#HTE

Examples of When One House is Owned by Two Families With Different Aesthetic Tastes

Present & Correct jokingly refers to these as “halfway houses:” Domiciles that have been split down the middle and divided between two families in Ruhr, Germany, a region once dominated by the coal mining industry. Photographer Wolfgang Fröhling documented a number of them in his “Semi Detached Houses” series on Pixel Project.

As Fröhling explains:

“With the beginning of the [region’s] exit from mining, the colliery apartments were gradually privatized. The houses, in which several families previously lived, were divided and the semi-detached house was created. At some point the new owners began - each for himself - to design their property. The result was a curious mix of styles in the semi-detached house.”

My favorite shots are the ones where the yards really highlight the contrast:

I don’t envy the owners of the houses with sharply-peaked roofs. Those upper spaces must be completely unusable.