The house was without doubt the centre of private life for the Byzantines. Many variations of the home existed, depending on the owner’s financial means, the terrain and, of course, the available space. In the cities there were luxurious mansions inhabited by the rich and the nobility, as well as humble dwellings for the poor.

The Byzantine home combined features from Ancient Greece, Rome and the East. Since few authentic Byzantine houses have survived, our information comes from the few remains that have been excavated, and mainly from the descriptions found in texts, manuscript illustrations and depictions in monumental art.

Early Christian houses were more elaborate than those built later, as they followed the tradition of antiquity. The rooms were organized around an interior courtyard surrounded by arcades, while the most formal room in the house was the triclinium , where the owner hosted banquets for his guests. One narrow side of this room was usually built in a semicircle, where couches would be placed around a table. The remaining rooms in the house were large and often decorated with marble tiles, mosaic floors and frescoes . This luxurious type of house was obviously intended for the aristocracy of the time; the middle class lived in more modest versions, with no courtyard or fewer rooms, beaten earth floors and unpainted plaster walls. That being said, the lower classes that made up the bulk of the urban population lived in houses resembling blocks of flats. Written sources tell us that many people in contemporary Constantinople lived in multi-storey buildings rising from seven to nine floors high.

The form taken by houses changed radically from the 6^th century on. Though the triclinium or triklinari remained the principal room in the home, all other spaces were arranged around it:  those for men and children (dorms or cabins); women’s quarters at the back of the house, where the loom was kept; the dining room; and the lavatory.

Many houses in Byzantine times - especially the palaces of emperors and aristocrats such as Digenis Akritis - had balconies on the upper floor called heliaka, or solars. Reference is made to covered balconies with wooden supports (hayats ) and various wings around the main building; in some cases houses were guarded by towers and had chapels serving the religious needs of the occupants, baths and other ancillary buildings.The outside walls were meticulously constructed of alternating brick and stone or decorated with other designs. The floors were laid with marble tiles, and the walls dressed in marble or adorned with murals and mosaics. Courtyards and gardens had fountains of various types and sizes.

However, most of the population in Byzantine times lived in rudely constructed one or two-storey houses of cheap materials, including parts of ancient buildings. The majority consisted of a group of rooms arranged around an open courtyard, where there was usually a well and an oven. At least one of the wings had a second floor. Descriptions of houses found in Byzantine documents, as well as those that have come to light in excavations, such as those at Corinth, allow us to surmise that workshops, mills, warehouses, stables and living quarters often formed part of a single building complex.

Over the centuries it seems that the triklinari took over all the previously separate areas and that the interior courtyard was abolished. At Mystras, where the best preserved examples of late Byzantine houses are to be found, homes were generally rectangular two-storey affairs, in some cases built parallel to the slope and in others vertically, so that part of their basement was hewn into the rock. Some houses shared a wall with adjacent buildings, while others were fully detached. Mansions had a tower on one side. The utility rooms (water cistern, warehouse, stable, kitchen, etc.), were located on the ground floor, whereas the triklinari was above. Light for the upper floor came through a row of arched windows, usually with a sun balcony on one side. Heavy fabrics hanging from the rafters or makeshift board constructions marked off the various rooms. Alcoves for storing clothes and other objects were made in the walls, in corners and next to windows, and benches lined the walls. Opposite the heliakon was the hearth for heating and cooking. One corner of the house was reserved for the lavatory.