The Vanishing Ethnic Stilt Houses: A Result of Changing Housing Ideologies or Conforming to the Constraints of Contemporary Vietnam?

Besides its protective function, housing also has significant cultural, social, and personal meanings; therefore, the change in housing morphology can subsequently alter both one's identity and their surrounding social structure. The changing housescape is common, especially for vulnerable minority communities, yet has been neglected by scholars. This study applies structure-agency and goal-constraint frameworks to analyze the drivers behind housing changes among the Tày and Dao ethnic minorities in Hà Giang—a mountainous province in Northern Vietnam. Virtually interviews of residents who just built their house in the past 5 years suggest that both goals and constraints determine the physical form of the house. However, social processes such as modernization and urbanization seem to play a much more powerful role than the individual or collective agency of villagers. The effects of globalization and integration are also not apparent. Several possible consequences of the changing housing morphology in Hà Giang are considered.