April 2, 2009

Duplex

Our neighborhood, which was established in the early 1960s, has an unusual number of duplex homes like this. I don't know if the word is used elsewhere or even if other countries have such houses. Basically, a duplex is two houses made to look like a single house. If you look closely, you'll see where the dividing wall is. I think it was a way to go around the minimum lot size one could buy as prescribed by certain neighborhoods. Do you have duplexes in your city?

duplex house

25 comments:

hadv said...

I'd have thought this was one house! Most duplexes are more obvious in their differences.

Anonymous said...

I don't yet know about Belgium, but in Holland they do exist as well. These houses are called the same, duplex, or also "two under one roof".

Halcyon said...

Duplexes are very common in the US. They also look like one house, but with two doors!

I don't think they're built much anymore and some people buy both sides and turn it into one house.

Judy said...

This looks like a very nice duplex. We have many duplex houses here. Many are bought as rental units. Some buy them and live in one side and rent out the other side.

Olivier said...

maintenant, dans les nouveaux immeubles, il y a beaucoup de duplex en France, j'aimerais bien en avoir un, cela donne beaucoup de lumiere et de place
Now, in new buildings, there are many duplexes in France, I would have one, it gives a lot of light and space

 gmirage said...

There's a film entitled Duplex which stars Drew Barrymore and Ben Stiller, they were living in a Duplex in New York...

It really is a good way to maximize lots, if the government would do that then the Pabahay system would be better, what do you think?

Cezar and Léia said...

Hello Dear Hilda!
beautiful house!Lovely garden ( palms ) in front of it.
In Brazil, this type of construction is usually called sprouted houses,or duplex as you called.In Luxembourg have no idea about...Anyway I hope to have the opportunity to search about it. No doubts I'm curious as well.
Kind Regards
Léia
By the way, my daughter Marina prepared some post to update our kitty blog this week ( Luna 's blog).
If you like scrapbook ( and cats ),you could like it too!

Unknown said...

Yes, we have them here too, but they usually are symmetrical. We call them 'casas geminadas', after 'gemini' (twins).
Love the middle palm trees (with a red trunk) on that small yard. Unfortunatelly those are too fragile to survive our winters...

Cezar and Léia said...

Hello again Hilda...
forgive my poor English please. I guess I wrote something wrong.
In Brazil we call them "casas germinadas"like in Portugal, like our friend JM wrote .
Thanks
Léia

marley said...

We have things called Maisonettes. They look like a normal house but when you go round the side to the front door you find a door to the ground floor and a staircase (recessed into the building but open sided) to the second floor. Basically a one story house on each floor! Or two house in one!

PJ said...

We have duplexes, townhouses, condos, patio homes, eye sores, mansions, ranch homes, you name it, we have it!

Lowell said...

We have a lot of duplexes, but none that look as good as these.

Nice photo, Hilda!

Lois said...

We have many duplexes here. Most of them are occupied by college students.

escape said...

just around our villages i get to see duplexes.

GreensboroDailyPhoto said...

We have duplexes in Greensboro, NC, USA

Anonymous said...

We lived in a duplex when I was young :) My cousins lived in the other house. We'd play around a lot, go back to our respective houses to sleep, then play again the next day. It was a really fun time. Thanks for that trip down memory lane! :)

VP said...

I think that here also they are starting to call these houses "duplexes".

Anonymous said...

We have them in Ohio where I live. You can get them in regular house construction (it looks like an ordinary house down the street) and in apartment-like buildings and in row houses. Some people buy them new and rent one side. The rent pays for the entire home.

Reena said...

hmm. i don't think we have in our neighborhood but i see a lot of these in other places.

B SQUARED said...

The fourplex has become the norm these days...

Tara said...

Duplexes are common here in PI. But this one looks like one house and the partition is unnoticeable.

P.S. don't worry about the seaport, I do make mistakes too. :)

Hilda said...

Thanks to everyone who answered my question! That's one down! Out of a million more :D

George said...

My late wife's parents owned a duplex -- they lived in one side and rented out the other side. I think duplexes here are more obvious than the one you showed.

Anonymous said...

I think duplexes are common all over. Every place I've lived, I've seen duplexes - even here in Saudi Arabia!

Z said...

There are duplexes in Switzerland as well, though as others have written about the ones in their places, the ones here are easy to recognize as such. They're called Doppel-einfamilienhaus (DEFH): literally double one family home.