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=== Ancient ===
By the Bronze Age (c. 3500–1200 BC), communities in [[Mesopotamia]] began constructing permanent dwellings of [[mudbrick]]; excavations at [[Uruk]] and [[Ubaid]] reveal single-room and multi-room houses organised around small courtyards, built with uniform bricks and bitumen mortar.<ref>{{cite web|title=Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/smes/hd_smes.htm|publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art|accessdate=2025-05-02}}</ref> These early urban homes often clustered along straight streets and shared common wells and ovens.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Algaze|first=Gilbert|title=Early Urbanization in Mesopotamia|journal=Journal of Archaeological Research|year=1993|volume=1|issue=1|pages=1–38|doi=10.1007/BF02292781|doi-broken-date=31 May 2025 }}</ref> In [[Ancient Egypt]], from the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BC) onwards, town layouts at [[Amarna, Egypt|Amarna]] and [[Deir el-Medina]] display mudbrick houses with flat roofs built in dense rows off narrow lanes; typical houses comprised a reception room, private chambers, and a small courtyard used for food preparation and work activities.<ref>{{cite web|title=Domestic Architecture in Ancient Egypt|url=http://www.ancient.eu/article/1232/domestic-architecture-in-ancient-egypt/|publisher=World History Encyclopedia|accessdate=2025-05-02}}</ref> The [[Indus Valley Civilisation]] (c. 2600–1900 BC) featured standardised fired-bricks and sophisticated urban planning in cities like [[Mohenjo-daro]] and [[Harappa]], where two-story houses included private wells, indoor bathrooms with drainage, and south-facing courtyards engineered for ventilation in the hot climate.<ref>{{cite web|title=Ancient Indus Valley Civilization|url=https://www.harappa.com/har/har02.html|publisher=Harappa.com|accessdate=2025-05-02}}</ref>

On Bronze Age [[Crete]], the Minoan palace at [[Knossos]] incorporated residential quarters with light wells and lustral basins, reflecting an emphasis on light and ritual purity in domestic space.<ref>{{cite book|last=Manning|first=Sturt W.|title=A History of Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2010|pages=35–40}}</ref> Surrounding settlements adopted similar rectilinear house plans centered on storage magazines and communal courts. By the 1st century BC in [[Ancient Rome]], the affluent lived in [[Roman villa|domus]]—multiroom urban houses built around an atrium and peristyle garden—while the majority resided in multi-story apartment blocks called insulae, often cramped and prone to fire hazards.<ref>{{cite web|title=Housing in Ancient Rome|url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/809/housing-in-ancient-rome/|publisher=World History Encyclopedia|accessdate=2025-05-02}}</ref>