How to design a Duplex? | Architectural Design

Guide to designing a Duplex

Duplex is a term used for a household with different unit configurations. This term is used in different countries to convey different meanings. In densely populated areas such as Manhattan and Downtown Chicago, it refers to a single household unit spread over two floors. This is the category of Duplex design we will focus on in this article.

There are two major steps in designing a Duplex

  1. Conducting a casestudies of Duplexes
  2. Designing

Designing can be further split into three phases:

  1. Conceptual Sketching
  2. Developing Single line plans
  3. Developing Double line plans

Four things you would need for the design of Duplex:

  1. Willingness to do the live casestudies of duplexes
  2. Online research
  3. Paper, Pencil for conceptual sketching
  4. CAD software

We need to conduct case studies of individual duplexes or apartments that house duplexes. You might wonder, why is that required? Let me remind you that case studies are the backbone of our design. When we design, we begin with listing out requirements. For example, if we are designing a building and have no clue about its requirements, we might have difficulty getting the functional aspect of the design right.

Following aspects have to be studied whilst conducting a case study of a Duplex:

  • study the circulation,
  • the requirements,
  • calculate the number of people it caters to;
  • calculate the areas of individual spaces such as bedroom, bathroom, Hall, Dining, Kitchen, Utility etc.

Studying the above mentioned aspects will help you with understand the requirements for Duplex design.

Also, the study of connectivity of the spaces is very important and has to be done in order to get the functional aspect of the design right.

“Efficient connectivity is the soul of any design”.

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