This is a list of house types.

House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

s can be built in a large variety of configurations. A basic division is between free-standing or

single-family detached home A stand-alone house (also called a single-detached dwelling, detached residence or detached house) is a free-standing residential building. It is sometimes referred to as a single-family home, as opposed to a multi-family residential dwelling ...

s and various types of attached or multi-family residential dwellings. Both may vary greatly in scale and the amount of accommodation provided.

By layout

Hut

A hut is a dwelling of relatively simple construction, usually one room and one story in height. The design and materials of huts vary widely around the world.

Bungalow

Bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas. The first house in England that was classified as a b ...

is a common term applied to a low one-story house with a shallow-pitched roof (in some locations,

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

ed varieties are referred to as 1.5-story, such as the chalet bungalow in the United Kingdom).

Cottage

cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a Cotter (farmer), cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager ...

is a small house, usually one or two story in height, although the term is sometimes applied to larger structures.

Ranch

ranch-style house Ranch (also known as American ranch, California ranch, rambler, or rancher) is a domestic architectural style that originated in the United States. The ranch-style house is noted for its long, close-to-the-ground profile, and wide open layout. ...

or rambler is one-story, low to the ground, with a low-pitched roof, usually rectangular, L- or U-shaped with deep overhanging

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

. Ranch styles include: * California ranch: the "original" ranch style, developed in the United States in the early 20th century, before World War II * Tract ranch: a post-World War II style of ranch that was smaller and less ornate than the original, mass-produced in housing developments, usually without basements * Suburban ranch: a modern style of ranch that retains many of the characteristics of the original but is larger, with modern amenities

I-house

An I-house is a two-story house that is one room deep with a double-pen, hall-parlor, central-hall or saddlebag layout. * New England I-house: characterized by a central chimney * Pennsylvania I-house: characterized by internal gable-end chimneys at the interior of either side of the house * Southern I-house: characterized by external gable-end chimneys on the exterior of either side of the house

Gablefront

A gablefront house or gablefront cottage has a gable roof that faces its

street A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, ...

or avenue, as in the novel '' The House of Seven Gables''. * A-frame: so-called because the steep roofline, reaching to or near the ground, makes the gable ends resemble a capital letter A. * Chalet: a gablefront house built into a mountainside with a wide sloping roof *

Charleston single house A Charleston single house is a form of house found in Charleston, South Carolina. A single house has its narrow side (often two- or three-bays wide) with a gable end along the street and a longer side (often five-bays) running perpendicular to the s ...

: originating in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

, a narrow house with its shoulder to the street and front door on the side.

Split-level

Split-level house A split-level home (also called a bi-level home or tri-level home) is a style of house in which the floor levels are staggered. There are typically two short sets of stairs, one running upward to a bedroom level, and one going downward toward a ...

is a design of house that was commonly built during the 1950s and 1960s. It has two nearly equal sections that are located on two different levels, with a short stairway in the corridor connecting them. * Bi-level, split-entry, or raised ranch * Tri-level, quad-level, quintlevel etc.

Tower

A tower house is a compact two or more story house, often fortified. * Irish tower houses were often surrounded by defensive walls called

bawn A bawn is the defensive wall surrounding an Irish tower house. It is the anglicised version of the Irish word ''bábhún'' (sometimes spelt ''badhún''), possibly meaning "cattle-stronghold" or "cattle-enclosure".See alternative traditional spe ...

s * Kulla: an Albanian tower house *

Peel tower Peel towers (also spelt pele) are small fortified keeps or tower houses, built along the English and Scottish borders in the Scottish Marches and North of England, mainly between the mid-14th century and about 1600. They were free-standin ...

or Pele tower: fortified tower houses in England and Scotland used as

keep A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in c ...

s or houses * Vainakh tower: a tower house found in

Chechenya Chechnya ( rus, Чечня́, Chechnyá, p=tɕɪtɕˈnʲa; ce, Нохчийчоь, Noxçiyçö), officially the Chechen Republic,; ce, Нохчийн Республика, Noxçiyn Respublika is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia. I ...

