International Data
OpenStreetMap offers regularly-updated extracts of continents, countries, and selected cities.
Here are various methods to extract data from OpenStreetMap:
Download data from OpenStreetMap
Note that following features from the Geofabrik data can be useful in architecture projects:
gis_osm_water_a_free includes polyline of waterways
gis_osm_roads_free includes roads
gis_osm_buildings_a_free includes building footprints
gis_osm_landuse_a_free includes zoning / land use information
gis_osm_places_a_free includes polygons of subdivisions