Evolving houses, demanding practices: A case of rising electricity consumption of the middle class in Pakistan

Highlights

• Energy consumption is outcome of mutually dependent material and social structures.

• Understanding longitudinal changes in practice-arrangements can help improve demand.

• Shift from outdoors to indoors and inward to outward design increases energy use.

• Spatial dispersion of practices drives greater space and energy use.

• Themes identified can help reframe standards to achieve efficiency and sufficiency.

Abstract

This paper seeks to address the gap in current studies of domestic energy-use in countries in the Global South from a socio-technical perspective. It explores a trajectory of domestic spatial layouts and accompanying household practices over the last century in Lahore, Pakistan. The research identifies various nexuses of practice-spatial arrangements of urban housing that have emerged, persisted and transformed over time, giving rise to unsustainable levels of electricity consumption in middle-class households. A mixed-method approach was adopted for collecting data including a review of archival documents, building regulations, house plans, case-studies, oral history narratives and expert interviews. This analysis reveals three key themes as central to explaining increasing household electricity demand: a shift from outdoor to indoor activities, transformation from inward- to outward-oriented design and a spatial dispersion of practices. The study suggests that understanding longitudinal dynamics of practice-arrangements can help identify and prevent normalisation of unsustainable configurations that gradually become embedded in social structures and practices. Contemporary standards are likely to prefigure higher demands for electricity because of increased consumption and specification of spaces, culturally ill-suited indoor and outdoor configurations, unquestioned reliance on electricity and neglected use of outdoor space. Though confined to a single case, this study has broader methodological applicability and implications for other countries in the Global South.

Introduction

Energy consumed in the building sector accounts for just over 20% of total global consumption. In the Global South, this consumption is predicted to grow nearly three times the rate for developed nations by 2040 [1]. By 2030, more than 80% of the middle-class globally is projected to be from the Global South, accounting for 70% of total energy consumption [2]. Yet most energy policies in countries of the South, like Pakistan, tend to focus on energy generation while neglecting demand management [3]. This becomes more evident when reviewing national housing policies as they prove inadequate in dealing with the current housing shortage. In addition, they fail to consider the energy efficiency of existing housing [4], [5].

During the first decade of the 21st century in Pakistan, middle-class households, defined as having daily per capita expenditures of US$2-US$10 (in 2005 purchasing power parity dollars²), grew from 32% to 55% of the total population. The middle-class is expected to contribute to 90% of the increase in national energy consumption [6]. Pakistan's housing shortage is approximately 10 million units and the deficit is growing, particularly in urban areas [7].

A socio-technical analysis of energy consumption can provide an in-depth and nuanced understanding of what this consumption is for and how it has come about, as has been proposed by practice theorists (see e.g. Refs. [[8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13]]). Growing energy demand and comfort standards of middle-class households in the Global South have been the subject of recent study [[14], [15], [16], [17], [18]]. However, there is limited research on housing spatial arrangements and how these interlink with everyday practices that can lead to energy-intensive configurations. Furthermore, a detailed analysis of how and why this consumption has changed over time requires a longer temporal dimension [19]. Instead of considering buildings simply as grounds for technological efficiency in construction and appliances, there is a need to view buildings as the material counterparts of competing social practices [20]. Unsustainable practice-arrangements need to be challenged instead of being reproduced [21]. Hence, this research adopts a socio-material approach to understanding energy demand in middle-class households in Lahore, the second-largest urban centre in Pakistan, with a population of 11.13 million. It analyses the coevolution of everyday practices of homeowners and the associated material and spatial arrangements to target both efficiency and sufficiency in urban households' energy consumption. By applying Schatzki's [22] conceptualisation of ‘practice-arrangement bundles’ to the emergence, persistence and transformation of urban housing, this paper seeks to unfold links between spatial layouts and household practices in middle class households in Lahore.

This paper is structured as follows: Section 2 presents the methodology and the review of spatial evolution of middle-class houses in Lahore. Key findings are presented in section 3. Conclusions are made in section 4.