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The book Adaptable Architecture: Theory and Practice, by Robert Schmidt III and Simon Austin, brings both a theoretical and practical contribution to a specific way of dealing with sustainable buildings, maintaining what its title and subtitle (Theory and Practice) promise. Whereas this turn of phrase is often connected with an all-embracing view, often leading to an ill-defined practice or related to vague concepts dealt with, this book assumes a specific target: postponing the demolition phase of a building while increasing its useful and/or desirable life span through its “ability” to change, adapting itself to new, different circumstances: sustainability through extension of the number of cycles users can see their requirements satisfied.
The subject was previously investigated in general terms, for example, by Stewart Brand (1995) in the last years of the last century, where he discussed that buildings survive...