CASE 3:
REPLACING FARMER’S OLD HOUSE
Household 3 is home to one of the largest landholding families in Mane. With fields spread across the village’s upper and lower terraces, they have remained largely rooted in agriculture even as other families shift toward tourism or wage-based livelihoods. The family occupies two adjacent houses within a single compound, each one accommodating a branch of the extended household. Both homes are arranged across multiple levels, with each adult son and his nuclear family occupying a separate floor, a spatial response to the need for independence within proximity. This vertical division offers both privacy and participation, enabling daily routines to unfold autonomously while maintaining shared rhythms around prayer, meals, and land work.
Unlike other households where farming is supplemented by tourism, this family has invested in diversifying their agricultural practice. A recently built greenhouse sits near the house, used primarily for subsistence crops like peas and leafy vegetables that support the household diet across seasons. Their fields are carefully rotated and managed, and produce is often shared with neighbors or bartered within the village.
The houses themselves are substantial but modestly finished, with large rooms adapted for both summer and winter use. Kitchens, storerooms, and prayer spaces are positioned along cardinal orientations, ensuring thermal efficiency and ritual continuity. The layout of the compound facilitates easy access to the fields, fodder sheds, and livestock pens, allowing each day’s work to begin just outside the door.
The newly constructed house reflects an upgradation in the family.
The two house sits ona slope with the facade at the southern end opening up to the fields.
The back of the house situated at the higher end of the slope, often has a huge front space connecting it to the tearrce of the house.
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This part is often connected to the internal streets of the village.
​The newly constructed
house of the family is majorly from the wealth that has been accumulated by the large ownings of the farmlands.
Often the the villagers with smaller parcel of land help as communal labor in exchange for the harvest.
The old mud house sits with the summer room at the higher end of the slope with, achieving height for sunlight.
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The upper floors are often shut down foe the winter months only allowing narrow opening for ladders.
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This house occupies the upper floors currently while the lower floors are provided as temporary living arrangements for the labourers working on new constructions.
