With the holidays upon us, stories and traditions are everywhere. And, as a student of architecture, it made me wonder about the reality behind some of them.
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For example, when I imagine a manger, I see the “classic” rustic wooden crib, straw fluffed like a Pottery Barn throw pillow, all of it spotlighted under a perfectly clean raftered stable.
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However, a wooden trough is not quite accurate for 1st-century Judea. I recently learned that my mental picture took a detour through other climates and cultures.
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Back then, building materials and architectural styles in ancient Judea were nothing like those in Europe's forested regions, where many X-framed nativity traditions first began.
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As a westerner, this difference never occurred to me, especially in modern projects.
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I’ve had the chance to design stables for the Palm Beach Polo community. Not just places for their prized horses, but also elegant homes for the owners when they come south for the winter. All under the same roof.
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The modern feeders I've included are either freestanding troughs, wall-mounted feeders, or round-bale feeders, all designed for efficiency and animal comfort.
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The ancient troughs, on the other hand, were sturdy, stationary, rectangular stone boxes with an elongated, concave depression carved into the top.

It kind of looks like a small free-standing tub. More reminiscent of "Waterworks" than "Crate & Barrel."
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Often located on the ground floor of a family home, stone mangers were placed low to the ground, or even carved into a home's floor.
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Archaeological digs in Israel have uncovered many examples, which reportedly held water, not hay.
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Grassy fields were abundant in the neighborhood, all year long. The animals were left to graze during the day and then brought into the house, with the family, at night.
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So, the buildings I designed and called "Taj ma-stalls" (now we call them Barndominiums) may be closer to ancient Judean home design than I realize.

​Judean homes 2,000 years ago were typically simple, built of roughly hewn stone or mud brick (clay mixed with straw).
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The roofs were flat, made of wooden beams covered with branches, clay, and plaster, and served as living/work spaces. Often, a place to sleep on warm nights.
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Small, boxy rooms opened onto a central courtyard; these were used for sleeping, storage, and food prep.

The courtyard (atrium), designed to allow air circulation, often had a dirt floor and was used for work during the day and to shelter animals overnight. Maybe even as overflow when the Airbnb inside was full.
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For those who “create where people live,” my intent is to use the word manger as a reminder of how buildings and daily life are integrated.
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A home functioning as a living space, animal shelter, and guest area demonstrates a level of spatial efficiency—and compromise—something you've dedicated your career to. Well, maybe not the animal shelter part, but certainly a garage.
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For me, this discovery explains a lot. It reveals our very old neural priorities: safety, predictability, and keeping “tools for survival” close but controlled.
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Possibly why humans have accepted living in a home that's more of a "garage with an attached house."
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Yes, the "snout-house." A post-war suburban staple, where the car gets a grander entrance than the humans.
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It's no wonder humans have become accustomed to entering their house through the garage. It's practically in our DNA. Thousands of years of evolution have led us from cave mouths to automatic garage doors.
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No, we probably won't drag the SUV out of the front elevation anytime soon. But we can keep asking better questions about how people arrive, where they exhale, and what their brains and bodies experience along the way.
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Instead of asking “How many plans fit this lot?”
→ “How will this grouping of garages, front doors, and sidewalks shape neighbor‑to‑neighbor contact and the feeling of belonging on this street?”
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Even inside the tightest developer template, those are levers you still control, and history suggests that when designers pull them with care, human life quietly changes for the better.

Happy Holidays!