Typical Building Styles, Mylrondia

Written for Prompt 10 (2019 Summer Camp)

Written by David_Ulph

The following are the typical styles of buildings found in the Mylrondia region of Elgerlia and the Great Western Empire. It should be noted that the region of Gliniswari, being a wide plain unlike any other part of Mylrondia, will generally share architectural styles with Skìrah.

Lower Class - Labourers

Middle Class - Successful labourers and merchants

Upper Class - Unlanded knights and wealthy merchants

Lower Class

As a very mountainous region, stone is available to even the lowest classes of Bludalfar and Lionmidden Korgs. The poorest homes in Mylrondia are small stone cottages with thick thatched roofs. The homes are single rooms that will hold everything needed to survive and house an entire family. Usually there is one, sometimes two, open window to allow the smoke of the stove or fire inside to escape, as well as an opening for an entrance in the front centre of the cottage. If the family inside saves up enough, they will buy a wooden door and wooden shutters for the openings. While they won't keep away the bitter cold of the north and winter, they add some protection to the residents and their little belongings. The ground will be dirt, covered in hides and furs more than likely hunted by the residents rather than bought.

Middle Class

As people gain more money, the houses tend to expand with that, with differences in expansion depending on if they are an agricultural family or not. The cottages will be built slightly wider than the one room ones of the lowest bracket, accommodating up to three separate rooms. The entranceway room is located centrally in the stone cottage, as an area for the family to keep some livestock safe and warm during the winter and nights, as they will be successful enough to own livestock. One of the two side rooms will be purely for sleeping and storage, holding thatched beds rather than hide bedrolls, and utilising loft space to fit in some small sleeping areas for children if a family lives in the cottage. One window opens up to the front of the cottage and the floor will generally be covered in the same floor type as poorer homes. The second side room is the cooking, working and visitor space, holding a stove, a fire, a workbench, tools, etc. as well as places to sit and talk or rest. Similarly, the room will have a front window space and, if the residents have the coin, possibly a stone chimney and built in fireplace. As they will have more money in general, the flooring of this room will more than likely be bought furs and so higher quality and comfier and warmer. The loft space can hold more sleeping quarters for visitors.

Homes of non-agricultural labourers or merchants will expand for a more comfortable living than those already stated. Generally, these houses will be found in built up and walled settlements. Instead of expanding wider, these homes will generally expand taller, using the stone cottage style as a foundation and building up from the roof using wooden logs to create timber frames coming up to a triangular point. The first level will be made out of standard stone and the timber framed level is generally made from spruce wood imported from the small forests that dot Mylrondia, with a red daub and wattle style. The roof is generally still hay thatch. The size of the house with this extension is generally the same dimensions as a standard or successful agricultural cottage, but increases one more level higher. This allows the upper level to purely make it comfortable for the family to live and rest in, with the bottom level open for anything that serves the occupants' occupations, such as a large storage room, a shop-front, a craftsman's workshop, or purely a meeting area.

Type

House