Thousands of years ago, indigenous communities developed housing solutions that harmoniously adapted to various life changes. This demonstrates how, in vernacular architecture, flexible housing solutions were deeply intertwined with residents’ living habits and patterns of adaptation. Building on this ancestral principle, this research addresses a critical gap in contemporary flexible housing solutions, which are often shaped by architects’ perspectives rather than reflecting the actual adaptive behaviors of residents. The root cause of this gap is the lack of methods and tools that allow architects and researchers to effectively capture the complex, nuanced and implicit adaptive behaviors of today’s residents. To address this gap, this study explores the potential of using play as an in-depth qualitative method to uncover laypeople’s tacit knowledge regarding housing preferences and spatial modification patterns in response to life changes