Editorials

Balanced development

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-14 08:19

Striking a balance between development and heritage protection while developing old urban areas has racked planners' and policymakers' brains for the past two decades. But it seems demolition of old structures and building new ones has become synonymous with urban development.

Urban development projects in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, which affect millions of residents, have intensified the debate on development versus protection of historic and old structures, which lend a city its character.

Urban development is, no doubt, a necessity, at least for improving the living conditions of the majority of a city's residents.

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Many of the otherwise decent and spacious houses become too crowded if two or three generations of a family or several families live in them. But that does not necessarily mean they have to be demolished. And no reason or justification can be strong enough to raze all the structures lining a street that represents the ethos and culture of a city.

The problem is that demolishing old structures and replacing them with high-rises in prime locations has become the easiest way for real estate developers and local governments to make money. Unfortunately, it is also the easiest way of destroying a city's history and identity.

Many old structures carry messages from history not just for people living in their neighborhood, but also the entire population of a city. It's around such structures that a city's culture revolves.

There should be no contradiction between urban development and protection of cultural heritages.

But that would be possible only if local governments stopped placing their immediate interests and that of property developers before the protection of cultural heritages. They should, instead, protect the historic and old structures for long-term gains and move toward sustainable development.

(China Daily 08/14/2010 page5)