With the steady demise of central royal authority under the later kings of the posterior Lê dynasty (16th to 18th centuries), little significant development took place in the field of palace architecture. In Thăng Long Citadel a new residential palace was built in the early 18th century by the powerful Trịnh lords in an area just south of the Hoàn Kiếm Lake, but within the royal citadel itself construction of royal palaces ground to a halt. Towards the end of this period many royal buildings were destroyed as a result of civil conflict, especially in 1786 after Lê Hiền Tông had ordered the destruction of the Trịnh palace.

In the north pagodas continued to proliferate under the patronage of the Trịnh lords, their architecture highly decorative and increasingly monumental in character; excellent examples of the period may be seen at Bút Tháp (Bắc Ninh Province), Mía (Hà Tây Province) and Hoa Long (Thanh Hóa Province). During the period of the Tây Sơn Rebellion (1771-1802) two works of great architectural significance - the Kim Liên (Hà Nội) and Tây Phương (Hà Tây Province) Pagodas - were created.

Meanwhile the Nguyễn lords actively sponsored the construction of pagodas in the central region, notably Thiên Mụ (1601) and Sùng Hóa (1602) Pagodas in modern Thừa Thiên Huế Province, Bảo Châu Pagoda (1607) in Trà Kiệu, Quảng Nam Province and Kính Thiên Pagoda (1609) in Quảng Bình Province. Pagodas in central Việt Nam were typically built in spacious grounds, with each hall standing alone.

As the Nguyễn family expended its territory southwards towards Gia Định (Sài Gòn), during the 17th and 18th centuries, pagoda construction spread down the coast and into the Mekong Delta. In a region already scattered with Khmer wats, it was the more complex tam style of pagoda which at first proved popular with the incoming Việt communities, but subsequently there also emerged a unique southern style which brought the incense-burning hall and main sanctuary together under one deep four-sided roof; constructed in 1744, the famous Giác Lâm Pagoda of Hồ Chí Minh City is an excellent example of this design. This period also saw a proliferation of Chinese-style pagodas throughout central and southern Việt Nam following the migration in the early 18th century of Chinese settlers from Đà Nẵng to Đồng Nai, Tiền Giang and Mỹ Tho and eventually to Chợ Lớn (Sài Gòn).

The 17th and 18th centuries were a veritable golden age of communal house development in northern Việt Nam. Whilst the earliest đình of the 16th century had comprised just one large building, outhouses were now added to the basic design, including a front hall for the offering of sacrifices and a rear hall for worshipping the patron saint of the village. Occasionally a pair of symmetrical buildings was added on either side, along with an arched gate. At this time too communal house roofs became more elaborate, decorated with statues of fish, dragons and phoenixes. Notable extant examples include Tây Đằng, Thanh Lũng, Tiên Hiệp and Chu Quyến in Hà Tây Province, Lễ Hạnh, Thổ Hà, Cao Thượng, Phù Lão and Diềm in Bắc Giang Province, Hương Lộc, Trùng Thượng and Trùng Hạ in Hà Nam Province, Ngọc Canh, Hương Canh and Thổ Tang in Vĩnh Phúc Province, and Hoành Sơn and Trung Cầu in Nghệ An Province. During this period construction of communal houses also began to spread throughout the southern territories recently brought under Việt control by the powerful Nguyễn lords of Huế, although, as with pagoda design, subtle regional differences quickly appeared.

Significant developments were also taking place in urban architecture during this period. In Thăng Long (Hà Nội) and other major centres of population the narrow 'tube house' design later typical of Vietnamese urban achitecture began to develop, initially in response to a tax on the width of shop fronts. Surviving examples of 'tube house' from Hà Nội's Old Quarter are 2 to 4 metres wide and two storeys tall, with a shop in the front portion, rooms containing manufacturing or assembly facilities in the middle and residential and dining quarters at the back. Meanwhile, as international trade developed, ports such as Faifo (Hội An) and Đà Nẵng in the central region began to teem with merchants from China, Japan, France, Spain and Holland, a number of whom settled and constructed houses there. The old streets, houses, temples and pagodas of Hội An, collectively listed by UNESCO in 1999 as a World Heritage Site, reflect many different architectural influences, including those of China, Japan and Europe.

The final years of the posterior Lê kings were also significant for the development of a unique Vietnamese architectural genre - the covered wooden bridge. This is evidenced by the numerous surviving examples at Phạm Lâm (Hải Dương Province), Chọi (Bắc Ninh Province), Phú Khê (Hà Nam Province), Thầy (Thiên Phúc) Pagoda (Hà Tây Province), Phát Diệm (Ninh Bình Province), Thanh Toàn (Thừa Thiên Huế Province) and Hội An (Quảng Nam Province).