Multi-family housing comes in four basic forms: the longhouse, the row house, the courtyard cluster and the stacked apartment. The longhouse saves the most material but gives the least privacy and the most fire risk, the courtyard cluster saves the least but leaves each family independent and easy to extend, and the row house and the apartment sit between them.
Part of Multi-Family Housing Design
Housing models are the standard arrangements of several family homes in one building or around one space, each fitted to different materials, land and social conditions.
Choose The Model By What You Are Short Of
There are four basic models, and none is best. Each gives up something to gain something else, and the right one depends on whether the settlement is short of materials, land, builders or room for trust.
| Model | What it is | Gains | Gives up | Best for (multi-family guide) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Longhouse | One long building, families in sections along its length | One roof, shared hearth warmth | Privacy; one section’s fire threatens all | Founding phase, scarce materials, high cohesion |
| Row house | Units side by side sharing side walls, each with its own door and roof section | Private unit, shared-wall savings | Noise through party walls; end units lose some benefit | Established settlements wanting permanent homes |
| Courtyard cluster | Small separate buildings around a shared yard | Independence, easy extension | More material per family | Established, with adequate materials |
| Stacked apartment | Units on several levels, reached by outside stairs or balconies | Smallest footprint | Structure, access for the old, escape from upper floors | Limited land, skilled builders, able-bodied residents |
Each model has its own article: Longhouse, Row Houses, Courtyard Cluster and Apartment-Style.
What You Need
- A count of households and their sizes
- A materials inventory — masonry, earth, timber, roofing
- A frank view of the social mix — models that force contact need trust
Method: Pick The Model
Step 1: Name the scarcest resource: timber, labour, land, or tolerance between households.
Step 2: Match it to the table. Short of materials points to the longhouse or row; short of land points to the apartment; short of trust points to the courtyard cluster.
Step 3: Check fire. Every shared roof is a path for flame. Whatever you pick, plan masonry party walls that rise through the roof, separate flues and fire spacing around the whole building (Fire Breaks and Building Spacing).
Step 4: Mix models over time. A founding longhouse can be followed by row houses and courtyards.
Common Mistakes
- Choosing the cheapest form for a mixed-trust group and paying for it in disputes.
- Treating a shared roof as only a saving — it is also a shared fuse.
- Ignoring the old and the disabled when choosing stacked units.
Safety
Shared roofs and shared flues carry fire and smoke between homes
Where several families live under one roof, flame spreads along the roof void, and one chimney serving several hearths can push smoke and carbon monoxide into a neighbour’s room. Give each hearth its own flue, and extend party walls through the roof.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Shared vs. Private Spaces — what each family keeps and what it shares
- Combine with: Residential Zone — placing housing in the settlement