In this paper, a variable structure adaptive pole placement control (VS-APPC) for plants of arbitrary order is proposed. Due to its flexibility in choosing the controller design methodology (state feedback, compensator design, linear quadratic, etc.) and the adaptive law (least squares, gradient, etc.), the APPC is the most general type of adaptive control. Traditionally, it has been developed in an indirect approach and, as an advantage, it may be applied to nonminimum phase plants. The combination of this strategy with the variable structure systems allows to aggregate fast transient and robustness to parametric uncertainties and disturbances. Therefore, new switching laws are proposed, instead of using the traditional integral adaptive laws. Additionally, preliminary simulation results for a nonminimum phase unstable system are shown.