- Residential structures house people and support the tasks of day-to-day living. The most well-known residential structure is the house, however there are many other scales of residential structures. For example, townhomes, condominiums, and apartments are mid-scale residential buildings housing multiple families. In addition, high-rises are large-scale, multiple family residential structures.
- Commercial building types include retail stores, restaurants, and offices. Retail stores may stand alone or be ganged together to create shopping centers, as well as fill the bottom stories of a high-rise building. Similarly, restaurants may be freestanding or part of a larger structure, such as a high-rise or shopping center. Offices can be freestanding, but they are usually part of a larger scale structure, such as a skyscraper.
- Industrial building types are used to manufacture, process or develop products and materials for communities. Often, these building types are separated from the other building types because of safety hazards or pollution common with industrial buildings. Industrial structures can be any scale, from a one-room space to an entire warehouse or complex of warehouses.
- Institutional building types support all of the other building types in a community. Institutional buildings include hospitals, fire stations, police stations, courthouses, executive and legislative buildings, stadiums, parks and infrastructure.
previous post