Various types of architecture reflect the rapid cultural and social change in both the public and private spheres of a particular society. The scholarly literature addressing the relationship between traditional culture and vernacular architecture in the Emirates society is scant. This is an ethnographic inquiry that treats the vernacular dwelling as part of social life, not as a form of material culture or architecture separate from its social reality. By focusing on the progression of the vernacular house, this inquiry discusses cultural factors as well as social values that explain symbolic and architectural design and use of space in the Emirates. The UAE government provided Bedouins and nomadic people with free and low-cost houses as part of the settlement plan initiated in the 1960s and 1970s. Most of the buildings were identical in shape, form and size. However, the impact of traditional culture on the newly introduced architecture has been significant. The study proposes that the interaction between the Emirati occupants and the government brought about continuing changes decreasing the sharp conformity of the buildings as well as increasing the inward-looking architectural patterns forming the folk or vernacular house. For instance, the Emirati house contains two sitting rooms (majlis), one for men and another for women stressing social organization patterns of gender segregation. This separation is locally recognized within social and religious contexts. Theoretically, the study examines ideas of Pierre Bourdieu and Henri Lefebvre concerning “habitus” and "representational space”, respectively. People’s cultural orientations are expressed and embodied in daily practices or habitus. They react to cultural frameworks or architectonic structures and develop new ones as a result of their reactions. The inquiry seeks to show how people of the Emirates perceive the ideal built environment as a self-contained and autonomous entity. This ideal is embodied in the vernacular house within which physical space is transformed into a structural social reproduction. Put differently, a vernacular house is viewed as a spatial structure that reflects the traditional culture and network of family relations, daily practices and related social values of the Emiratis.