Should a city try to preserve its old, historic buildings or destroy them and replace them with modern buildings?

There is an increasing number of people who consider that we should build modern buildings instead of retaining the older ones because of the modern society as well as the overpopulation, while the others do not agree. In my opinion, preserving historic buildings is significant and necessary.

Some people who support retaining traditional buildings consider that the historic buildings witnessed the changes of our nation, and are the evidence of our history. For educational purposes, we should not only let our future generations learn the history from books or teachers, but also make them gain knowledge from the practical activities such as visiting historic buildings to see the vivid images of our history. What we obtain from our history are the unique treasures for our offspring. Furthermore, historic buildings were built and left by our ancestors, containing their wisdom and hard work. It is really a pity that those buildings could pass the tests of time and nature but to be eventually demolished by human beings. In addition, we can memorialise our ancestors forever by keeping those old buildings.

It is undeniable that historic buildings prevent us from solving the housing shortage problem and cannot satisfy the trend of overpopulation in cities. Moreover, the old buildings cannot match up well with the modern stylish buildings, which may influence a city’s aesthetic features. However, these problems can be addressed by other methods such as improving the countryside’s living conditions, building modern buildings in certain areas instead of situating around the old among other solutions. Demolishing historic buildings does not have long-term benefits overall.

In conclusion, benefits brought by the old, historic buildings override the drawbacks resulting from them. Therefore, I support the preservation of such buildings.