Dai was born on 25 April 1928 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, Republic of China, with his ancestral home in Wuwei, Anhui.
When he was 13, his father died in the Burma Campaign of World War II, and his mother donated the entire death benefit of Fabi $200,000 she received from the government to build the Anlan Memorial School in Quanzhou, Guangxi.
[2] Dai studied at Tsinghua High School in Guiyang, where many of China's top scholars took refuge during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
[3] In 1958, Dai, Wu, and their colleague Fu Xinqi were appointed co-designers of the Meiling (梅岭) Guesthouse at the East Lake in Wuhan.
Having no contact in the US government, he simply addressed the letter to "President Reagan, White House, Washington DC".
[6] They emphasized the use of local materials, strove to utilize limited resources for the maximum benefit, and focused on human comfort and artistic value.
[6] In 1992–1993, Dai and Wu designed the Big Dipper Mountain Village, a small hotel on the Shandong Peninsula with seven buildings.
[6] Dai founded the Institute of High-tech Building Technology at Tongji University to develop lightweight and sustainable construction materials, and served as its first director.