Issue26【0806G-永不言弃小组】第8次作业 by worldbaby

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Issue26【0806G-永不言弃小组】第8次作业 by worldbaby
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.
Data: 2008-01-27  Words:659    Time: 12:55--14:00
compendium:
(1)the benefits of presevation of historic buildings
(2)the need of ground for modern purpose
(3)the comprise between these two choice.

  Each time when rational individuals make decisions, they would balance the opportunity cost of the aimed goal and that of the potential benefits at the first place. Consequently, as to the controversy mentioned in the topic, it is better to give the precedence to the preservation of historic buildings when the advantages of such measures outweigh the use of ground for modern purpose, which is the same to the opposite side.  
  Firstly, historic buildings need to be preserved for the following reasons. On the one hand, those buildings are irrecoverable resources, namely, they can only be reestablished only through the imagination of artists once been destructed. Such buildings are representatives of our ancestors' wisdom, recording the prosperous culture of past. Take the seven wonders for example, the hanging garden of Babylon, the state of Zeus, and the temple of Artemis etc, all of which are merely living in the image of artists' works except for the great wall, indicating the national spirits in ancient China. On the other hand, these historic buildings are of high value in tourism, of which either are the symbols of a city or milestones of the architecture history. When referring to the statue of Liberty, it reminds people that the United States is a national pursuing of equal rights and freedom. When comes to the Forbidden City, it shows that China is a country full of a multitude of splendid culture. Both owns indelible statue in the history of art and architecture and induce numerous tourists for the purpose of appreciating the trait of national spirits. Such treasures of historic buildings, not only play a significant role in the relevant research field but also bring a tremendous economic benefits for the local people, including working opportunity in the relative service industry, increasing tax revenue for the government fiscal budget, and the development of the local state.
  Secondly, the modern purpose of limited ground should not be over ignored for the over-emphasized preservation of historic building. As it is known to all, the development of the urbanism is for the purpose of increasing the level of the living standards for the commons, such as convenient transportations, the capacious supermarket, and more intellectualized buildings are including. The construction mentioned above needs grounds. Furthermore, with the neck-break technology, economical development needs grounds also for expanding, especially for the birth of new factories in order to satisfy the increasing demand of consumers. All of those are indispensable factors in the developing process of human being, from the feudalism times to the capitalism times, from the machine-dominating times to the information-oriented times. As a consequence, since the ground is limited and the need to raise the living environment of the commons is urgent, the protection of historic buildings sometimes should give place to the modern purpose.
  Last but not the least, policy makers need a balance between the modern use and the conservation of history, namely, a compromise between choosing the contemporary development and the history treasure. As to such dilemma, the value of the historic buildings should be assessed in the first place, is it worthy of giving precedence? After all, all the newly-built buildings can not escaped the destiny of being a historic buildings one day. And then, if the historic buildings are in the conflict with the modern development, any alternative actions can be taken? Such as removing the whole historic building to another place with the effort of contemporary technology, or changing the modern plans? For instance, when India was building the Aswan Dam, they preferred  moving the Abu Temple horizontally away from its original to destroying them totally. It is a double win considering the modern use and the preservation of historic architecture..
  In a word, the problems and the corresponding solutions comes to being at the same time. So people living in the contemporary times should be confident to deal with the contradiction between the modern development and the conservation of ancestor's building.

[ 本帖最后由 worldbaby 于 2008-1-27 15:38 编辑 ]