Duplex (building)

**Types of Duplexes**:
– Side by side duplex (semi-detached house).
– Triplex apartment (spread over three floors).
– Simplex apartment (located on one floor).
– Maisonette (UK: flat on two floors connected by inner staircase).
– Duplex in Australia (two homes with a common central wall).
– Paired home (shares a wall with opposite side entries).
– Urban planning duplex (one unit above another).

**Duplex Terminology**:
– UK: Maisonette (two houses split horizontally).
– US: Duplex apartment in dense areas like Manhattan and Chicago.
– Australia: Duplexes are mirror images in layout.
– Paired homes designed to appear as one larger home.
– Some cities use terms like two-family dwelling or two-flat for duplexes.

**Urban Planning and Duplexes**:
– Duplex defined as a building with one unit above another.
– Specific definitions for duplex housing in cities like Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, and Halifax.
– Many cities allowing duplexes in more zoning districts for missing middle housing goals.
– Zoning bylaws and definitions related to duplexes in various cities.

**Related Concepts**:
– Polish flat.
– Semi-detached houses.
List of house types.

**Additional Information**:
– Housing portal.
– Wikimedia Commons related to Duplexes.
– References to definitions of Triplex and FOURPLEX.
– Chicago Duplex Apartments.
– Most Expensive Homes in the U.S. 2006.

Duplex (building) (Wikipedia)

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.

An over-and-under two storey apartment duplex in Southeastern Pennsylvania
A large, modern side-by-side duplex in downtown Sausalito, California

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.

Definition from ChatGPT:

Duplex (building):

A duplex is a residential building that contains two separate living units, typically side by side or one on top of the other. Each unit has its own entrance, kitchen, bathroom, and living space, allowing for two separate households to live in the same building.