Construction, rooms and roofs

Build and furnish a room

Open Architect > Structure and choose a wall. Drag diagonally to outline a hollow room, then add a door. A door can replace a wall. Constructors deliver materials and finish the blueprints; the construction view helps you find unfinished work.

Use Q / E or R while placing to rotate supported buildings. Workstations and furniture need the right footprint and a usable approach. Leave room for colonists to pass one another. Select completed buildings to inspect them; use Deconstruct or Delete to remove selected structures and recover part of their materials.

Place beds and assign owners by clicking them. Add tables, chairs and recreation furniture. Torches and lamps light dark rooms; being in darkness slows work.

Start in Architect: choose a category and building, then place its blueprint on the map. Constructors still need materials to finish it. View full screenshot

Manage roofs

Enclosed rooms automatically join the build-roof area, except grow zones. Constructors still need to build the roof. Use Build roof, Remove roof and Clear roof areas in the Architect zone tools to control it explicitly.

Every roof cell needs a wall, door or natural rock within 6 cells. Removing the last support can collapse the roof. Large perimeter walls do not automatically turn an entire outdoor yard into a room.

The roof view shows built roofs in blue, overhead mountain in purple, planned roofs in yellow and no-roof areas in red. Unsupported plans are grey and dashed.

Compare the bedroom's yellow planned patch with its blue completed roof. The red field is a no-roof area, keeping ordinary crops open to daylight. View full screenshot

Mining and mountain roofs

Mining yields the material in the rock and opens up space. Overhead mountain cannot be removed with the roof tool. Mining too far from supporting rock or walls causes cave-ins. Add supports as you expand an underground room.

Mined ground is rough stone and cannot grow crops directly. Use compost to lay Soil, or build powered hydroponic basins.

Improve rooms

Floors and decorations improve beauty; bare ground, natural rock walls and filth reduce it. Use the Beauty view to inspect the result. Pleasant surroundings help mood, and colonists remember the room they slept in.

After Complex furniture, put an End table against a bed and a Dresser within six cells in the same room. One of each contributes to bed comfort; repeating them does not stack the bonus. Double beds allow two owners.

Roofs block daylight and rain and help rooms hold temperature. They also prevent ordinary crops growing without a sun lamp, and stop covered solar panels and wind turbines producing power. See temperature and electricity.