Key:building

building
Description
To mark the outline of a building, a man-made structure with a roof, standing more or less permanently in one place  
Rendering in OSM Carto
Group: Buildings
Used on these elements
Documented values: 146
Implies
Useful combination
Status: approved
More details at taginfo
Tools for this tag

The building tag is used to mark a given object as a building. In OpenStreetMap, a building is a man-made structure with a roof, standing more or less permanently in one place.

The most basic use is building=yes, but the value may be used to classify the (architectural) type of building. Note that it may be not the same as the building's current use (tagged using building:use=*). For example, a hospital building that is abandoned or repurposed to be a marketplace is still a building=hospital, and to mark active hospitals amenity=hospital is used.

How to map

Set a node or draw as an area along the building outline. Tag it with building=*.

Usage

See Buildings

The building key is used to mark areas as a building. For further details of how buildings are tagged and rendered: Buildings.

Note about using this tag on nodes: although buildings are better represented with their footprints (a closed way or a multipolygon relation), OSM is working by iteration and some areas in the world don't have good aerial imagery or public datasets offering building footprints. Therefore, buildings on nodes should be tolerated until better sources are available.[1]

Values


Key Value Comment Photo

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 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.

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 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 religious Unspecific building related to religion. Prefer more specific values if possible.
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 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.

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 stadium A building constructed to be a stadium building, including buildings that are abandoned and used nowadays for a different purpose.

Storage

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 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 dog_house Dog house. Shelter for a dog in house yard or other places
building military A military building. Also use military=*.
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 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 Element Comment Photo
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
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.

Tagged objects distribution

Possible tagging mistakes

If you know places with this tag, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!
If you know places with this tag, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!
If you know places with this tag, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!
If you know places with this tag, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!

Notes

  1. ↑ Note that buildings as nodes are not rendered in the standard OSM cartography. https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues/806

See also

This article is issued from Openstreetmap. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.