Buildings

Feature : Buildings

Description

Used to describe many different sorts of buildings, including houses, factories and ruined buildings.

Tags

building=*
height=*
building:levels=*
roof:levels=*
name=*
entrance=*

The definition of "building" is not straightforward. The OpenStreetMap definition is quite wide and includes not only objects considered as buildings by strict definitions but also building=static_caravan, building=houseboat and may include at least some building=storage_tank.

Tagging

Individual unit whose neighbouring house was just removed

Tenement house containing a church, it is still building=apartments not building=church

Church building no longer used for religious purposes, converted into apartments. building:use=apartments building=church would be a correct tagging here

A single building outline should be created for each building, which may relate to a single detached property, or to a row of individual terraced houses. It is, however, in the case of terraced houses better to create a series of linked outlines which share some nodes at the boundary to identify each distinct building.

In addition, outlines can either be simplified shapes or very detailed outlines which conform accurately to the shape of the building. It is not uncommon for buildings to initially be described as simple group outlines later be improved with more detailed outlines and to be split into individual properties.

The most basic use of the tag is building=yes which means any kind of building, or you use a value that describes the building typology, for example building=house, building=hut, building=garage, building=school. See building=* for a more complete list of options, have a look at what is actually used and feel free to make up new values that fit into the existing scheme. Please be aware that building tags are always about the building itself, not the current building usage or its user. This allows for representing more complex situations like a church in an apartment building (building=apartments) or an apartment in a building once erected as church (building=church).

For adding addresses, have a look at addr=*.

Entrances to buildings can be tagged on nodes on the building outline with entrance=* and potentially access=*. A building entrance can be connected to a description of the footpath access to the entrance by highway=footway and highway=steps etc. In some cases entrances can have individual postal addresses.

Mentionable usage

There are structures tagged as buildings which are missing a foundation or are even moveable. For example many mappers are using the key building=* to describe moveable objects and buildings for example building=static_caravan, building=houseboat or trailers. While houseboats (often self propelled), ships (for example museum or theatre ships) or docks may be moved once, there are also building=floating_homes which are built on floating logs and do not get moved. Some mappers are additionally using floating=yes to indicate this property.

Differing from the ideal of mapping the outline of a building on the ground, many objects with building=* include parts of buildings (for example constructed on piers) which are only covering areas. building=roof and building=bridge even describe buildings which have, except its piers, no outline on the ground. The same holds for underground buildings like building=cellar or those building types which are tagged with location=underground.

Don't tag for the renderer

For more details on this topic, see Tagging for the renderer.

Some mappers are trying to modify OSM data to be rendered (e. g. by OSM Carto) in a way to fit their wishes by creatively reinterpreting some existing tags.

Please map all attributes as close to the reality as possible with the available data. Make use of the descriptions for the tags at the referring wikipage. Use the existing values by its definition at the wiki and choose the best fitting pair of key and value. If there is no fitting tag and no more generic tag, you may find some uncommented already used tags at taginfo. If all of this does not suffice, you may better create a new tagging and document it at the wiki.

Here are some negative examples in context to buildings.

tagging of non existing amenity=* to emphasize the building at the rendered picture
modify/omit tagging due to dissatisfaction (e.g. cafe/restaurant)
building parts as distinct objects to structure the rendered picture
deleting/moving objects to obtain a (nicer) placement of the icon
tagging e.g. statues, bridge piers, gravestones or sockets as buildings to make them visible on the map. This can be counterproductive even for 3D-Mapping.

Such manipulations damage not only the OSM, but also they are needless, because their effect is usually limited to a single renderer, which will be probably modified soon.

If there are substantial rendering errors of correct data, please contact the developers of the renderers directly.

How to map

See Building modelling for various approaches to trace off aerial imagery.

If the building has an interior courtyard, then use a multipolygon relation to ensure that the courtyard is not rendered as part of the building.

