OLD VS. NEW: TO PRESERVE OR TO DEMOLISH?

Humans will search for new thing, it’s natural. But sometimes they just don’t know how to stop and they start to harm mother nature. This issue happened and still very much well known until now which is whether we should preserve old buildings or not. And in my own point of view, people should respect and preserve old buildings. There are thee main points to why we should preserve our old buildings according to “Why Preserve Buildings?” by Todd Mitchell, which are bringing advantage to the neighbourhood, good for the environment and good for the economy.

            First of all, it’s good for the neighbourhood. Not just it reminds people to give respect to the architect’s efforts in the past, it also brings harmony within the people in the heritage area for it reminds them thay they were once originated from the same heritage. It also gives the neighbourhood a certain feeling and sense of place. For an easier example, I felt like I travelled back through time to the past back to the victorian era when I visited Kellie’s Castle in Ipoh and I am pretty sure that people who have visited Greece must have felt like they were actually get this feeling as if the ruins bring them the the times where the ruins were still nicely constructed buildings even though they might not have known the exact history of those ruins.

            Second of all, it’s good for the environment. Not just it saves more materials that are considered “unhealthy” for the environment, preserving a building is another form of recycling. It saves the earth and environment from more wastes because about 20% of solid wastes on earth were wastes from building constructions.  And it is  also well known that old buildings are actually building that are considered “green” because architect in the past respect God and his creations, respect nature and the possibilities nature can give them so they consider and design their building to be one or harmonious with nature. From the ancient greek who built their buildings to be harmonious with nature and Frank Lloyd Wright, for example.

            Lastly, it’s good for the economy. This is pretty much a common sense. Historical places, including the old and heritage buildings resemble a culture and history of one’s country which helps its tourism industry. Imagine Greece without ruins, France without Eiffel tower, and Italy without Colosseum and Pisa tower. If they didn’t preserve their historical or old buildings in the first place, they would not be well known for having a great history in the present days and their income would have been different for their lack of ability to attract tourists who are mostly eager to learn about one country’s history, uniqueness and cultural value! Modern buildings might be iconic, however, old buildings can be even more iconic because they don’t just bring greatness as time passes by. They bring an identity, artistic value, cultural value and in that way, those old buildings which one country is famous for can actually be an “iconic building”. Because like today, if people asked to mention some iconic buldings in France, it is more likely that they will mention Notre-Dame cathedral or Eiffel tower. Preserving buildings also saves money because money will most probably be used for maintenance, while for building a new building, there will be money spent for demolishing, building a new building, and maintenance.

            Overall, the importance of maintaining the historic buildings of a city could outweigh the value of replacing them with modern buildings. That is the reason why we should preserve instead of replace them. But this doesn’t mean that designing and trying out new things is bad since I have never said that as one of my points. I actually find it okay to demolish some old buildings, but only those that are already abandoned, brings more of an ‘eyesore’ and ‘creepy’ feels more than amazement and historical feels and no longer in use for the humanity. As long as people, especially the designers know how to balance between advancing technology and keeping it green, it shouldn’t be that much of a headache. Like some buildings today that actually combine old and new bulding elements such as Royal Ontario Museum for example. That way, people can at least save the land and give more chance for nature to grow.