Continuity through change: community-led adaptation of Dai bamboo houses under modernisation

Abstract Vernacular architecture is increasingly threatened by homogenisation under modernisation, yet the mechanisms through which local traditions persist remain insufficiently understood. This study addresses this gap by examining how the Dai community in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China, has adaptively sustained its bamboo house tradition through community-led practice. Based on field surveys, observations, and interviews, and informed by Semper’s Stoffwechsel theory and Sahlins’ theory of cultural change, the research analyses the transformation of Dai houses from bamboo to timber, brick, and reinforced-concrete construction. The findings demonstrate that architectural continuity is maintained not through the replication of materials or stylistic forms, but through the preservation of a primordial socio-spatial configuration: an open ground floor supported by a frame structure for communal life, and an enclosed upper level for private domestic activities, crowned by a two-tiered pitched roof. This configuration has been sustained through tectonic reinterpretation, whereby new materials and technologies are selectively appropriated to reinforce established spatial logics while rejecting incompatible external models. The Dai case illustrates an unselfconscious, community-led process of indigenous modernisation, offering broader insights for vernacular heritage preservation that prioritise living cultural practices and socio-spatial continuity over static material or stylistic authenticity.