Consider adding house numbers nodes to buildings with tags in addr:*=*-namespace:

entrance=yes (if you know where the entrance is)

addr:street=*

addr:housenumber=*

addr:postcode=*

addr:city=*

addr:country=*

(more values and detailed information here: key:addr)

OSM Inspector is also able to help in checking these tags

In JOSM

As a lot of buildings are rectangular, you can draw a rough rectangle, and then orthogonalize it in JOSM with the hotkey Q. Pressing Q on a selection sets all the angles in the selection to be 90°. Please be aware that not all buildings are orthogonal and sometimes it is better to keep an odd looking polygon instead of making a curved shape rectangular.
- For people who changed projection in JOSM from default - JOSM orthogonalizes the projected map, so make sure you are using a conformal projection (one that preserves angles) like Mercator during your editing (otherwise if you use for example unprojected WGS84 while orthogonalizing, objects will be end up distorted in the database).
JOSM/Plugins/BuildingsTools makes mapping of buildings a lot more convenient (hotkey B). This works best for buildings with four nodes.
JOSM/Plugins/Terracer is for quickly mapping a row of terraced houses.

In Potlatch

In Potlatch, you can add several buildings quickly especially in residential areas by tracing the building with one hand with the mouse and then with the other hand pressing the 'R' key to add the properties of the previously selected building. Add the source, building tag and whatever other tag you want on the first building then copy it to the other buildings.

Some ways to get the outline of the building

Aerial photographs (e.g. Bing). There are also some tips and tricks for roof modelling.
Observations from street level, drawing a sketch, or even taking measurements
Walking around the edge of the building taking a GPS trace. Good enough for big buildings (e.g. a stadium) but walls normally reflect the GPS signal, causing the trace to be offset a significant distance away from the building.
French Cadastre

3D

Use the Simple 3D buildings that is already implemented in some tools and offers backwards compatibility with previous approaches.

Indoor

Simple Indoor Tagging is used for tagging indoor features.

Proposals

Active

The levels of detail (LOD) and involved tags used for 3D modelling are described here: Simple 3D Buildings V1.

Inactive

Proposed features/Building - original proposal, which mentions various other ideas
Proposed features/Building attributes - attributes proposal, cancelled
Relations/Proposed/Buildings - (to group buildings and other related things together)
Proposed features/campus building
Proposed features/building=kindergarten - kindergarten buildings
Proposed features/Riding hall - riding hall (for horse riding)
Proposed features/Sports hall - sports hall buildings (gyms)
Proposed features/Student accommodation building - looking for alternative to building=dormitory

Examples

Several buildings around a small park in a town

here in Bolivia

Current rendering of a building

Values

Building

This is used to identify individual buildings or groups of connected buildings. See the page Buildings for further details on the usage of this tag and man_made=* for tagging of various other structures. The building tags are intended for the physical description of a building: for functions in the building (e.g. police station, church, townhall, museum) you should add additional tags like amenity=*, tourism=*, shop=* etc.

For example mapping building=supermarket is not enough to mark place as having an active supermarket shop, it just marks that building has form typical for supermarket buildings. shop=supermarket must be mapped to indicate an active supermarket shop. On the other hand shop=*/amenity=* is not indicating building by itself, building must be mapped with building=* tag.

