick with multiple apartments. The ground level/street-side is often use for shops and workrooms. Central courtyards and light wells will typically be present.

Domus

A traditionally upperclass home of multiple rooms built about one or more open or semi-open courts/gardens.

Villa

A large country house built around a central yard or court. It is a working and living complex dedicated to rustic industry. A villa can house an entire small village with master and servants living in the same interlocking complex.

Broch

A roundhouse built of dry stone 15 to 50 feet  inner diameter with a hollow double outer wall at least 10’ in thickness. Ground floor is often one chamber with space above supporting lofts, ledge or multi chambered full floors. Stairs may be built within the main wall space connecting floors. Many appear roughly tower-like but are rarely over 20 feet in height but exceptions have been built over 45 feet tall.