Economic and political contexts influencing heritage conservation practice

Preservation of Historical Buildings

The economic and political contexts that influenced the practice of heritage conservation of historical buildings

The prevalence of the practice of heritage conservation has been instigated with cultural concerns that arise from a developed human society, along with its gradual movement toward becoming a more technologically-advanced civilization. Primarily, heritage conservation, specifically of historical sites and buildings, was introduced as part of organizations' attempts to preserve humanity's cultural heritage. That is, the argument put forth in introducing heritage conservation is culture-based.

Stipe (2003) elucidates on this point, where he considers heritage conservation as initially introduced through an acknowledgment and implementation of cultural preservation. For the author, the conservation of historic buildings is essential because they are our "physical link to the past" (xiv). As such, historic buildings also serves as a reminder to and remembrance for people about the significant events in history that are considered important to people.

Despite the importance of a culture-based objective in arguing for the heritage conservation of historic buildings, it is also inevitable that economic and political factors help influence the argument for heritage conservation. This paper discusses and analyzes the economic and political influences that made possible the implementation of conservation of historic buildings in contemporary society. This paper posits that rapid urbanization and need for economic gain and concern for environmentalism are the economic and political factors, respectively, that helped promote heritage conservation become implemented among historic buildings.

The economic influence that made conservation of historic buildings possible is due to the increasing economic value of old artifacts and buildings. This kind of thinking is influenced, according to Klamer and Zuidhof (1999), to the prevalent socio-economic system in most countries today, which is capitalism. The value of conservation put to historic buildings and other man-made artifacts from the past illustrates " ... our attitude toward cultural heritage resembles our attitude toward nature and its history" (27). This means that economics influence heritage conservation primarily because the present economic structure of human society at present gives value to all things that are not public property to the society.

Thus, because historic buildings add with it what social scientists term as "cultural capital," which puts value to artifacts due to its cultural and historical significance to society, they are deemed more valuable; hence, because of the high economic value given to historic buildings, there is necessity to conserve them -- not just for cultural or historical reasons, but more because of market appeal to potential buyers or users of these historic buildings.

The online magazine Preservation Online provides an example of the influence of economics in promoting the project of heritage conservation among historic buildings. In an article entitled "Car culture," reporter Klatt (2004) illustrates how old garages built during the early 20th century (circa 1910s) are conserved by making them part of new and modern buildings. Though these garages are no longer used for their purpose, they nevertheless become part of new and modern buildings, which gives it (buildings) a style that fuses old and modern designs. Converting old garages to become new, modern apartments demonstrates how historic buildings do not only provide information and remembrance for people about the glory of the Industrial Revolution in early 20th century America, but also exists to function as 'still usable' buildings for the 21st century inhabitants of these buildings.

From the example of 'garages-cum-apartments' in Chicago, it becomes evident that the economic value of a historic building indeed influences its usability, even going so far as to influence the path of urban cities towards introducing new architectural building designs and styles that fuses modern and old elements present in both the historic building and new structures to be built on it. Thus, the economic influence in heritage conservation is that it makes historic buildings increase its cultural capital, thereby increasing its economic value in the market. The desirability of these historic buildings encourages other owners or maintainers of historic buildings to preserve their buildings in exchange for economic gain.

Politics and the extant political structure of a capitalist society also play a pivotal role in promoting the program of heritage conservation of historic buildings. Heritage conservation, more than giving remembrance to humanity's historic past, also aims to preserve and promote "a better quality of life for people" by considering conservation as a form of environmental preservation, too (Stipe, 2003:xv). Thus, the politics of heritage conservation makes environmentalism its active ideology towards preserving historic buildings.

The political structure of a society is vital to the promotion of heritage conservation because policy-making and governance are the most effective and legal ways to help implement conservation of historic buildings. Serageldin et. al.'s (2001) discussion on heritage conservation considers the rapidly deteriorating condition of the physical environment, most especially the urban areas, as the primary reason for implementing the conservation of historic buildings. They assert that:

Policies to protect environmental and cultural endowments in a rapidly urbanizing world are inadequate. Population growth, the influx of rural migrants to cities, and an evolving economic base challenge the ability of cities to provide livelihoods. Deteriorating infrastructure, overburdened social services, rampant real estate speculation, and government incapacity put enormous pressure on city cores, which are often places of invaluable architectural and urban design heritage. The degradation of the urban environment limits the abilities of a growing, shifting population to establish communities with adequate and decent housing. Inner-city neighborhoods of large centers worldwide are besieged, with the middle class and economic activities either fleeing the historic core or destroying its fabric by the demolition and reconstruction of older buildings.