# Adaptability of Buildings: A Critical Review on the Concept Evolution
## Content Analysis
### Enablers and Promoting Models
#### 3.3.4 Design for Resilience  
Cities and urban areas are constantly coping with critical challenges and complex chronic problems affecting their economic development and social wellness [44]. Climate change and environmental degradation are among the most prominent challenges hitting urban environments and cities where the majority of the globe's population lives and that perform both as the pivots of resource consumption and the hubs of innovation [96]. Among the severe challenges and acute problems that are increasingly confronting cities worldwide and triggered by climate change and environmental degradation, there are natural disasters (earthquakes, floods, etc.) and heat waves. Chronic stresses and gradual trends include accessibility to affordable housing, resources shortage, building obsolescence and redundancy, and rises in average temperatures. As climate change continues being a reality for the next few decades, there will be an essential need to cope with its impacts and protect our societies and economies from its consequences by planning climate-resilient infrastructure [63]. Addressing the topical challenges posed by climate in an efficient manner requires an enlargement of capacities of built environment systems to respond to uncertainties and future disruptions. In this relevance, the notion of \"Design for Resilience\" has attracted major attention of both academia and policy makers, being a fundamental goal for cities and built environment [96]in order to address problems related to environmental management and climate-related disruptions [97]. Although resilient design often refers to future extreme climate events, such as natural disasters and climate adaptive survivability in their aftermath, a regular level of resilience is required to cope with chronic and routine stresses [98], which slowly get developed in hazards to the built environment, i.e., buildings obsolescence [99]. Resilience theory suggests tackling the issue of climate change via two directions: mitigation and adaptation. While mitigation targets the causes of climate change by seeking radicalization and diversification strategies to minimize GHG emissions (e.g., reducing resources utilization and energy consumption), adaptation aims at reducing the impact and consequences of climate by increasing the adaptive capacity of systems to absorb its effects while keeping their primary functions. However, both directions are complementary and inherently connected; for instance, mitigation is considered a crucial factor to achieve long-term adaptation [100]. Still, mitigation alone is not enough to restrain disrupting events from happening [97]. Given that, contributing to everlasting urban sustainability and enhanced resilience to climate change calls for joint frameworks integrating both adaptation and mitigation strategies [101]. The concept of adaptability or adaptive capacity is linked to resilience as a key theme in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (goal N.11 Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable). Studies reflect a strong relationship between the concept of adaptability and both research directions of resilience (mitigation and adaptation) [102] by considering adaptability as a key concept in achieving resilience [103]. Adaptation to climate change effects has been widely discussed in the literature of adaptability as an important factor contributing to resilience [63]. In addition, adaptive reuse of existing buildings is relevant to the current climate change mitigation agenda due to its ability to recycle resources in place, and to climate change adaptation for its importance in fostering the embodied energy in existing buildings to support climate change adaptation [104].