Housing and settlements are facing greater challenges toughed by rapid urbanisation and a changing climate in Vietnam. To date, there seem to lack of overall solutions for resilient housing to address future risks posed to housing and the promotion of long-term resilient shelter. Current interventions tend to put more focuses on physical improvements with limited attention to other aspects such as socio-economic and governance issues. This paper reviewed the outcome of a design competition organized in Vietnam in May 2013 in the lens of disaster resilience to examine key assumptions from the competition and generate key potential lessons for future housing implementations. An examination of the first-prize winning project in addition to a literature review against three key dimensions: physical, social, and institutional have enabled the generalisation of three key assumptions for this paper: (i) Local expertise and knowledge on risk reduction is valuable for building disaster resilient housing, (ii) improving local awareness and supporting local economy are key essential parts to raise resilience, and (iii) applying planning and construction regulations through building permits is significant to ensure a resilient housing system. These findings also generate some policy implications related to the demand of improving governance mechanisms related to local construction, programs to stimulate local economy and raise public awareness on future disaster risks and resilience. Keywords: Climate Resilient Architecture; Disaster Risk Reduction/Hazard Management; Urban Planning