/ FOR ARCHITECTS & URBANISTS

Any city,
as a 3D block model.

OpenStreetMap building footprints, heights, and real terrain elevation — converted into a navigable 3D model you can explore at human scale. Used for massing studies, urban morphology research, and client walkthroughs.

Generate a ModelWorld DemoSee Specs
A 3D block-based representation of a downtown skyline
SCALE 1 BLOCK ≈ 1 M
SRC: OPENSTREETMAP
Live demo · Walk around Chicago

Try it right now — no download, no signup

Downtown Chicago — Willis Tower, the Loop, the Chicago River — as a real Minecraft world, right in your browser. Walk the streets, step inside the buildings, or fly over the rooftops.

Like what you see? Pick any place on Earth next.

Create your own world
Side-by-side

Real cities, block-for-block

Drag the slider to compare downtown Chicago on a real map against the same area generated as a Minecraft world.

Top-down view of Chicago Loop generated as a Minecraft worldReal-world map of downtown Chicago — Loop and Chicago River
Real Map
Minecraft
The Chicago Loop: real street grid (left) vs. generated Minecraft world (right)
/ USE CASES

What practitioners actually do with it

The common thread: architects reach for it when they need scale understanding fast, and traditional tools are too slow or too expensive for the ask.

Massing & context studies

Drop a proposed building into its real surroundings to understand scale, shadows, and sightlines before committing to a concept.

Urban morphology research

Compare block patterns, density, and street grids across cities — Barcelona's Eixample next to Manhattan next to Paris, all in one coherent medium.

Client presentations

Walk a client through the site in first-person at human scale. Minecraft is oddly effective at communicating what a plan drawing can't.

Studio teaching

Give first-year students a navigable 3D version of a real city to analyze — no GIS license, no CAD learning curve, no render queue.

/ TECHNICAL

Model specifications

Scale
1 block ≈ 1 m
Human-walkable
Data source
OpenStreetMap
Live OSM extract
Terrain
Lidar & DEM elevation
Real topography
Coverage
Up to 100 km²
Per world, with Pro
/ QUESTIONS

Technical Q&A

What's the data source and how accurate is it?+
OpenStreetMap. Building footprints are exact. Building heights come from OSM 'building:levels' and 'height' tags where present — coverage is excellent in most European and North American cities, sparser elsewhere. Terrain elevation comes from USGS 3DEP lidar (1 m) in the US and Mapterhorn's national and Copernicus terrain models elsewhere, and ESA WorldCover land cover places forest, rock, sand and water.
What's the scale — is it 1:1?+
One Minecraft block ≈ one meter. A building tagged 'building:levels=5' at roughly 3m per floor will render as ~15 blocks tall. Streets are true-width. It's the closest thing to a playable 1:1 city model you'll find for $20.
Can I export to another format (OBJ, FBX, glTF)?+
Not directly today — you get a standard Minecraft world file. However, there are well-maintained open-source tools (Mineways, jmc2obj) that convert Minecraft worlds to OBJ and other mesh formats. Many users go this route for rendering in Blender or Rhino.
Coverage limits for a large metro?+
Pro gives you worlds up to 100 km² — enough for most major city cores — and unlimited generations, so for full metro coverage you can generate adjacent tiles and combine them.
Does it handle topography?+
Yes. Real elevation is applied to the terrain, so a site in San Francisco or Lisbon will have accurate hill relationships, not a flat plane. This is the feature most users don't expect to matter and then can't live without.

From OSM to walkable model in minutes

One-time: $5 (under 1 km²), $10 (1–5 km²) or $20 (5–25 km²). Or go Pro at $39/mo: worlds up to 100 km² and unlimited generations.

Generate a City

/ Also built for

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