---
title: "Row Houses (38)"
created: 2026-07-01
updated: 2026-07-01
type: concept
status: compiled
namespace: pattern-language
pattern_number: 38
pattern_name: "Row Houses"
source_repository: https://github.com/zenodotus280/apl-md
source_url: https://github.com/zenodotus280/apl-md/blob/master/Patterns/Row%20Houses%20%2838%29.md
license_note: Non-commercial reuse with attribution; see namespace README and source LICENSE.md.
related_patterns:
  - "House Cluster (37)"
  - "Density Rings (29)"
  - "Degrees of Publicness (36)"
  - "Long Thin House (109)"
  - "The Family (75)"
  - "House for a Small Family (76)"
  - "House for a Couple (77)"
  - "House for One Person (78)"
  - "Parallel Roads (23)"
  - "Network of Paths and Cars (52)"
  - "Small Parking Lots (103)"
  - "Building Complex (95)"
---

# Row Houses (38)

> Source pattern from the abridged `apl-md` corpus. Use as a design reference and constraint seed; do not treat as commercial-clean training data.

### Problem
>At densities of 15 to 30 houses per acre, row houses are essential. But typical row houses are dark inside, and stamped from an identical mould.

### Solution
>For row houses, place houses along pedestrian paths that run at right angles to local roads and parking lots, and give each house a long frontage and a shallow depth.

### Related Patterns
... in certain parts of a community, the detached homes and gardens of a [[House Cluster (37)]] will not work, because they are not dense enough to generate the denser parts of [[Density Rings (29)]] and [[Degrees of Publicness (36)]]. To help create these larger patterns, it is necessary to build row houses instead.

Make the individual houses and cottages as long and thin as possible - [[Long Thin House (109)]]; vary the houses according to the different household types - [[The Family (75)]], [[House for a Small Family (76)]], [[House for a Couple (77)]], [[House for One Person (78)]]; build roads across the paths, at right angles to them - [[Parallel Roads (23)]], [[Network of Paths and Cars (52)]], with small parking lots off the roads - [[Small Parking Lots (103)]]. In other respects build row houses in clusters [[House Cluster (37)]], [[Building Complex (95)]] ...

---

> [!cite]- Alexander, Christopher. _A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction_. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 204.
> #APL/confidence/medium
>
> #APL/Town-Patterns/Housing-Clusters