Protection Of Historic Buildings In Urban Centers

Historical buildings are the undertakers of the human history and culture, cherishing and preserving of historical buildings have been the widely accepted concept around the world. But in downtown areas of contemporary Chinese cities which are key points of city development, historical buildings and historical street blocks are being eliminated. The reasons why such buildings can not be protected are:1. Reason of thoughts. Chinese people has the traditional thought of changing the old with the new, etc.2. Reason of policies. The current laws and regulations about the preservation of historical buildings don't include all the situations.3. Economical reasons. The preservation of historical buildings has enormous opportunity cost.4. Functional reason..There are several solutions on the problems above:1. Promote the society's awareness of the preservation of historical buildings.2. Change the location of city centers.3. Make clear the property right of old buildings.4. Build up the relating laws and regulations.5. Follow the idea of positive preservation.Two concepts on the question of "how to protect" are mentioned:1. Repair the old as old. The principle of repairing.2. Juxtaposition. The principle of appending.At the end of the article, a real project on historical building preservation is presented: the preservation and reformation of the Liaoning Foreign Trade Agency, in order to show the practical appliance of the principles listed above.