Key	Value	Comment
Accommodation
building	apartments	A building arranged into individual dwellings, often on separate floors. May also have retail outlets on the ground floor.
building	barracks	Buildings built to house military personnel or laborers.
building	bungalow	A single-storey detached small house, Dacha.
building	cabin	A cabin is a small, roughly built house usually with a wood exterior and typically found in rural areas.
building	detached	A detached house, a free-standing residential building usually housing a single family.
building	annexe	A annexe is a small self contained apartments, collages, or small residential building on the same property as the main residential unit.
building	dormitory	A shared building intended for college/university students (not a share room for multiple occupants as implied by the term in British English). Alternatively, use building=residential plus `residential=university` and loose the information that it is for students.
building	farm	A residential building on a farm (farmhouse). For other buildings see below `building=farm_auxiliary`, `building=barn`, … If in your country farmhouse looks same as general residential house then you can tag as `building=house` as well. See also `landuse=farmyard` for the surrounding area
building	ger	A permanent or seasonal round yurt or ger.
building	hotel	A building designed with separate rooms available for overnight accommodation. Normally used in conjunction with `tourism=hotel` for the hotel grounds including recreation areas and parking.
building	house	A dwelling unit inhabited by a single household (a family or small group sharing facilities such as a kitchen). Houses forming half of a semi-detached pair, or one of a row of terraced houses, should share at least two nodes with joined neighbours, thereby defining the party wall between the properties.
building	houseboat	A boat used primarily as a home
building	residential	A general tag for a building used primarily for residential purposes. Where additional detail is available consider using 'apartments', 'terrace', 'house', 'detached' or 'semidetached_house'.
building	semidetached_house	A residential house that shares a common wall with another on one side. Typically called a "duplex" in American English.
building	static_caravan	A mobile home (semi)permanently left on a single site
building	stilt_house	A building raised on piles over the surface of the soil or a body of water
building	terrace	A single way used to define the outline of a linear row of residential dwellings, each of which normally has its own entrance, which form a terrace ("row-house" or "townhouse" in North American English). Consider defining each dwelling separately using 'house'.
building	tree_house	An accommodation, often designed as a small hut, sometimes also as a room or small apartment. Built on tree posts or on a natural tree. A tree house has no contact with the ground. Access via ladders, stairs or bridgeways.
building	trullo	A stone hut with a conical roof.
Commercial
building	commercial	A building for non-specific commercial activities, not necessarily an office building. Consider tagging the surrounding area using `landuse=commercial` if there is such use. Use 'retail' if the building consists primarily of shops.
building	industrial	A building for industrial purposes. Use warehouse if the purpose is known to be primarily for storage/distribution. Consider using `landuse=industrial` for the surrounding area and appropriate tags like `man_made=works` to describe the industrial activity.
building	kiosk	A small one-room retail building.
building	office	An office building. Use `office=*` where applicable for the business(es) that use the building. Consider tagging the surrounding area using `landuse=commercial` if it applies. Prefer `landuse=retail` if the building consists primarily of shops.
building	retail	A building primarily used for selling goods that are sold to the public; use `shop=` to identify the sort of goods sold or an appropriate `amenity=` (pub, cafe, restaurant, etc.). Consider use `landuse=retail` for the surrounding area.
building	supermarket	A building constructed to house a self-service large-area store.
building	warehouse	A building primarily intended for the storage or goods or as part of a distribution system.
Religious
building	religious	Unspecific building related to religion. Prefer more specific values if possible.
building	cathedral	A building that was built as a cathedral. Used in conjunction with `amenity=place_of_worship`, `religion=`, `denomination=` and `landuse=religious` for the cathedral grounds where it is in current use.
building	chapel	A building that was built as a chapel. Used in conjunction with `amenity=place_of_worship`, `religion=`, `denomination=` and `landuse=religious` for the chapel grounds where it is in current use.
building	church	A building that was built as a church. Used in conjunction with `amenity=place_of_worship`, `religion=` , `denomination=` and `landuse=religious` for the church grounds where it is in current use.
building	kingdom_hall	A building that was built as a Kingdom Hall. Often used in conjunction with `amenity=place_of_worship`, `religion=christian`, `denomination=jehovahs_witness` and `landuse=religious` for the grounds where it is in current use.
building	monastery	A building constructed as monastery. Often, monasteries consist of several distinct buildings with specific functions. For active monasteries (communities), use `amenity=monastery`, for the grounds of a former monastery, have a look at `historic=monastery`
building	mosque	A building errected as mosque. Used in conjunction with `amenity=place_of_worship`, `religion=`, `denomination=` and `landuse=religious` for the grounds where it is in current use.
building	presbytery	A building where priests live and work.
building	shrine	A building that was built as a shrine. Used in conjunction with `amenity=place_of_worship`, `religion=`, `denomination=` and `landuse=religious` for the grounds where it is in current use. Small structures should consider `historic=wayside_shrine`.
building	synagogue	A building that was built as a synagogue. Used in conjunction with `amenity=place_of_worship`, `religion=`, `denomination=` and `landuse=religious` for the grounds where it is in current use.
building	temple	A building that was built as a temple. Used in conjunction with `amenity=place_of_worship`, `religion=`, `denomination=` and `landuse=religious` for the grounds where it is in current use.
Civic/amenity
building	bakehouse	A building that was built as a bakehouse (i.e. for baking bread). Often used in conjunction with another node `amenity=baking_oven` and `oven=wood_fired`.
building	bridge	A building used as a bridge (skyway). To map a gatehouse use `building=gatehouse`. See also `bridge=yes` for `highway=`. Don't use this tag just for marking bridges (their outlines). For such purposes use `man_made=bridge`*.
building	civic	A generic tag for a building created to house some civic amenity, for example `amenity=community_centre`, `amenity=library`, `amenity=toilets`, `leisure=sports_centre`, `leisure=swimming_pool`, `amenity=townhall` etc. Use `amenity=` or `leisure=` etc. to provide further details. See `building=public` and more specific tags like `building=library` as well.
building	college	A college building. Use `amenity=college` on the whole college area to represent the college as an institution.
building	fire_station	A building constructed as fire station, i.e. to house fire fighting equipment and officers, regardless of current use. Add `amenity=fire_station` on the grounds for an active fire station.
