ESL Blogs

We are unavoidably in a fast-growing world. More and more we observe that new cities are expanding their limits beyond previously planned. In its turn, new buidings are "lifted" by engineers almost overnight and the old ones are knocked down in seconds. But, if we stop to think about that "crazy" movement of our society in search of economic progress, we can notice that when demolishing an old building we may be destroying historical memories at the same time.

As any other historical element, old buildings effectively take part from a certain people's historical heritage.

If we knock down an old historical building, we're destroying a part of  human history, that has  influenced the whole world. It's not just a question of protecting architectural structures, but, besides, keeping alive the way people lived for the new generations.

Old buildings like the complex of colourful houses in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, or the House of Parliament in London, England, wouldn't stand for a smbol of the Dutch and English culture respectively, if they had been knocked down on behalf of economic development.

Probably, the disadvantages surpass the advantages if we talk about knocking down an old building, since, as mentioned before, architecture make up history and there's no evidence that it can be separated from history.

Most of people should agree that a people without memories is a people without history, and consequently without culture. If we really want the tomorrow's world know how it was the life in the past, we must preserve all examples of old architecture, whatever be the country or nationality. The world is full of different ways of living, and architecture does express the world's diversity when it comes to live in a big planet like the Earth.

*This post was based on the folowing IELTS essay question: In many cities there is a lack of space to develop and as a result, in order to modernise, old buildings are demolished and replaced with new buildings. What are the disadvantages of knocking down old buildings? Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?