if I understood you right you should use the following code within your first layout

<include      layout="@layout/second_layout"     android:id="@+id/includedLayout"     android:visibility="gone"     android:layout_below="@id/buttonId" />

and then in your button's action you just use

((RelativeLayout)findViewById(R.id.includedLayout)).setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);

    LinearLayout placeHolder = (LinearLayout) findViewByid(R.id.layout);    getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.second_layout, placeHolder);

Use include

Here is a somewhat fuller example. The square blue layout is inserted into the main layout using include.

activity_main.xml

This is the main layout. The custom layout is referenced using include. You can override any of the attributes here, too.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><RelativeLayout    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"    android:layout_width="match_parent"    android:layout_height="match_parent"    android:padding="16dp">    <!-- Here is the inserted layout -->    <include layout="@layout/my_layout"/></RelativeLayout>

my_layout.xml

This is the custom layout that will be inserted into the main layout.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><RelativeLayout    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"    android:layout_width="100dp"    android:layout_height="100dp"    android:background="@color/colorPrimary">    <TextView        android:layout_width="wrap_content"        android:layout_height="wrap_content"        android:layout_centerInParent="true"        android:padding="5dp"        android:text="My Layout"/></RelativeLayout>