I use a central 3x3 shaft, which allows me to spread my fort over multiple z-levels, thus making it a short walk from any given point A to any given point B. It works fairly well and I like the organized feel from having a dedicated bedroom floor, workshop floor, etc. Now, this would be highly naive, defensively, if I didn't defend the entrance, but I do. I generally build a small above ground fort over the shaft opening, walling off a 30x30 or so area, with the shaft in the middle. This top floor has a single entrance, lined first with one or more lines of cage traps followed by my barracks, thus forcing goblin snatchers to be caged and kobolds to be found and massacred by training militiadwarves. A large frontal gate can be raised to seal the entire deal, but I also include a smaller gate just past the first. This can be lifted to close off the cage trap hall, leaving the only entrance as a winding maze of weapon traps, war animal pastures and whatever else I care to subject them to before ultimately emptying out in my barracks again. Doors in the barracks can be locked to prevent dwarves from rushing out, but leaving my war animals and militia open to invaders' pathfinding. Generally I make a smaller second floor before roofing the whole thing over. The second floor serves as a sniping range for crossbow dwarves, should I one day actually use some(I never seem to get around to it).
The above ground walled in area also usually has room for a pasture(for all those pet pigs we can't just get rid of), one or more above ground farm plots, a sizable refuse pile and a butcher and tanner's shop, out where the miasma never forms.
The drawbacks are that it takes up a good bit of labor to build, and that the roof is rarely completed before year 2 or 3. But since most of the flying enemies don't show up that soon, it really only leaves me open to the occasional buzzard.
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Topic: Comparitive Architecture (Read 2379 times)