Unusual buildings in a post-apocalypse village/town?

[Matt W]

I'm trying to think of "unusual" buildings that would illustrate the changes resulting from TEOTWAWKI

So far, I'm thinking of the following structures

Dovecote. This does 3 things.

control the population of local feral pigeons (so they don't eat the crops).
meat(young "squabs" not eggs, pigeons breed several times a year)
guano (fertilizer and saltpeter)


Brewery/distillery
You cannnot drink the water! There has to be a source of safe liquids

Watchtower

Any more ideas?

[dragoon500ly]

Rabbit warrens, goat pens, pig pens, just to name a few.

[mmartin798]

Charcoal kilns

https://goo.gl/images/kpEusk


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[rcaf_777]

A church with the following windows

[dragoon500ly]

Sillage piles, compost heaps, stacked all over the place.

Sawmill, stills

[tsofian]

water mills, water treatment plants, composting sewage plants, rope walks,

[RandyT0001]

It's..................

Thunder Dome

Two men enter, one man leaves - Two men enter, one man leaves - Two men enter, one man leaves - Two men enter, one man leaves

[Sprocketteer]

Someone, somewhere, will build a still.

[ArmySGT.]

Heliograph tower. Sending messages with coded blinks.

Tomb/catacombs under an important building.

cheese/wine cave were the goods are ripened.

Scriptorium where books are hand copied.

Fighting arena for bulls or convicts as entertainment.

Guillotine or Gallows for disposing of persons.

Gunpowder Mill. A marble wheel on a marble block turned by water or wind that crushes gun powder kernels into fine powder.

Leper colony in a walled off area.

[ArmySGT.]

Warning....... Do not image search for this if you are easily affected by decomposing human remains.

A Dakhma (Persian: دخمه ; Avestan: lit. “tower of silence”), also called a Tower of Silence, is a circular, raised structure built by Zoroastrians for excarnation – that is, for dead bodies to be exposed to carrion birds, usually vultures.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Silence

[Gelrir]

pre-War dump: people will be rooting through the garbage dumps, car wrecking yards, scrapyards, tire dumps, and hazardous waste disposal sites for useful items or materials. Think of the people in China burning old computers for the metals; or people in India scrapping ships with ropes, winches, and cutting torches. There were three or four huge tire dumps in North America pre-1990; not so sure nowadays.

[Gelrir]

cement kiln: Portland cement needs clay, shale, limestone and gypsum ... and a lot of heat.

Proportions used are: 73% limestone, 24% clay or shale, 2% gypsum, and some other minor bits. 2678 kg of pure calcium carbonate (the best limestone) can be burned in an efficient kiln, using 300 kg of anthracite coal, to provide 1500 kg of quicklime (calcium oxide). Cements made with volcanic ash will include the addition of about 25% ash.

Required amounts of other fuels: poor coal, 430 kg; 340 kg of charcoal; or 660 kg of wood (15% moisture). Even garbage can be burned, but results in poor quality output (and sells for about 2/3 of the "good stuff").

A lime kiln built of brick is 1.8 meters on a side, and 3.7 meters tall (the brick part -- the metal chimney is 2.5 meters tall). It wouldtake about a month to build (if you have bricks and a blacksmith). It will hold about 1.75 tons of coal and limestone; the daily output would be about 1.5 tons of quicklime (and would require 300 kg of coal per day).

Producing the portland cement is another energy-intensive process: quicklime and the other components (not including the gypsum) are blended together, and then fed through a rotary kiln (more complex than the bulk kiln for producing quicklime); this product "clinker" is pulverized, mixed with gypsum, and then ground extremely fine to make cement.

In a fuel oil-fired rotary kiln, 0.106 kg of heavy fuel oil is burned per 1 kg of clinker passing out. Rotary kilns have the advantage that the fuel does not come into contact with the limestone, which allows more flexibility in the type of fuel used.

In an inefficient coal-fired rotary kiln circa 1906, 0.58 kg of coal is burned to produce 1 kg of cement. An efficient kiln of that period might use as little as 0.18 kg of coal for the same output. Variation is based on size (larger kilns are more efficient), the material being processed, and good technical methods.

