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.