From some people’s point of view it is better to keep old structures untouched in their original form than rebuild them into something new. But in my opinion, it is possible to save historical pieces of architecture without just conservating them, there are a lot of options to melt together the beaty of the historical cityscape and the modern facilities.
It is widely known that maintaining of any building is a difficult task. And this task become twice harder, when we talking about some ancient or at least very old structure. Of course it is not a rocket science, but it takes a lot of resources, such as qualified restorators, engineers and managers to keep up a whole process of reconstruction. Despite of this expensive work it is crucial to save our cultural inheritage for future generations, and the society must make an effort to constantly repair such pieces of architecture as palaces, castles and mansions. I am living in the most beautiful city in Russia in Saint-Petersburg, and I constanly see multiple restorations wherever I look. It takes enormous amount of money from our city budget.
On the other hand, not all of the old houses have some cultural value. Many of them were not necesserely created for long-term period, and of course they must be replaced by new building, which can allow to develop economy of towns and cities, and to give funds on saving historical buildings, which cannot be removed. Also we can save an outlook of old house by rebuilging it from inside. For instance, there are a lot of shopping malls, libraries and schools in Saint-Petersburg, which are new but they are located in old buildings.
So, should we replace all of the old houses with the new ones? I am sure that we should not. As I see it, people should make an investigation in any situation, when some constuction or replacement is being planed. Some councils must be created to decide which structures have cultural meaning and which have not. Moreover, the members of the society themselves must take a part in such decisions by voting for or against any project. I insist that it is only way to save our cultural inheritage and not to lose money at the same time.