Climate change poses increasing threats to our built environment and the debate is gradually shifting toward its magnitude and not its occurrence. As we embrace for a new climatic era, designers and planners are forced to produce architectural design that can address the dual challenge of mitigation and adaptation. This requires incorporating a design paradigm that is “with” nature and not “despite” it. Vernacular design, being the indigenous science of building, can serve as a valuable source of inspirations for climate adaptation solutions. Based on a literature review and comparative analysis, this paper seeks to uncover the governing principles behind the success of vernacular design in the face of a changing climate and explore climate adaptation solutions and strategies that can be transferred from the vernacular to the modern-day design, following a Vernomimicry approach. Thus, in this paper, the vernacular builders’ strategies are analysed and the vernacular adaptation solutions in the face of hazards such as floods, extreme precipitation, heatwaves, storms, and drought, at both urban and building scale are investigated. On this basis, five core design principles were identified and are encouraged to be included in modern adaptation designs, namely: simplicity and adaptability in construction, transient structures and local materials, resource efficient and site specific- design, community involvement in building practices, and holistic integration with the urban context.