Duplex (building)
– Variants
– US
– Side by side duplex also known as a semi-detached house.
– Duplex or duplex apartment in dense areas like Manhattan and downtown Chicago refers to a maisonette.
– Triplex apartment refers to an apartment spread over three floors.
– Simplex refers to an apartment located on one floor.
– Apartment may be called a triplex atop The Pierre hotel.
– UK
– Duplex in the UK refers to a flat or apartment on two floors connected by an inner staircase.
– Maisonette is the more commonly used term in the UK.
– Newer apartments in the UK often have open-plan designs including mezzanines.
– Maisonette means two houses split horizontally with a separate door.
– Flats have initial shared doors unlike maisonettes.
– Australia
– In Australia, a duplex is a residential building with two homes sharing a common central wall.
– Australian duplexes are usually mirror images of each other in layout.
– Duplexes are also referred to as maisonettes in South Australia.
– Each home in an Australian duplex typically has its own entrance.
– Australian duplexes are common in residential neighborhoods.
– Paired home
– Paired home consists of two homes sharing a wall with opposite side entries.
– The building is designed to appear as one single larger home.
– Paired homes provide more privacy for homeowners compared to front-to-front duplexes.
– Paired homes are a popular housing option in suburban areas.
– The design of paired homes enhances the sense of community.
– Urban planning
– Major Canadian cities use the term duplex for buildings with one unit above another.
– Definitions of duplex vary among cities, specifying the relationship between dwelling units.
– Some cities like Halifax define duplexes as buildings divided horizontally into two separate units.
– The term two-flat is used in cities like Buffalo and Detroit for buildings with two units on a single lot.
– Cities like San Francisco and Vancouver use the term two-family dwelling instead of duplex.
A duplex house plan has two living units attached to each other, either next to each other as townhouses, condominiums or above each other like apartments. By contrast, a building comprising two attached units on two distinct properties is typically considered semi-detached or twin homes but is also called a duplex in parts of the Northeastern United States, Western Canada, and Saudi Arabia.
The term "duplex" is not extended to three-unit and four-unit buildings, as they would be referred to with specific terms such as three-family (or triplex) and fourplex (or quadplex/quadruplex) or a more general multiplex. Because of the flexibility of the term, the line between an apartment building and a duplex is somewhat blurred, with apartment buildings tending to be bigger, while duplexes are usually the size of a single-family house.