Viking Modular
Viking Modular is a building system devised by Tweetabix. It is designed for CivRealms but with modifications could work on any Minecraft world.
This page is a Wiki version of the building code document which is also available in two in-game books and a PDF.
Theory (copied from the Manifesto)
Prelude
I got the idea for Viking Modular one day back when the Vikings were still part of the Kingdom of Norlund. I was reading a RL book (nerd!) called Architecture on the Carpet, all about the history of construction toys. It's not the best book tbh. Anyway, it was talking about Lott's Bricks.
This was a 1930s building toy which could be used in a modular fashion.
Lotts Bricks were supposed to be simple so you could make infinite combinations- modularity like we see in Minecraft today.
But as time went on, they introduced so many specialist parts that it became less modular.The wonder of Lotts Bricks is the very small palette of blocks and the wide variety of buildings that can be made with them.
Lotts Bricks represented the Arts and Crafts architecture movement.
Arts and Crafts was a call to minimalism, a romanticisation of the pure and simple. "The simplicity united with the plain architectural elements to make a visual whole."British socialist William Morris was an architect in his day job. Simple living that involved the use of head and hands, and everyone having enough but not too much, was as much the aim of Morris' socialism as his attitude to architecture.Morris published this in his magazine, The Commonweal. A Commonwealth suggests that if aspirations are limited and living is simple, then everyone can have enough.
I and some other Vikings, were in the Commonwealth back on Civcraft 2.0. What a coincidence...
Other inspirations
All creatives will agree:RESTRICTIONS drive lNNOVATIONS.
Just look at how CivCorp run a stock exchange using shop chests, or how Tritonio runs ESTA using book-and-quills!
The second source of inspiration for Viking Modular is Bjarke Ingels, a Danish architect, and his firm the BIG Group. There's a good Netflix documentary about them. Most of interest to me is his VM Buildings in Copenhagen.
Yes. That's right. The Viking Modular name is a pun on VM. I don't think we're even playing as vikings anymore! I just love a good pun, don't you?
To improve the efficiency of the elevators, and allow residents to meet more of their neighbours, as well as having more living space, Bjarke designed VM to have just one corridor every three floors.
To do this, Bjarke only designed three types of apartments, which fit neatly around each other in an interlocking pattern.
These apartments also all include a double-floor height space, to allow apartment dwellers a feeling of roominess.
Finally, I took a little inspiration from a video by AndyisYoda on YouTube, who showed a modular type system. However mine is much stricter than his version. Why, you might ask?
Bastions and Mixed Use
Well you might be surprised to learn that IRL, building codes actually control much more of our lives than we might expect.
In America this is more pronounced than in Europe. But property rights also get in the way of interesting architecture.
For example, American cities' minimum parking requirements of usually 3 parking spaces for one parking space sized indoor space, means one building ends up taking up four times as much space as it needs to because of all the car parking.
This leads to a sprawled out, flat, low rise city design, which then bakes in car dependency.
In many American cities, beautiful mixed use developments are actually banned because of these laws.
Many of the coolest cities incorporate multi-layered elements. For example, check out Edinburgh, with its bridge-streets and valley-streets, and sealed up "closes" from the middle ages. It's often not clear where one property ends and another begins.
I've always been surprised that in Minecraft, a world where moving on the Y axis is about as easy as moving the X and Z access, we don't see more multi layered housing. IRL, pedestrians will always prefer a flat path to a slope or stairs.
This is even more so on CivRealms, where cheap gold blocks mean moving up the Y axis is in fact easier and quicker than moving on the X and Z axis. And it would be so, were it not for...
BASTIONS!
Bastions protect everything from the level that they are placed, upwards- usually they are placed at bedrock, because why hesitate?
Towns can of course share bastions, but they have to trust each other.
Bottom up Bastions dissuade players from building interesting mixed use multi layer developments on top of one another. There are only a few examples of this type of building on CivRealms, such as CivTopia and Neo Boris.
However, these places have a complete lack of a building code so end up with a kind of look of chaos.What if, like the Model T Ford, you could build anything you wanted, so long as it was allowed in the building code?
You are also free to develop your own code. It's open source!
Regulations
Terminology
Block
[image] The standard Minecraft Block
Unit
[image] The central Module, such as a wooden box, bordered by the Grid. A set amount of Minecraft Blocks makes one Unit, and a set amount of Units makes one Bloc. (See Versions for dimensions of the Unit)
Grid
The Units are arranged on a Grid which can in theory be stretched out infinitely. The grid nests all Units and each Bloc of units is nestled by Roads.
Roads
As wide and tall as a unit- although if there is sufficient space in adjacent blocs they may be widened.
The road must remain clear at ground level.
If a lot of units/bridges/toppers cross over a road between blocs, they may appear more like corridors, but they are still roads.
Corners of roads are also lighting opportunities.
Roads may also incorporate rails.
Stairs for rises are incorporated into Roads.
Bloc
A set of Units restricted by Roads. Currently set at 3x3 units for both unit sizes.
Blocs may be a maximum of 9 units high depending on their neighbours.
Super Bloc
Where a square of 9 blocs are all on the same elevation they may form a super bloc wherein every bloc can reach maximum height, and a central bloc may be treated as a special case.
Central Blocs may contain parks, pools, transport hubs and other exciting features.
Rise
When building in a natural terrain you will of course experience changes in elevation.
In this first release of VM, you must change elevation only by one unit- not more or less. This means the floor of the new level is equal to the ceiling of the adjacent lower level. The new level should be bordered by a Road with a retaining wall using similar material.
You can then take the length of the road and bloc to ramp up to the second road on the elevated level.
Style
The Minecraft Blocks used to make up the Units in a bloc.
The basic style is wood- with logs as a grid and wood as fill.
This could be varied, such as with sandstone fill and netherbrick grid.
The basic floor style is stone- with stone slabs as grid and stone as fill.
Versions
There are currently two versions of the Viking Modular System
“3x3” and “5x5”
These numbers refer to the number of blocks visible on one plane of a unit, not including the grid the units are nestled within. So for example, including the Grid, a unit is actually 7x7- but each of these grid blocks is shared by its neighbouring Unit.
Both of these operate currently on 3x3 Blocs, extending to 9 Units high, within 3x3 Super Blocs. This may change with the addition of more versions. The system itself is modular.
Unit Types
Road
Implementation
Untitled VM Town Near WTC
The first VM town is being developed north of the World Trade Centre in Yggdrasil, near the Norlund border.
One of the streets has been converted into a part of the King's Road project, which now runs straight through the town in a fitting manner.
Due to a disagreement with Yggdrasil management, a conclusion was arrived at wherein the town is restricted to 9 blocs.
Tweetabix hopes this town will serve as a model for other towns using the code.