building	government	For government buildings in general, including municipal, provincial and divisional secretaries, government agencies and departments, town halls, (regional) parliaments and court houses.
building	gatehouse	An entry control point building, spanning over a highway that enters a city or compound.
building	hospital	A building errected for a hospital. Use `amenity=hospital` for the hospital grounds.
building	kindergarten	For any generic kindergarten buildings. Buildings for specific uses (sports halls etc.) should be tagged for their purpose. If there is currently a kindergarten in the building, use `amenity=kindergarten` on the perimeter of the kindergarten grounds.
building	museum	A building which was designed as a museum.
building	public	A building constructed as accessible to the general public (a town hall, police station, court house, etc.).
building	school	A building errected as school. Buildings for specific uses (sports halls etc.) should be tagged for their purpose. If there is currently a school, use `amenity=school` on the perimeter of the school grounds.
building	toilets	A toilet block.
building	train_station	A building constructed to be a train station building, including buildings that are abandoned and used nowadays for a different purpose.
building	transportation	A building related to public transport. You will probably want to tag it with proper transport related tag as well, such as `public_transport=station`. Note that there is a special tag for train station buildings - `building=train_station`.
building	university	A university building. Use `amenity=university` for the university as an institution.
Agricultural/plant production
building	barn	An agricultural building that can be used for storage and as a covered workplace.
building	conservatory	A building or room having glass or tarpaulin roofing and walls used as an indoor garden or a sunroom (winter garden).
building	cowshed	A cowshed (cow barn, cow house) is a building for housing cows, usually found on farms.
building	farm_auxiliary	A building on a farm that is not a dwelling (use 'farm' or 'house' for the farm house).
building	greenhouse	A greenhouse is a glass or plastic covered building used to grow plants. Use `landuse=greenhouse_horticulture` for an area containing multiple greenhouses
building	slurry_tank	A circular building built to hold a liquid mix of primarily animal excreta (also known as slurry).
building	stable	A building constructed as a stable for horses.
building	sty	A sty (pigsty, pig ark, pig-shed) is a building for raising domestic pigs, usually found on farms.
building	livestock	A building for housing/rising other livestock (apart from cows, horses or pigs covered above), or when the livestock changes.
Sports
building	grandstand	The main stand, usually roofed, commanding the best view for spectators at racecourses or sports grounds.
building	pavilion	A sports pavilion usually with changing rooms, storage areas and possibly an space for functions & events. Avoid using this term for other structures called pavilions by architects (see Pavilion)
building	riding_hall	A building that was built as a riding hall.
building	sports_hall	A building that was built as a sports hall.
building	sports_centre	A building that was built as a sports centre.
building	stadium	A building constructed to be a stadium building, including buildings that are abandoned and used nowadays for a different purpose.
Storage
building	allotment_house	A small outbuilding for short visits in a allotment garden.
building	boathouse	A boathouse is a building used for the storage of boats.
building	hangar	A hangar is a building used for the storage of airplanes, helicopters or space-craft. Consider adding `aeroway=hangar`, when appropriate.
building	hut	A hut is a small and crude shelter. Note that this word has two meanings - it may be synonym of `building=shed`, it may be a residential building of low quality.
building	shed	A shed is a simple, single-storey structure in a back garden or on an allotment that is used for storage, hobbies, or as a workshop.
Cars
building	carport	A carport is a covered structure used to offer limited protection to vehicles, primarily cars, from the elements. Unlike most structures a carport does not have four walls, and usually has one or two.
building	garage	A garage is a building suitable for the storage of one or possibly more motor vehicle or similar. See `building=garages` for larger shared buildings. For an aircraft garage, see `building=hangar`.
building	garages	A building that consists of a number of discrete storage spaces for different owners/tenants. See also `building=garage`.
building	parking	Structure purpose-built for parking cars.
Power/technical buildings
building	digester	A digester is a bioreactor for the production of biogas from biomass.
building	service	Service building usually is a small unmanned building with certain machinery (like pumps or transformers).
building	tech_cab	Small prefabricated cabin structures for the air-conditioned accommodation of different technology.
building	transformer_tower	A transformer tower is a characteristic tall building comprising a distribution transformer and constructed to connect directly to a medium voltage overhead power line. Quite often the power line has since been undergrounded but the building may still serve as a substation. If the building is still in use as a substation it should additionally be tagged as `power=substation` + `substation=minor_distribution`.
building	water_tower	A water tower.
building	storage_tank	Storage tanks are containers that hold liquids
building	silo	A silo is a building for storing bulk materials
Other buildings
building	beach_hut	A small, usually wooden, and often brightly coloured cabin or shelter above the high tide mark on popular bathing beaches.
building	bunker	A hardened military building. Also use `military=bunker`.
building	castle	A building constructed as a castle. Can be further specified with `historic=castle` + `castle_type=*`.
building	construction	Used for buildings under construction. Use `construction=*` to hold the value for the completed building.
building	container	For a container used as a permanent building. Do not map containers placed temporarily, for example used in shipping or construction.
building	guardhouse	Poste de garde.
building	military	A military building. Also use `military=*`.
building	outbuilding	A less important building near to and on the same piece of land as a larger building.
building	pagoda	A building constructed as a pagoda.
building	quonset_hut	A lightweight prefabricated structure in the shape of a semicircle.
building	roof	A structure that consists of a roof with open sides, such as a rain shelter, and also gas stations
building	ruins	Frequently used for a house or other building that is abandoned and in poor repair. However, some believe this usage is incorrect, and the tag should only be used for buildings constructed as fake ruins (for example sham ruins in an English landscape garden). See also lifecycle tagging.
building	tent	For a permanently placed tent. Do not map tents placed temporarily.
building	tower	A tower-building.
building	windmill	A building constructed as a traditional windmill, historically used to mill grain with wind power.
building	yes	Use this value where it is not possible to determine a more specific value.
building	user defined	All commonly used values according to Taginfo, generally building types