and

Ingushetia Ingushetia (; russian: Ингуше́тия; inh, ГӀалгӏайче, Ghalghayče), officially the Republic of Ingushetia,; inh, Гӏалгӏай Мохк, Ghalghay Moxk is a republic of Russia located in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe. ...

that reached up to four stories tall and were used for residential or military purposes, or both * Welsh tower houses: built mostly in the 14th and 15th centuries

Longhouse

A longhouse is historical house type typically for family groups. * Geestharden house: one of the three basic house types in Schleswig-Holstein region of Germany **

Uthland-Frisian house The Uthland-Frisian house (german: Uthlandfriesisches Haus or ''Uthländisches Haus''Vollmer, Manfred et al. (2001). ''Landscape and Cultural Heritage in the Wadden Sea Region'', Wadden Sea Ecosystem No. 12 - 2001, CWSS, Wilhelmshaven, p.318. da, ...

: a sub type of Geestharden house of northwest Germany and Denmark * Longère: a long and narrow house in rural Normandy and Brittany

Housebarn

A housebarn is a combined house and barn. * Barndominium: a type of house that includes living space attached to either a workshop or a barn, typically for horses, or a large vehicle such as a

recreational vehicle A recreational vehicle, often abbreviated as RV, is a motor vehicle or trailer that includes living quarters designed for accommodation. Types of RVs include motorhomes, campervans, coaches, caravans (also known as travel trailers and camper ...

or a large recreational boat * Byre-dwelling: farmhouse with people and livestock under one roof * Connected farm: type of farmhouse common in New England * Frutighaus: a type of barnhouse originating in the Frutigland region of Switzerland.

Other house types

* Courtyard house **

Riad Riad or Riyad may refer to: * Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia * Riyad, Mauritania * Riad (name), a given name and surname (including a list of people with the name, also Riyad or Riyadh) * Riad (architecture), a traditional Moroccan house ...

: a type of courtyard house found in Morocco ** Siheyuan, Sanheyuan: a type of courtyard house found in China * Snout house: a house with the garage door being the closest part of the dwelling to the street. * Octagon house: a house of symmetrical octagonal floor plan, popularized briefly during the 19th century by Orson Squire Fowler *

Stilt house Stilt houses (also called pile dwellings or lake dwellings) are houses raised on stilts (or piles) over the surface of the soil or a body of water. Stilt houses are built primarily as a protection against flooding; they also keep out vermin. The ...

: is a house built on stilts above a body of water or the ground (usually in swampy areas prone to flooding). * Villa: a large house which one might retreat to in the country. Villa can also refer to a freestanding comfortable-sized house, on a large block, generally found in the suburbs, and in Victorian terraced housing, a house larger than the average byelaw terraced house, often having double street

frontage Frontage is the boundary between a plot of land or a building and the road onto which the plot or building fronts. Frontage may also refer to the full length of this boundary. This length is considered especially important for certain types of ...

. *

Mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...

: a very large, luxurious house, typically associated with exceptional wealth or aristocracy, usually of more than one story, on a very large block of land or estate.
Mansions usually will have many more rooms and bedrooms than a typical single-family home, including specialty rooms, such as a library, study, conservatory, theater,

greenhouse A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...

, infinity pool, bowling alley, or server room. *

Palace A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

: the residence of a high ranking government official or the country's ruler. *

Castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

: a heavily fortified medieval dwelling or a house styled after medieval castles. Usually with towers, crenellations, a stone exterior, get

By construction method or materials

* Airey house: a type of low-cost house that was developed in the United Kingdom during the 1940s by Sir

Edwin Airey Sir Edwin Airey (7 February 1878''1939 England and Wales Register'' – 14 March 1955) was a British civil engineer and industrialist responsible for the Airey prefabricated houses constructed in the UK after the Second World War. Life Airey wa ...

, and then widely constructed between 1945 and 1960 to provide housing for soldiers, sailors, and

airmen An airman is a member of an air force or air arm of a nation's armed forces. In certain air forces, it can also refer to a specific enlisted rank. An airman can also be referred as a soldier in other definitions. In civilian aviation usage, t ...

who had returned home from World War II. These are recognizable by their precast concrete columns and by their walls made of precast "ship-lap" concrete panels. *

Assam-type House Assam-type architecture is an architectural style developed in the state of Assam in India during the late modern period. It is found in Assam and Sylhet region. The houses constructed using this style are generally termed as ''Assam-type'' h ...

