How To Preserve The Past While Keeping Housing Affordable

Across the world, redeveloping historically important buildings is difficult, if not forbidden. India is no exception. While some architectural experts and economists believe historical buildings in Delhi ought to be preserved at any cost, many others disagree. The Lutyens' Delhi Zone, for example, has been a hot topic for debate on whether old buildings should be preserved or not.

The real estate in Lutyens' Zone is among the most expensive in the world and redevelopment of the zone would be exceptionally difficult, because of the possible opposition the move may invite. But, this is a 26 sq km of land in the heart of one of the largest and most densely populated cities in the world. Housing in Delhi is very expensive, especially in areas around the Lutyens' zone, where most buildings are under the government control. In Manhattan's historic districts, for example, the residents are nearly 75 per cent wealthier than people, who lived outside such areas. Preserving such areas makes housing far less affordable for the rest of the people in the city.

Keeping it intact

Interestingly, when the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) documented the heritage buildings in Delhi after years of research, they found 303 more buildings that were overlooked earlier. According to INTACH, merely 25 per cent of the 1,064 heritage properties in Delhi are protected in some way or the other. Many of them collapsed while illegal construction was happening in the vicinity or because they were neglected. When we decide to preserve historic building, leaving them alone is certainly not among the options to achieve this.

History would tell us that the buildings that we consider to be of great historical importance today were built after demolishing many buildings. The Wall Street Journal once reported that A E Lefcourt, one of Manhattan's Masterbuilders, demolished more historical structures in New York City in 1920s than any other man dared to contemplate. In French capital Paris, Baron Haussmann, prefect of the Seine Department under Napoleon-III, demolished over half of the buildings in the city before he built the structures that defined modern Paris in the mid-19th century.

One way in which cities can make housing affordable while preserving the past, is by allowing high-rise districts near historically important areas of the city. It is important that historic preservation should be kept within reasonable limits. Edward Glaeser, for example, thinks that large cities like New York should have about 5,000 buildings to be preserved at all times, while changing the list of those architectural gems periodically. When the space that is intended to be preserved is too large, it is difficult to build high-rise districts in its vicinity. This is especially true in Indian cities where land is scarce. In Indian cities like Mumbai, historic preservation and the lack of high-rise districts have made housing quite expensive for the common man. As Glaeser puts it, “Only poor policy prevents a long row of fifty-storey buildings from lining Mumbai's seafront, much as high-rises adorn Chicago's lakefront.”