Buildings are the fixed infrastructure that Crews construct and operate on lots on the surface of asteroids. One building may be constructed per lot. They perform many critical functions.
To construct a building, first a construction site must be placed. Then the required construction supplies must be sent to the site from another inventory or from a Marketplace. Finally construction can be initiated. Care should be taken, if on an asteroid where lot leases are available, to lease the underlying lot before beginning this process; otherwise any construction supplies sent, or the building itself if constructed, are vulnerable to being repossessed by the asteroid owner or by someone else who does lease the lot.
Buildings may also be deconstructed. This turns the completed building back into a construction site of the appropriate type. A percentage of the construction supplies for the building will be stored in the resulting construction site. That percentage is nominally 90%, with a deconstruction loss of 10%, and that loss can increase or decrease depending on bonuses (specifically the Recycler trait) or penalties. If a building has an inventory, it must be emptied completely prior to deconstruction. Once back in construction site state, the returned construction materials must be removed from the site before it can be entirely deleted.
Buildings are assets that are initially owned by the Crew that constructs them. Ownership may not be transferred; the only way it can change is through repossession.
If the lot underlying a building is controlled by a different Crew than the one that owns the building, the building’s owner is said to be squatting. Examples of this would be building on an unleased lot, in which case the asteroid’s administrating Crew is the lot’s default controller; or building on a lot leased by a different crew, in which case that Crew is the lot’s controller. The controller may, at any time, repossess any building on their lot, including any contents. This transfers ownership from the previous owning Crew to the Crew that controls the lot.