1.5 tons of quicklime (plus the other components) results in (about) 2 tons of portland cement. To make a cubic meter of concrete, mix:


307 kg of cement
926 kg of sand
950 kg of aggregate (typically gravel)
163 liters of fresh water


Thus a cubic meter of concrete requires at least 46 kg of coal to be burned ... probably twice that much, since the rotary kiln needs to be pretty hot, also. That brick kiln is one of of a process that creates 6.5 cubic meters of concrete each day.

Our (classic-setting) campaign has some more info on the process: http://asmrb.pbworks.com/w/page/113155945/Chemistry%20and%20Engineering#cement

--
Michael B.

[Silent Hunter UK]

A disused subway station now serving as a markett.

[ChalkLine]

Water mill or wind mill + generators

[rob]

What started off for a need to call a village, the PC came up with Rucker. Okay, my mind went to the statue in the village 'square' to the village founder, Darius Rucker.... And to make things more interesting, the Project had a supply depot UNDER the statue.

[Sprocketteer]

Nice one, Rob.

[Matt W]

cement kiln: Portland cement needs clay, shale, limestone and gypsum ... and a lot of heat.

----------------SNIP---------------------

1.5 tons of quicklime (plus the other components) results in (about) 2 tons of portland cement. To make a cubic meter of concrete, mix:


307 kg of cement
926 kg of sand
950 kg of aggregate (typically gravel)
163 liters of fresh water


Thus a cubic meter of concrete requires at least 46 kg of coal to be burned ... probably twice that much, since the rotary kiln needs to be pretty hot, also. That brick kiln is one of of a process that creates 6.5 cubic meters of concrete each day.

Our (classic-setting) campaign has some more info on the process: http://asmrb.pbworks.com/w/page/113155945/Chemistry%20and%20Engineering#cement

--
Michael B.

But why not use the concrete that you already have? Concrete can be recycled. And - with the right techniques - rubble can be turned into useful building material

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/mobile-factory-turns-earthquake-rubble-into-bricks-permanent-homes-180960663/

[Gelrir]

"His patented Q-Brixx blocks start out as debris that’s torn into three- to four-centimeter pieces inside the Mobile Factory. Special additives and cement then transform it into a new, high-quality concrete that is poured into Lego-like molds." So there's probably resin and cement being added to glue chunks of broken concrete together. Useful, but it still needs cement and "special additives". I'm not sure about the "high-quality" term, either; I'm sure it's fine for homes, but I dunno about building dams, bridges, bunkers, etc. with it.

--
Michael B.

[Sprocketteer]

A library.
Some crazy old man or woman has been finding books, he/she is the only person who can read in town, so has a bit of power or status, as a seer or shaman or priest of the old ways.

Of course there is no telling what books they have, so it could lead to some strange beliefs or laws or cultural ideas.

[ArmySGT.]

Methane digester.

Holding tank for anaerobic bacteria that give off flammable gas. The gas is then siphoned off to be burned as fuel.

Maybe gas lamps, gas ovens, gas heat for a green house.

[Gelrir]

Museum of the Time Before ... items from before the Apocalypse, and a possibly-mistaken interpretation of them. "We aren't sure, but we think the pre-War people wore these to honor some sort of rodent god. In any case, they are black plastic hats, with round shapes probably intended to resemble ears."

Isolation house: people who've broken taboos, or who society shuns at certain times. Recently-pregnant women, or men who gazed too long at the sheep, or people named Herbert, or red-heads ... in any case, you can't come out until you've changed, or the calendar is right, or a bluebird lands on city hall ...

[Gelrir]

The Shunned House: a building that nobody in town will enter; it's bad manners to even discuss it. Maybe nasty lawbreakers (cannibals, or folk who sold their children) lived there; or people died of disease or unknown causes; or it was contaminated with chemical/biological/nuclear hazardous waste; or it gathered a haunted reputation; or some odd legal or religious ritual requires it ("It's the house of the night spirit ... he needs a home, otherwise he'll come into YOUR home!").

[knightofrubus]

A green for festivals, outdoor meetings and grazing a few cattle.

An area set aside for nomadic groups when they come to town. Often far from where businesses or valuables are kept, alternately the local general store is an old gas station.

An ice house where ice harvested in winter is stored for summer use. Often packed with lots of saw dust to insulate.