RE: Dream City Builder Contest, Haunted Manor O’Lan
You know, the whole concept of designing your buildings first is like an exercise I did once when trying to work out the best size/shape of a bedroom. I was designing a bedroom for kids and trying to find the minimum space that really worked well. To do this, I made little models of the furniture that I needed in a room shared by two children of the tween age. Just on graph paper, so I was only working with footprints. I actually found that rather than a normal square, that an L-shaped room did the best job of giving the kids a bit of personal space. You could put a walk-in closet in that remaining part of your L - so that your ordinary square concept fits better in the whole house... but it worked well.
9'x12', btw, seems to be the minimum size for two kids to get along halfway well. That shape is really important - it allows either two beds side by side with a 3' gap between and dresser under the window - or it allows the two beds at a right angle to each other.
Now, if you design those two beds to have cabinetry underneath or maybe even some desk space, you make better use of your space overall than if you have, say bunk beds - because you can always put a bed above another piece of furniture, but you can't really put a dresser or desk above another!
There are also the bunk beds with a bed upstairs but a desk underneath! I love how you are thinking of the kid’s need for intimacy, an L shape could do the trick.