Besides being influenced by global modernism, Vietnamese Modernist Architecture also took root from traditional architecture. This is proved when we look at Vietnamese modernist houses. The culture of abstraction, of giving meanings to properties, is a unique practice of Vietnamese Modernist Architecture. And as the executions were brought about by the people themselves rather than any specialised architects, modernism was absorbed subconsciously as a set of technics and practiced as a vernacular architecture. It was brought into the traditional architectural practice, as the people who were building their houses didn’t acknowledge whatever the idea of modernism is. The houses weren’t designed by architects. They were made, by the people. They were the people’s houses. Modernist ideas were adopted into the construction practice of Vietnamese people. What they were creating wasn’t necessarily modernist architecture, but it'd rather be Vietnamese vernacular architecture practiced with modernist ideas. Therefore, Vietnamese modernist houses originated in Vietnam itself, in the construction practice of the people as an essential part of their lives, their culture, rather than any academic consideration to architecture. 

In feudal times, people built houses as a passed tradition, with identical features and organisations inherited through generations. During the colonisation, European cities were put in place but Vietnamese people were still living mostly in countryside in traditional houses and there were no Vietnamese architecture in cities, except for Đình, Temples, Clubhouses. Vietnamese started to build their own houses in cities again only after the Colonisation, and this time in a Colonial city. And this was the first time Vietnamese tradition of making houses were brought to cities. When this happened, it resulted in a whole new appearance of Vietnamese traditional architecture.

This appearance is then brought back to the countryside when people in rural areas could afford a house made of concrete, steel and brick rather than wood and thatches. Vietnamese building tradition was a catalyst to the spreading of this new modernist appearance. Vietnamese Traditional Architecture has turned Modernist.

Such a special taste Vietnamese Modernist Architecture possesses! Vietnamese modernist houses reflect a continuity of habits, of ways of behaving forged by the inhabiting practice. This turn of Vietnamese Architecture was a transition that has been going on since ages. That’s why it’s practiced in such a large scale without any means of communication or education. No one told any one what is good and what is not. It’s consciously practiced as a subconscious tradition. It shows Vietnamese people’s ability of adaptation into a new era, the ability to transform themselves under a new landscape, a new context yet always keeping their own authenticity, their genuine ways of living and making decisions. Even though the physical world changes around them, their spiritual sense maintains.