How To Get European Buildings in Cities: Skylines

Row of European High-density residential buildings in Cities: Skylines

The Cities: Skylines base game gives you two options for buildings in terms of appearance: the default ‘vanilla’ style, and European-buildings.

The European style buildings built into the game are available for city service buildings (such as police stations and fire houses) and high-density zoned buildings.

And there are a couple ways you can get these European buildings to show up in your build:

  1. Play on European themed maps
  2. Enable European styles for all maps in the content manager

We’ll cover a brief overview of both methods here.

European fire house (left) and police station (right). / Cities: Skylines
European fire house (left) and police station (right).
Vanilla fire house (left) and police station (right). / Cities: Skylines
Vanilla fire house (left) and police station (right).

Method 1: Playing on European Themed Maps

Whenever you start a new game, you’ll see which theme that particular map uses (see the circled screenshot below).

Playing on European maps will give you the European style city service buildings and high-density buildings.

The new game screen will show you the theme of each map. / Cities: Skylines
The new game screen will show you the theme of each map.

The following maps from the base game are European themed:

  • Grand River
  • Cliffside Bay
  • Foggy Hills

Method 2: Enabling European Styles in the Content Manager

This option allows you to build European-style buildings regardless of the map theme. For example, you can build European buildings on a tropical theme map like Diamond Coast.

First, go to Content Manager, and click on Styles in the left menu.

There you’ll find the European/Vanilla style; enable it.

The European/Vanilla style in Content Manager. / Cities: Skylines
The European/Vanilla style in Content Manager.

With this enabled, you’ll get both the vanilla and European options for ploppable buildings in your various menus, no matter which map you’re on.

To get the European zoned high-density buildings (residential, commercial, and office), you’ll need to apply a district style. Here’s how:

Step 1: Start by painting a district over the area.

Step 2: Then click on the district name to bring up its detail panel. There you’ll see a drop-down box for the district theme. Select ‘European’.

This dropdown box lets you select the theme for the particular district. / Cities: Skylines
This dropdown box lets you select the theme for the particular district.

Any high-density buildings that grow within that district will be European style.

Getting European-Style Low-Density Buildings with the European Suburbia DLC

The growable European style buildings in the base game only include assets for high-density zones.

This means even if you’re on a European map, or even if you have applied a European district theme, low-density buildings will still grow in the vanilla style.

With the European Suburbia content creator pack, however, you can grow European-style low-density homes.

One of the official screenshots of the European Suburbia content creator pack. Image source. / Cities: Skylines
One of the official screenshots of the European Suburbia content creator pack. Image source.

Liz Villegas

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Liz is a writer and photographer with a love for building and strategy games. Her spare time is often split between lifting, reading, drawing, annoying her dog Mr. Porky Butt, and squinting at stat tables on the wiki pages of whatever game she's currently playing.

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