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=== Post-classical ===
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, domestic architecture in Europe reverted to simple timber-framed or wattle-and-daub huts, while the elite continued to inhabit stone manor houses with great halls and defensive features. By the 12th century, these manor houses commonly featured a central hall, private solar chambers, and adjoining service wings, reflecting both social hierarchy and the need for local defense.<ref>{{cite book|last=Striner|first=Richard|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|isbn=9780199665379|page=217}}</ref> In medieval towns, multi-storey timber-framed “hall houses” with jettied upper floors lined narrow streets, maximizing limited urban plots and providing shelter from street traffic.<ref>{{cite web|title=Medieval European Architecture|url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/medieval-architecture|publisher=History Today|accessdate=2025-05-02}}</ref>

Concurrently, in the Islamic world from the 8th century onwards, the inward-facing courtyard house became predominant. Private residences were organized around shaded central courts with water features, mashrabiya screens for ventilation and privacy, and richly decorated plasterwork and tile.<ref>{{cite web|title=Courtyard Houses in the Islamic World|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1996.533|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art|accessdate=2025-05-02}}</ref> In East Asia, the Chinese siheyuan compound—standardized during the Yuan and Ming dynasties—offered multigenerational living around a north–south axis courtyard, with ancillary rooms for servants and extended family.

The Renaissance (14th–17th centuries) brought classical ideals into domestic design. In Florence, the Palazzo Medici Riccardi (begun 1444) introduced rusticated façades, symmetrical floor plans, and internal loggias, while Venetian villas by Palladio emphasized proportion, harmony, and integration with landscaped gardens.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ackerman|first=James S.|title=The Architecture of Michelangelo|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1986|isbn=9780226111438|page=45}}</ref> Advances in glassmaking allowed larger, clearer windows, and masonry chimneys gradually replaced central hearths, vastly improving light and air quality within homes.<ref>{{cite web|title=History of Windows|url=https://www.nfrc.org/history-of-windows|publisher=National Fenestration Rating Council|accessdate=2025-05-02}}</ref> From the 14th to the 16th century, homelessness was perceived of as a "vagrancy problem" and legislative responses to the problem were predicated upon the threat it may pose to the state.<ref name=":5" />