# Adaptability of Buildings: A Critical Review on the Concept Evolution
## Content Analysis
### Interpreting the Concept of \"Adaptability\"
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Building Typology** & **Definition** & **Type of Change** & **Motives** & **Sources** \\ \hline Housing & Adaptable housing is the one that can adapt to users’ changing physical needs, in particular as they get older or lose their mobility & Accessibility, furniture (spatial) & Users’ physical restrictions & [27] \\ \hline Office building & Adaptability is a mean of increasing usability and extending buildings functional lifespan & Change of use & Long-term vacant office buildings & [28] \\ \hline Office building & Adaptability describes a building of 1. multifunctional use (generally; 2.) & & & \\  & built-in possibilities to rearrange, take away, or add elements (flexibility) & Change of use or function, spatial arrangements, change of size & Rapid change in private and public organizations, building redundancy & [8] \\  & 3. possibility of division into different functional units or extendability & & & \\  & (elasticity) & & & \\ \hline General & Adaptability features a system’s ability to adapt itself towards changing environments & Interior changes & Varying operating conditions & [29] \\ \hline General & Adaptable architecture is “an architecture from which specific components can be changed in response to external stimuli, for example the users or environment” & Spatial flexibility and constructional environments, and in the needs and expectations of occupants & [12] (p. 167) \\ \hline General & \begin{tabular}{c} “The capacity of a building to accommodate effectively the evolving demands of its context, thus maximizing value through life” \\ \end{tabular} & Spatial, structural, and service strategies & Changing operational parameters over time & [30] \\ \hline General & \begin{tabular}{c} “A building that has been designed with thought of how it might be easily altered to prolong its life” \\ \end{tabular} & - & Building obsolescence & [31] (p. 8) \\ \hline General & Building adaptation as the ability of a building to fit within new conditions or needs by means of reuse or upgrading & Change in performance for existing & - & [32] \\ \hline General & \begin{tabular}{c} Structural adaptability is “The capacity of the building structure to be able to undergo changes to the structure itself, with or without only small \\ consequences for the remaining building stowers” \\ \end{tabular} & Structural & \begin{tabular}{c} Structural obsolescence and \\ inflexibility leading to economic \\ unvisability \\ \end{tabular} & [33] (p. 2) \\ \hline General & \begin{tabular}{c} “The ease with which buildings can be physically modified, \\ deconstructed, refurbished, reconfigured, repurposed, and/or expanded” \\ \end{tabular} & Changes in space, size, layout, components, use, and function & Building obsolescence leading to premature demolition & [2] \\ \hline General & Ability to be changed or modified to make suitable for a particular purpose & - & Building obsolescence leading to premature demolition & [34] \\ \hline General & \
\begin{tabular}{c} The adaptive capacity of a building includes all characteristics that enable the building to keep its functionality through changing requirements and circumstances, during its entire technical lifecycle and in a sustainable and economically profitable way \\ \end{tabular} & &
\begin{tabular}{c} Obsolescence and economic \\ unvisability \\ \end{tabular} & [55] (p. 569) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: Adaptability definitions. Most studies recognize issues of building obsolescence and inadequacy resulting from changing operational conditions, emerging needs of users, and varying environmental and external factors as the lead motive for designing adaptable buildings. Literature definitions of adaptability reflect on the capacity to accommodate change as an overall feature of adaptable buildings [4]. Yet, the essence of change builds upon the particular motives and corresponds to the varying needs.