The patterns of houses and housing have undergone considerable changes particularly in the urban areas. The old type of house of the rich living in joint families consisted of a front and a back part separated by a small open court on each side of which was a passage, and in the upper storey an open terrace connecting front and back parts of the house. Such a plan of the house was once popular because when children would grow up and sons had families of their own they could share the same house and yet to some extent each family could live apart.

House belonging to the old aristocracy were built round a cauk quadrangle with stone or burnt brick walls, tiled roofs and verandas. These houses were generally one or two-storeyed : the entrance door which was often spacious and imposing had a small gateway or devadi watch room, and an office room. On crossing the cauk a few steps lead to the oli veranda, for the house was always raised on a jote (plinth) two or three feet high. In the veranda strangers were received and children played and women spent their leisurely time. The ground-floor had four to seven rooms, a central hall, and a back veranda opening into the rear yard. There were rooms for sleeping, for keeping clothes and ornaments, a kitchen and a god-room. The storey had four rooms or two halls, In the rear of the house were cattle-shed, a bathing-room and a privy located in a distant corner, flower and plantain trees and a Tulas(holis basil ) planted in a masonry pillar post, and rooms for servants and retainers.

The more modest houses were generally one with walls constructed of dressed or unworked stone, burnt or sun-dried bricks and title or flat roofs. They occurred of osari (front veranda) which was used as an office or place of business, majghar or the central room for dining and sitting, devghar or a room for worshipping gods, a kitchen and a room to spare. There was generally a cattle-shed either in the front or at the back a separate privy and a nhani or bathing shed.

House occupied by husbandmen in villages were built with unburnt brick walls, tiled or dhaba (flat earthen) roofs and had two or three rooms. They had also large cattle-sheds. Poorer land-holders, labourers and Harijans often lived in single-roomed houses, with mud and stone or mud-wattled reed walls with dhaba or tin o corrugated iron sheet roofs.

Old houses were built with the idea of providing shelter and safety, while modern designs and constructions are particular about the priciples of covenience, economy, health and sanitation with the necessary safety. The richer class of peo;e are now having independent cottages and bungalows with accommodation generally consisting of a veranda, a drawing or sitting room, tow or three extra rooms to be used as bedrooms, guest room, or study-room, a kitchen, a parlour, pantry or store-room and an independent bath and W.C. There is a small garden around and a garage. The rooms are so arranged as to have an indpendent access for each. The walls are of stone or brick masonry in lime or cement mortar and plastered in lime or cement mortar. The doors are panelled or glazed and have brass fixtures. Enough windows are there to allow free passage for air and light. The floors are paved with stone or concrete and are free from dampness, drainage and sanitation being carefully looked after. The roof is either covered with Mangalore tiles or terraced in reinforced concrete. The rooms are generally colour-wahed or distempered in different shaded of light colour. The drawing hall or the sitting room is generally provided with 5 or 6 cane or wooden chairs or sofa and two side-chairs duly upholstered, one or two easy chairs, one big central table, two or three easy chairs, one big central table, two or three small teapoys and the floor or the part roundabout the table covered with a carpet. The dining hall is equipped with a dinning table and chairs and a side table. The bedroom is furnished with one or two wooden or iron bedsteads, a wardrobe or an almirah, and a dressing table with a mirror, Built-in cupboards, shelves, pegs and sanitary fittings are provided where necessary. A cottage has only a ground floor and a bungalow has only a ground floor and a bungalow has generally a floor in addition.

After the first World War the upper middle class people felt the necessity of having convenient self-contained blocks or self-owned houses. Flat system was superimposed on houses which were not built for that purpose. As soon as conditions returned to normal and building materials were cheap and available (from 1928 onwards) in abundance many people formed housing societies and purchased sufficient open lands available in the outskirts of the town and divided the area into a number of plots on which membners of the societies built cottages or bungalows of modern design with a small out-house for renting. Similar conditions arose even after the Second World War, people facing them with similar measures. In Nagpur city, such societies cropped up in Sankar nagar, Ramdas Peth, Giri Peth and Hanuman Nagar.

In the patterns of houses in villages there has not been much change. Richer people going in for the use of cement and concrete adopted the models in vogue in towns retaining certain rural features. The poor continue to live in small huts as in the past.