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 the older ones because of modern society as well as overpopulation, while others do not agree. In my opinion, preserving historic buildings is significant and necessary.

Some people who support keeping classic buildings consider that 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 obtain history from books or teachers, but also make them gain practical knowledge from practical activities (field visits/ educational trips) such as visiting historic buildings to see vivid images about our history. What we acquired from our history are the unique treasures for our offspring. Furthermore, historic buildings were built and left by our ancestors, which are a mark of their wisdom, innovation, and creativity. 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 reserving 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 feature. 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 old, historic buildings override the drawbacks resulting from them. Therefore, I support the preservation of such buildings.