The building typology of the townhouse has been playing an essential role again in the debate on architecture and urban design for about ten years now. That is particularly true in Berlin. Since the state has withdrawn from programs to build subsidized housing, new attention has focused on a renaissance of the inner city through individual, privately financed residential projects. In this volume of the Construction and Design Manual series, Hans Stimmann, who was Senate Building Director for Urban Development in Berlin for more than ten years and a pioneer of the current townhouse boom, summarises the townhouse's political strategies, roots in architectural history and theoretical concepts. The author also analyses around fifty examples and situates them in their urban context.