issue26 [Synergy小组]hyt0303第13次作业(1.2)

hyt0303UID: 2254178

26. "Most people would agree that buildings represent a valuable record of any society's past, but controversy arises when old buildings stand on ground that modern planners feel could be better used for modern purposes. In such situations, modern development should be given precedence over the preservation of historic buildings so that contemporary needs can be served."

大多数人都同意一个社会的建筑物代表了它有价值的历史纪录，但是当现代规划者们觉得这些以前的建筑物所占据的土地可以被更有价值的使用于新目的时，就产生了争议，现代发展应该比保留历史建筑物更受重视以便于满足眼下的需求。

过去和现在之建筑物

反对。虽然现代人的需求应该得到合理满足，但是历史建筑物更应该受到保护。
1 确实现代人的需要是很重要的。如果人们所生活工作的房子不能满足人们的需要，那么会妨碍这个社会的发展。况且历史是不停地在向前发展，旧的事物一定会被新的事物所代替。渐渐地老建筑也会退出历史舞台。
2但是正如作者所说，历史建筑物是一个历史时期的纪录，当有冲突时，它非但不应被拆除，反应被好好保护。一它让我们了解过去，北京的胡同也是一例，二也为我们提供了新的建筑灵感。如罗浮宫前的金字塔。
3更何况，传统与现代建筑物之间的地盘之争并非只能通过一方的存活而结束，完全可以通过扩建新城来解决这个问题。比如巴黎的老城区和新城区。北京的市区建设采取了环形结构向外扩展。这些都很好地解决了二者之间的矛盾。

There is a controversy nowadays in the field of city planning that whether we should preserve these old buildings which represent a valuable record of any society's past when we need the same place to meet the contemporary needs. The speaker asserts that modern development should own the priority over the preservation of historic buildings, however, considering the value of the old buildings and also some better solutions people can take for such a controversy, I insist that it is the preservation of the old buildings that ought to be given precedence.

Admittedly, the modern development should be satisfied reasonably, or else, it will give troubles to people's daily life. This advanced society is developing in such a highly speed that so many new modern office buildings and highways must be built insofar to supply its demand. And people are asking for more comfortable working and living environment, in which they will be able to enjoy the pleasure brought by modernization. It is hard to imagine that groups of white collars who all dress up in very decent and tidy manner just plan trade strategies for some giant companies everyday in some rather old and almost dilapidated houses. In addition, along with the time flies, it is inevitable that old things will be replaced by some new ones; so as the situation in the field of architecture. From what I have discussed above, it is clear that the requirement of modern development should be taken into consideration carefully and seriously.

Conceding the significance of the modern development on the purpose of providing people better living conditions, I nevertheless disagree that the old buildings have to be all torn down in order to release space and serve the contemporary needs. Just as the speaker claims, "buildings represent a valuable record of any society's past", some old buildings which stand for a typical architectural style in a particular period of time ought to be protected rather than to be pull down when they become a problem in the eyes of the modern planners. These buildings are a good guide which lead us to realize how our ancestors live and work at that time. When we walk into a lane in Beijing which has existed for hundreds of years, it seems that we have turned back into the Qing Dynasty three or four hundreds years ago. Every wall, house, and even tree is just like the characters in a book which tell us everything that once happened there. How will be anyone willing to modish such a precious architectural legacy? Furthermore, some of those traditional buildings are so grand and beautiful that they still can offer architects inspiration during the designation of a modern building. The glass pyramid in front of the Louvre Palace in Paris is just a suitable example. Few would argue that it is really an architectural artwork which originates from the ancient Egyptian Pyramid. So, while concentrating on the modern development, we do not need to sacrifice all of those precious old buildings; instead, we should try our best to protect them from disappearing.

Then, another reason why I adhere to the preservation of the historic buildings is that we are quite capable to find some better ways to solve the controversy mentioned by the speaker. Viewing over the world, we are easy to find that there are so many advanced and fashionable cities which maintain their historic buildings perfectly meanwhile. How do they solve the very conflict? Most of them choose to remain their old urban areas as what they are, and then build some new urban districts nearby or around the former ones. When visiting to the city of Paris, the local people will tell you warm-heartedly to have a look around the new city which contains the Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Elysees street at first, and then go on sightseeing trips to the old city which is permeated with a kind of 18th centric romantic circumstances. On the other sphere of the earth, the city of Beijing tends to protect its old city by laying out its new city around the former one in a ring like shape. Both of them have found their particular ways to preserve the historic buildings while keeping pace with the process of modernization.

In sum, it is necessary and reasonable to accelerate the modern development so that people are able to make unceasing progress for their lives; however, such an improvement does not need to take the disappearance of the old buildings, even the old urban districts as its price. On the contrary, we can solve this controversy by expanding the cities around or near the historic areas, in which way we will manage to make the traditional and the modern buildings coexist in harmony in one city.