: an earthquake-resistant house type commonly found in the northeastern states of India * Bastle house: a fortified

farmhouse FarmHouse (FH) is a social Fraternities and sororities in North America, fraternity founded at the University of Missouri on April 15, 1905. It became a national organization in 1921. Today FarmHouse has 33 active chapters and four associate ch ...

found in England and Scotland *

: primarily a defensive structure/dwelling built during the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages, and also from the 18th century to today. *

Converted barn The conversion of barns involves the conversion of old farming barns to structures of commercial or residential use. Responsible residential conversion According to the United States National Park Service, a medium-sized barn with sufficient extan ...

: an old barn converted into a house or other use. * Earth sheltered: houses using dirt ("earth") piled against it exterior walls for thermal mass, which reduces heat flow into or out of the house, maintaining a more steady indoor temperature **

Pit-house A pit-house (or ''pit house'', ''pithouse'') is a house built in the ground and used for shelter. Besides providing shelter from the most extreme of weather conditions, these structures may also be used to store food (just like a pantry, a larder ...

: a prehistoric house type used on many continents and of many styles, partially sunken into the ground. ** Rammed earth **

Sod house The sod house or soddy was an often used alternative to the log cabin during frontier settlement of the Great Plains of Canada and the United States in the 1800s and early 1900s. Primarily used at first for animal shelters, corrals, and fences, ...

** Earthbag home ** Souterrain: an earthen dwelling typically deriving from Neolithic Age or Bronze Age times. **

Underground home Underground living refers to living below the ground's surface, whether in natural or manmade caves or structures. Underground dwellings are an alternative to above-ground dwellings for some home seekers, including those who are looking to mini ...

: a type of dwelling dug and constructed underground. Ex. A Rammed-Earth Style House **

Yaodong A yaodong () or "house cave" is a particular form of earth shelter dwelling common in the Loess Plateau in China's north. They are generally carved out of a hillside or excavated horizontally from a central "sunken courtyard". The earth that su ...

: a dugout used as an abode or shelter in northern China, especially on the Loess Plateau ** Wattle and daub **

Adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...

: a type of

mudbrick A mudbrick or mud-brick is an air-dried brick, made of a mixture of loam, mud, sand and water mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw. Mudbricks are known from 9000 BCE, though since 4000 BCE, bricks have also bee ...

house made of dirt and straw with mud used as mortar. Found throughout the world, in particular Spain, North Africa, the Middle East and the Americas. *

Igloo An igloo (Inuit languages: , Inuktitut syllabics (plural: )), also known as a snow house or snow hut, is a type of shelter built of suitable snow. Although igloos are often associated with all Inuit, they were traditionally used only b ...

: an Inuit, Yup'ik, and Aleut seasonal or emergency shelter that was made of knife-sliced blocks of packed snow and/or ice in the Arctic regions of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Siberian Russia. * Kit house: a type of pre-fabricated house made of pre-cut, numbered pieces of lumber. ** Sears Catalog Home: an owner-built "kit" houses that were sold by the Sears, Roebuck and Co. corporation via catalog orders from 1906 to 1940. * Laneway house: a type of Canadian house that is constructed behind a normal single-family home that opens onto a back lane * Log home,

Log cabin A log cabin is a small log house, especially a less finished or less architecturally sophisticated structure. Log cabins have an ancient history in Europe, and in America are often associated with first generation home building by settlers. Eur ...

: a house built by American, Canadian, and Russian frontiersmen and their families which was built of solid, unsquared wooden logs and later as a well crafted style of dwelling * Plank house: a general term for houses built using planks in a variety of ways * Pole house: a timber house in which a set of vertical poles carry the load of all of its suspended floors and roof, allowing all of its walls to be non-load-bearing. * Prefabricated house: a house whose main structural sections were manufactured in a factory, and then transported to their final building site to be assembled upon a concrete foundation, which had to be poured locally. ** Manufactured house: a prefabricated house that is assembled on the permanent site on which it will sit. ** Modular home: a prefabricated house that consists of repeated sections called modules. ** Lustron house: a type of prefabricated house *

s or Pile dwellings: houses raised on stilts over the surface of the soil or a body of water. * Tree house: a house built among the branches or around the trunk of one or more mature trees and does not rest on the ground. * Upper Lusatian house or Umgebinde: combined log and timber-frame construction in Germany-Czech Republic-Poland region * Wimpey no-fines house: a low-cost semi-attached or terraced houses built in the United Kingdom from the 1940s onwards using concrete without fine aggregates ("no-fine")

