The sustainability cycle of historic houses and cultural memory: Controversy between historic preservation and heritage conservation

Abstract

Historic preservation and heritage conservation are two mainstream concepts related to the sustainability and renewal of historic houses. With the aim of enhancing the sustainability of historic houses, this article criticizes the view of historic preservation that insists on preserving historic houses with their old appearances, which does not fully develop their sustainability. In contrast, the article provides support for the view of heritage conservation that aims to promote the sustainability of historic houses and related legislation. In the second and third parts, this article examines the theoretical origin of historic preservation, which emphasizes and summarizes the one-way protection of cultural memory via historic houses. In the fourth part, the article turns to heritage conservation, highlights the sustainable cycle between historic houses and cultural memory, and underlines the advantages of this sustainable cycle. In the fifth part, this article presents a sustainable approach to heritage conservation and related legal safeguards by taking the renewal of historic houses in China's Bagua Village (or “Eight Diagrams Village”) as an example. In the last part, this paper summarizes the theoretical value, practical value and limitations of this article. The findings can facilitate the UN's sustainable development of social inclusion, economic growth, and environmental protection to promote the heritage legislation and policy of present and future generations.

Keywords

• Cultural memory
• Historic houses
• Sustainability cycle
• Heritage legislation and policy
• Eight diagrams village
• Historic preservation