Additional attributes

Key	Value	Comment
building:architecture	<architectural style>	Architectural style of a building
building:colour	<RGB hex triplet> \| <W3C colour name>	Indicates colour of the building
building:fireproof	yes \| no	Fire-resistance information.
building:flats	<number>	The number of residential units (flats, apartments) in an apartment building (building=apartments), residential building (building=residential), house (building=house), detached house (building=detached) or similar building.
building:levels	<number>	The number of visible levels (floors) in the building as used in the Simple 3D buildings scheme
building:material	<material type>	Outer material for the building façade
building:min_level	<number>	For describing number of values, "filling" space between ground level and bottom level of building or part of building
building:part	As building	To mark a part of a building, which has attributes, different from such ones at other parts
building:soft_storey	yes \| no \| reinforced	A building where any one level is significantly more flexible (less stiff) than those above and below it
construction_date	<date>	The (approximated) date when the building was finished.
entrance	yes \| main \| exit \| service \| emergency	An entrance in a building. Replaces the deprecated tag `building=entrance`.
height	<number>	The height of the building in meters.
max_level	<number>	Maximum indoor level (floor) in the building as used in the Simple Indoor Tagging scheme
min_level	<number>	Minimum indoor level (floor) in the building as used in the Simple Indoor Tagging scheme
non_existent_levels	<number>	List of indoor levels (floors) that do not exists in the building as used in the Simple Indoor Tagging scheme
start_date	<date>	The (approximated) date when the building was finished.

This table is a wiki template with a default description in English. Editable here.

Buildings

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