Single-family attached

* Two-family or duplex: two living units, either attached side by side and sharing a common wall (in some countries, called semi-detached) or stacked one atop the other (in some countries, called a double-decker) * Three-family or

triplex Triplex may refer to: * Triplex (building), a dwelling composed of three units * Triplex (espionage), code name of a British World War II espionage operation * ''Triplex'' (film), a 1991 French film * Triplex (genetics), triple-stranded DNA * Tr ...

: three living units, either attached side by side and sharing common walls, or stacked (in some countries, called a three-decker or triple-decker) * Four-family or quadplex or quad: four living units, typically with two units on the first floor and two on the second, or side-by-side * Townhouse, terraced house, or rowhouse: common terms for single-family attached housing, whose precise meaning varies by location, often connecting a series of living units arranged side-by-side sharing common walls (not to be confused with the English term for an aristocratic mansion, townhouse (Great Britain)) ** Linked house: side-by-side attached houses that appear detached above-ground but are attached at the foundation below-ground ** Linked semi-detached: side-by-side attached houses with garages in between them, sharing basement and garage walls ** Mews property: an urban

stable A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...

-block that has often been converted into residential properties. The houses may have been converted into ground floor garages with a small flat above which used to house the ostler or just a garage with no living quarters. ** Patio house: townhouses that share a patio * Weavers' cottage: townhouses with attached workshops for weavers

Movable dwellings

Chattel house Chattel house is a Barbadian term for a small moveable wooden house that working class people would occupy. The term goes back to the plantation days when the home owners would buy houses designed to move from one property to another. The word " c ...

: a small wooden house occupied by

working-class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

people on Barbados. Originally relocatable; personal chattel (property) rather than fixed

real property In English common law, real property, real estate, immovable property or, solely in the US and Canada, realty, is land which is the property of some person and all structures (also called improvements or fixtures) integrated with or affixe ...

Mobile home A mobile home (also known as a house trailer, park home, trailer, or trailer home) is a prefabricated structure, built in a factory on a permanently attached chassis before being transported to site (either by being towed or on a trailer). Us ...

, park home, or trailer home: a prefabricated house that is manufactured off-site and moved by trailer to its final location (but not intended to be towed regularly by a vehicle) Travel trailer in Mońki

Recreational vehicle A recreational vehicle, often abbreviated as RV, is a motor vehicle or trailer that includes living quarters designed for accommodation. Types of RVs include motorhomes, campervans, coaches, caravans (also known as travel trailers and camper ...

or RV: a motor vehicle or trailer that can be used for habitation ** Travel trailer, camper or caravan: a trailer designed to be used as a residence (usually temporarily), which must be towed regularly by a vehicle and cannot move under its own power ** Tiny house: a dwelling, usually built on a trailer or barge, that is or smaller, built to look like a small house and suitable for long-term habitation *

Houseboat A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a home. Most houseboats are not motorized as they are usually moored or kept stationary at a fixed point, and often tethered to land to provide utilities. How ...

includes float houses: a boat designed to be primarily used as a residence *

Tent A tent () is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over, attached to a frame of poles or a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using gu ...

: a temporary, movable dwelling usually constructed with fabric covering a frame of lightweight wood or other locally-available material ** Tipi: a conical tent originating in North America ** Yurt: a round tent with a conical roof originating in Central Asia

Notes

References

* * * * * *

External links

House Images

Architectural Housing Styles
at Old House Web
Bilingual Glossary of House types

A comprehensive summary of common residential architectural styles and themes
{{DEFAULTSORT:House Types, List Of

House types This is a list of house types. Houses can be built in a large variety of configurations. A basic division is between free-standing or single-family detached homes and various types of attached or multi-family residential dwellings. Both may va ...