Siheyuan MOC Guide: Chinese Roofs and Courtyard Layout
The bottom line first: a siheyuan MOC (the traditional Chinese courtyard house) is not about how many rooms you cram in. It lives or dies on three things — the sloped roof profile, strict axial symmetry, and empty space in the courtyard. With roughly 2,500–3,500 pieces and four or five evenings (15–20 hours total), you can finish a complete single-courtyard compound. Get the roof right and the build is already half won.
1. Set the Layout First: a Single Courtyard Is the Best Starting Point
Don't open with a three-courtyard compound — that needs 6,000+ pieces. The standard single-courtyard plan is three main hall rooms on the north side, two wing rooms each on the east and west, and two reverse-facing rooms on the south, with a 16x16 stud courtyard in the middle.
Use two 32x32 baseplates side by side as the foundation. Give the main hall a depth of 10 studs and the wings 6 studs — that keeps the proportions close to the real 3:2 sense of scale in a siheyuan.
2. Build the Sloped Roof: the Make-or-Break Step
Step one, the walls: build the main hall wall 8 brick layers high and leave openings for doors and windows. Windows use 1x2 trans-clear pieces with brown window lattice; doors use 1x4 brown door pieces.
Step two, the roof: lay slopes running from the ridge down to both sides, join the ridge itself with a row of 1x1 round plates, and hold the two sides at roughly a 30-degree pitch. Push the eaves out one stud with 1x2 plates to get the flying-eave overhang.
Step three, the ornaments: add a 1x1 gold piece at each end of the ridge as a chiwen (ridge-end ornament), then raise all four roof corners two levels with 1x1 round plates so the corners turn up. This is the most time-consuming part of the whole build — about 40% of total build time.
3. Doors, Windows and Painted Details: Detail Decides How Long It Stays Interesting
The main hall door is a 2x4 brown door with a 1x1 gold door ring. For the lattice windows, I alternate 1x1 tiles with 1x1 trans-clear pieces to create the grid pattern. You can dress the walls with 1x1 red and gold printed pieces to suggest painted decoration; if your budget allows, keep 30–50 of these (about CNY 20–40) and the whole compound immediately looks a tier higher.
Stand red 1x1 round bricks as columns on either side of the doors, and run a row of 1x2 plates under the eaves as the architrave beam. The Chinese character shows up right away.
4. Lay Out the Courtyard: Empty Space Beats Clutter
Put an 8-unit-tall pine tree MOC in the center of the courtyard plus a 4x4 well, with gray plates forming the well curb. Lay a stone path from the gate to the main hall using 2x2 tiles, and keep the rest of the ground plain — do not fill every stud. The sense of airy openness only exists if you leave space.
In a corner you can add a stone table with two round stools and a 2x2 plant, which instantly makes the place feel lived in.
5. Finishing Touches and Lighting: Better Photos of the Finished Build
When the build is done, run a 1x8 light-yellow plate under the main hall eaves to suggest lighting, and shoot night photos with warm-toned light — the hit rate is very high. If budget allows, add a 1x1 trans-clear round lamp piece in the courtyard; shot at dusk it gives off a strong old-Beijing mood.
The full single-courtyard build is 2,500 pieces and about 15–20 hours. On a display shelf it is a genuine centrepiece.
A siheyuan MOC tests patience and your sense of symmetry. The roof and the courtyard are the two cores; everything else is polish. Search "siheyuan" or "Chinese architecture" on brickplan.cn for instructions with detailed steps — following a plan is far safer than freestyling, with a completion rate above 90%.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: How do I build a siheyuan roof that actually looks Chinese? A: Run slopes from the ridge down both sides at about a 30-degree pitch, push the eaves out one stud for the flying eave, raise the roof corners two levels with round plates so they turn up, and add gold chiwen ornaments at both ridge ends. Nail those four moves and the roof reads correctly.
Q: How many pieces and how much budget does a siheyuan MOC need? A: A single courtyard runs about 2,500–3,500 pieces, CNY 800–1,500, and 15–20 hours. A three-courtyard compound needs 6,000+ pieces and starts at CNY 2,500. Beginners should start with the single courtyard.
Q: What separates a siheyuan MOC from an ordinary house MOC? A: The axially symmetric layout, the sloped roof profile, and the empty courtyard space. You need extra slopes, gold decorative pieces and round bricks — the roof alone is about 40% of build time and is where the difficulty concentrates.
Q: How do I make a siheyuan MOC feel more Chinese? A: Use gray brick walls with red columns and gold fittings, lattice windows built from trans-clear pieces in brown frames, a door ring and stone lions at the gate, and a courtyard left open with a pine, stone table and well. Avoid packing in decoration.
Q: Can a beginner build a siheyuan MOC straight away? A: Yes, but build two or three small structures first. A siheyuan demands high symmetry — one crooked step skews the entire compound. brickplan.cn has instructions with detailed step diagrams, which raises your success rate considerably.
Traditional architecture rewards symmetry; nature builds reward the opposite. If you want a change of rhythm after the courtyard, the treehouse MOC tutorial walks through organic trunk geometry and foliage layering that no axial plan can teach you.