House of Paper
The House of Paper is a merchant and trade building, acting as both a bazaar and exchange of sorts in the city of Balmastaq. The stone building built from rocks of the nearby cliff-faces acts as the center of the trade in the city and location known to many merchants and traders along the Rokall Strait.
The building has four floors in total, acting as the cities primary merchant exchange, while also producing much of the cities paper and producing important documentation for key figures of the city.
Purpose / Function
The House of Paper was build to house paper production that was intended to start in the city. In the early 1300s, when Balmastaq grew to a greater trade importance, visiting merchants would tend to crowd the buildings ground floor and nearby floor spaces, eventually leading it to become a hotbed of trade activity. While no citywide decision or decree was ever made regarding the buildings usage, it became generally accepted (ever since the 1330s) amongst the cities leadership that preventing the activity would cause outrage, and jeopardize its economy.
The building was originally made with three stories, with the ground floor having somewhat opened out walls to allow easier cooling of produced goods and an easy way to place unworked timber. The first floor was to house production facilities and storage for finished goods. The second floor housed facilities for production of documentation used by the High Satrap, including the specific molds required when producing documents with lettering pre-inked to pages.
Now three floors, the uppermost floor replaced the second floor in purpose, while an open roof section where goods are dried during production was added.
Alterations
In 1336, an expansion on the second floor began along with construction of a fourth floor. The fourth floor would replace the third floor in usage, and the third floor would then hold cut timber before it became papers. along with living quarters for workers, and spaces for prayer to be done in recognition of Bane. Walkways to nearby buildings were erected to meet the third floors, and an elevator to bring workable material into the House of Paper was made; allowing easier access to the second, third and fourth floors.
Architecture
The building features a stepped facade, with each floor being slightly recessed from that below it. It encompasses a total footprint of about 240 foot by 180 foot, standing roughly 45 foot tall. The ground floor features columns with flaired bases and tops, with arching stone sections connecting each column to one another where it meets the ceiling. On the western face is a pair of staircases, with a 25-foot wide walkway separating them. The second floor originally was a smaller walled section that jutted above the roof line, though after expansion had wall follow the floor beneath. The first floor has a balcony on its eastern face with stone railings.
The second floor has supporting stones at points where the expansion was performed, which; in addition to a different coloured stone, leaves a remarkable impact on the House of Paper. The second floor features a wrapping balcony around all but the western face, which still holds the original second floor in its original position. The third floor is an extension of the second floors original footprint, having been raised up and above the roof line. The roof features a rounded edge around all but the western face and a flat section roughly 100 foot by 80 foot where one can stand.
Much of the stonework has flourishing elements in honour of the family who built it; the Ahmads, in the form of the families crest and elements of traditional Bane and Waukeen imagery. The stone has two colours primarily, a reddish biege for new construction and a grey black for the old.
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