How do you communicate “warm and cozy buildings for cold environments” without just covering them in snow? I’m slowly spinning myself into gear for a larger environment design project and am trying to get ahold of any and all ideas regarding the shape language to consider for like “warm, northern buildings in medieval fantasy”
Any advice or thoughts are greatly appreciated, as are the great videos!
Hmm... I mean, to start with you wanna just look at period architecture from whatever culture you want to code your environment by. Those buildings are all generally built to withstand cold, and anyone who knows what areas that kind of building is from will understand what it implies.
Second, you can adorn the building with things that suggest heat and warmth. A thatched straw roof, for example, or have it overgrown with evergreen vines or moss, or flanked by evergreen trees like fir and pine that visibly "shelter" the building. Those things also have a fuzzy outline and texture to them that essentially visually implies "fur," implying a certain resistance to col.d
You can also think in terms of "body language," as it were. i.e. a building that stands up quite tall and thin from the landscape looks exposed and therefore colder and more precarious than a building which is short and broad and which flattens or almost "burrows" itself into the landscape. Have the building resting in a small depression in the ground, with hills or embankments on either side, and you further help that impression.
Similarly, thick heavy walls imply better resistance to cold than thin ones, rounded shapes look more cozy and friendly than sharp ones, and you can get some mileage out of having fairly small windows with thick panes of glass, and give those windows thick shutters that can be closed against a storm or bad weather.
Outside of that, lots of warm tones in the color language inside the building. Browns, greens, yellows, red and warm purple. It all implies warm atmosphere, and that warmth can glow out from the windows when seen from outside.
