Self-built settlements in water landscapes show constant mobility features resulting in the resilience of landscapes, which is simultaneously based on stages defined by hydrological cycles. The purpose of this research is to characterize local architectures as complex inhabitable systems, expanding the concept of sustainability by introducing scales of populations with low densities and a strategic level of cultural organization, linked to the case study. The method is based on field work in the Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia, identifying cultural, ecological and architectural scopes; specifically, an architectural approached is used in the analysis and description of the problem, considering the settlement's different occupation scales, and concluding in the characterization of the form and function of architecture. Hence, the outcomes focus on showing the values of permanence with urban/rural mobility of the case study; what the author calls a system's vulnerable balance.