The aim of the paper is to offer a comparison between a burgher’s house and a modern townhouse. The current townhouse is a type of family, higher townhouse with more living rooms. Usually with three or more floors. The height significantly exceeds the width of the house. Townhouse is a type of family urban house with a strong connection to public space. This is an example of a low rise, high density housing. In Czech environment, townhouses are known in the form of burgher’s houses, which, like contemporary townhouses, offered life in the city and combined a place for both living and work. Over time, there was a great emphasis on representation the homeowner. A comparison of a burgher‘s house and a townhouse shows their common characteristics. Pointing out why the townhouse is typologically connected to the burgher house and why no other type of family houses is based on it. The comparison is made on a scale of the city, house, flat and room, but also within the target group of inhabitants. The result of this part of the research is the answer to two questions: Why is the burgher house of typological predecessors of the modern townhouse? What can we learn from it when designing a modern townhouse, focused on the urban environment of the Czech Republic?