Adaptive and kinetic structures integrate sensors, actuators, and controller to continuously tune their response to evolving external disturbances, allowing them to operate closer to optimal performance and capacity throughout their service life. This approach creates the opportunity to substantially reduce embodied carbon at the design stage while simultaneously enhancing robustness and safety under uncertain future hazards. Research in this area addresses synthesis of adaptive and kinetic structures as an inverse problem, resolved through advanced optimization methods in both new construction and retrofitting contexts. In addition, it explores novel adaptation strategies that exploit mechanical effects such as large deformations, induced nonlinearity, and multistability. Furthermore, it investigates the leveraging of the dual actuation and sensing capabilities of adaptive and kinetic structures for system identification purposes such as damage localization.