Rapid urbanization and industrialization have led to great changes to the climate, such as global warming, urban heat islands, and frequent fluctuations in ambient temperature, and also a large amount of building energy consumption. Adaptive building provides an appropriate solution to maintain low energy consumption under various indoor and outdoor conditions and therefore has increasingly gained attention recently. Yet there is no clear definition on adaptive buildings and the current literature often focuses on the building envelope and overlooks buildings’ mechanical system, which is also an important part of the building system for responding to the indoor requirements and outdoor conditions. This article presents a systematic review on the research and development of adaptive buildings to address the identified research gaps. Firstly, it introduces and discusses the definition and evolution of the concept of adaptive building. Secondly, it reviews the adaptive building envelope technologies of roof, wall and window. Thirdly, it investigates the research progress on the adaptive mechanical system, especially lighting and air-conditioning systems. Lastly, it demonstrates practical applications of adaptive buildings and provides recommendations on future research directions on adaptive buildings.