ABSTRACT
The recent focus on long-term ecological adaptability related to the circular economy and climate change is an improvement from the generally prevailing view that buildings are permanent, and that change is detrimental. But this long-term ecological adaptability focus might lead to a longevity paradox: the building fails if it is not able to answer to user need changes, occurring both in long-term periods, and in a cyclical short-term manner, despite being designed to meet climatic or resource needs. In this chapter we explore considerations of time, short-, medium-, and long-term in architecture. It seems that they are rarely considered all together, yet, they are essential ingredients for achieving holistic sustainable architecture. We discuss urban housing environments, and their means to answer to longer, medium, and short-term cyclical changes, focusing on a mixed-use building approach, that is, hybrid buildings.
