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I'd like to add an 'apartment complex' to a village to boost its population.

What would be the best floor plan for such a complex?

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8 Answers 8

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19

Here's the best solution I could come up with:

Minecraft apartment complex

Some details:

  • The bottom floor is one block off the ground; in hard mode this prevents zombies from breaking down the doors.
  • The buildings are 7x7 with a 1 block ledge on the higher levels, so each has a 9x9 footprint. (The footprint expands to 11x11 when you consider the mandatory airspace that must exist about the complex for the village code to register the door properly.)
  • There are a series of staircases inside the buildings to access the higher levels.
  • I built columns between doors because I found in practice the villagers had a hard time navigating through doors touching each other.
  • Each floor is 12 doors, yielding > 4 villagers per floor
  • There's a 3-block gap between buildings which gives a 1-block gap between ledges. This ensures the 'outside' is computed properly by the village code.
  • On higher levels I have connecting blocks between ledges at the intersection of buildings; these do not interfere with the 'outside' computations, as they aren't directly in line with any doors.

Now that I have plenty of villagers it's a matter of pruning out the bad ones.

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5
  • Does this still work on 1.7?
    – Shoe
    Commented Feb 20, 2014 at 0:08
  • The only thing I can't figure out from this description is what the inside of each building looks like, since you mention having a 'staircase' inside the building.
    – Zibbobz
    Commented Mar 19, 2014 at 13:35
  • On the inside is a 5x5 square. In 1.8, I leave the perimeter of this open. In one of 3 remaining rows, I put stairs up to next floor. In remaining inner free space I put solid blocks to preven iron golem from spawning in the house. I offset the stairs between floors. I can try better explanation in separate answer if desired.
    – Krista K
    Commented Nov 3, 2014 at 21:45
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    This is excellent! One question -- to keep the villagers from walking off those outer ledges, I'm considering adding a ring of fence blocks in the "air space" between buildings. Has anyone tried that with a design like this? I should think it would work since fence blocks are semi-transparent, right?
    – Skeolan
    Commented Nov 27, 2015 at 19:50
  • I think only the top floor's houses will actually count, because the other floors will not have direct sunlight shining on the roof and houses need an "outside" and an "inside"
    – NaturalBornCamper
    Commented Jan 25, 2018 at 18:55
5

This is what I've been using:

enter image description here

Basically the floor plan is like this:

#DDDDDDD#
#DDDDDDD#
#DDDDDDD#
#DDDDDDD#

With a ledge and stairs for easy access. I am reasonably confident that all of the doors are registering for the villager spawning deal. I haven't razed the rest of the village and counted yet though.

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2

Just going off of the spawning rules on the wiki, I have a 9 doors per 108m^3 (6m by 6m by 3m) design.

  • O = Outside block. The three blocks for this are air blocks, and all blocks above must also be air blocks.
  • U = Unused/Doors. I'm not sure whether placing doors here will be more efficient. For aesthetics, I'd say keeping these as a solid block would be useful.
  • D = Door. The block above should be a solid block.

  • I = Inside. Two air blocks with a solid block above.

    OOOOOO
OUDDDU
ODIIID
ODIIID
ODIIID
OUDDDU

Here is what the structure looks like (using RedPower2 bricks for the solid blocks)

structure

Note that you need to repeat this pattern in all directions, and that the outside portions should only have a solid brick on the bottom layer. You may choose to add a torch at the intersections of the outside blocks.

You may also place a torch on the center square.

As far as movement up and down layers, I offer no useful advice. Perhaps ladders on the 'u' column blocks.

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3
  • Thank you for this answer, but I'm wondering how well this floor plan will scale? I'm thinking the complex will have to go up somehow - what's the best way to get villagers through the doors off the ground floor? (My understanding is they have to pass through the door to 'register' them.)
    – fbrereto
    Commented Aug 17, 2012 at 19:38
  • Is this door registration thing new? I was unaware of that.
    – John
    Commented Aug 17, 2012 at 19:43
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    My understanding is that villagers do not have to pass through doors to register them. They are registered by being in bounds of the NPC village.
    – Havvy
    Commented Aug 17, 2012 at 19:45
1

This will work too. I do this to minimize space, and every door will register. I tested it. Trust me.

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

It doesn't matter how many blocks and doors you use.
B is any block you can use. I use planks in mine.
It might not be considered an apartment complex, but if someone wants to minimize the use of resources, this will work.

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3
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    It's worth noting that the doors must be facing with the blocks inside. i.e. they would look like they form a wall.
    – Ullallulloo
    Commented May 20, 2013 at 18:41
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    I am assuming that is a top-down view?
    – fbrereto
    Commented May 20, 2013 at 19:04
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    It would be nice with a screenshot; I cringe every time I see code blocks used like this.
    – IQAndreas
    Commented Jan 4, 2014 at 19:49
0

You'll hate me but this works:

oooooo
ooddoo
odiido
odiido
odiido
ooddoo
oooooo

I'm testing stacking on it now

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0

Temporary villager breeding apartment that's zombie proof and you can make tons of thementer image description here

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-2

There are far more efficient designs that don't look good but crank up the villager cap. See below link https://i.sstatic.net/zGfLo.jpg

You would need to make it zombie proof though.

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-4

Perfect solution for temporary villager breedingenter image description here

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1
  • 4
    This doesn't really answer the question. It's a simple two door house (without the doors), which by itself won't allow for villager breeding. Even with multiple of these, it's not very space efficient.
    – MBraedley
    Commented Jan 4, 2014 at 19:21

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