The humble Vietnamese stilt house is the postcard image of rural Vietnam. Everything is centred here: family, livestock, tools and handicrafts, each carrying a strong symbol of rural Vietnamese life in the valleys, rivers and mountains. Its residents are usually those of Vietnam’s minority ethnic groups, who have lived a millennia-old and beautifully tranquil existence in some of Vietnam’s most stunning surrounds. Many stilt houses in Vietnam can be found in Mai Chau, where Mai Chau Ecolodge provides some of Vietnam’s best eco-accommodation styled on the traditional housing of the Thai ethnic group. 

What is a Traditional Vietnamese Stilt House?

A Vietnamese stilt home is an abode, usually made of wood and thatched roofing, raised up on stilts several metres above the ground. These houses were originally made to withstand flooding, as the wet season affects every part of Vietnam and can be especially vicious in the countryside.

The history of the stilt house is longer than the history of the country. The first inhabited region of modern-day Vietnam was the fertile Mekong Delta, which was heavily prone to flooding for about 6 months of the year. This meant that its residents had to devise a new type of housing, which is exactly what they did on the banks of the Mekong.

The traditional stilt house in Vietnam is raised from 1 to 4 metres off the ground, with a largely open floor plan in which the family can eat, sleep, play, sew and craft. Across the Mekong Delta, they occupy spots on the riverbanks during the dry season and the rivers themselves during the wet, while those in Mai Chau, Sapa and the north of Vietnam speckle villages and stand high above the rice paddies.

What are the Benefits of a Vietnamese stilt house?

• Flood Prevention – The number 1 aim of the stilt house is to mitigate the regular floods that sweep through Vietnam. These usually happen in lowland areas like the Mekong Delta but can also occur in the highlands such as Ha Giang province. Houses resting on their 4-metre-high stilts are spared the agony of flooding and the chaos it can create.
• Predator Evasion – One of the lesser known benefits of a Vietnamese stilt house is to avoid killer predators that historically made their ways into villages. Snakes and tigers were once commonplace in the Vietnamese countryside and posed a serious threat to the security of villagers. The stilt houses of Vietnam’s ethnic Thai once occupied lands where wild elephants roamed, meaning that their stilts had to reach sky-scraping heights in order to offer proper protection.
• Natural Air-Con – It is a relief, come summer, to own a tall stilt house in rural Vietnam. Air has space to circulate below the floor and cool its residents within, as well as come through wide windows that often feature across most of the wall space.
• A Room with a View – Stilt houses are often built over a landscape that the owner would like to keep an eye on. Usually, this is the workplace – either the fields of rice paddies under their watch or the lake and river where they catch their meals.
• Keeping Livestock Close – The space under a house is perfect for livestock, which can roam free in total shade. This negates the necessity for expensive stables or paddocks, but the smell that can arise from this can be quite a scent.

What are Vietnamese Stilt Houses made from?

Countryside housing in Vietnam offers the perfect snapshot of the natural world beyond the village. Materials are collected from the surrounding landscape and fashioned to fit the needs of the people.

Wood is, naturally, the most common building block of traditional houses. It forms the general body of the house including its stilts, stairs, walls, floor and ceiling. The type of wood obviously depends on what is available in the area, but structurally solid bamboo features heavily throughout the north and the water-resistant wood of the jackfruit tree offers flood protection in the south. Vietnamese stilt houses nowadays, especially in the Mekong Delta, are increasingly being made with much cheaper corrugated iron and metal sheets recycled from aluminium cans.

Roofs are usually made of thatched palm leaves, which are readily available throughout the country. The thick interlocking of leaves provides surprisingly effective cover from the lashing rain of the wet season, though modern-day red clay tiles also offer a similar protection. The palm tree is utilised again with its fruit, which offers coconut husks that are perfect for wall insulation.

Who Lives in a Vietnamese Stilt House?

Amongst the 54 ethnic groups living in Vietnam, each has their own style of housing and has adapted to the specific demands of their individual environments. Naturally, the H’mong of the northern mountains and the Cham of the southern river delta have enormously different requirements between their houses.