Importance and Benefits of conserving a heritage building

Conservation is the act of keeping from change, loss, or damage. It also defines the protection, preservation, management, and restoration. The value of conservation works is important because in countries with a long background, like Malaysia, have many statues, heritage buildings, cultures, and landmarks. These effects have helped to underpin many successful regeneration schemes such as the work of The Royal Selangor Club, The Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, The Stadhuys and so on. These historical buildings might be buildings that create a focal point that people can relate to and are familiar with or even a loved local landmark. Therefore, the conservation works are important. By carrying out conservation works, it can help preserve these buildings for a longer period of time. Conservation works can help lift the overall quality of the environment building by adding new fabrics to the building. By doing so, it can attract more tourists to visit the heritage buildings. Conservation works can also preserve a family building for generations. Other than just bring tourists in to learn about our countrys history, it also feeds our own citizens interest in the past. Besides that, it can prevent a business from being disrupted or relocated due to the poor or old designs. So with that, we can notice that conserving a heritage building has its benefits and advantages. The following collection of information is the key issues and data associated with heritage building conservation. The first key issue of conserving a heritage building is it brings benefit to the economy like businesses benefit from locating in heritage buildings and areas, the growth in employment in the restoration industry in construction trades, professionals and product manufacturing, enhanced municipal tax base through restored individual buildings and areas, Increased tourism, not only that restoration is often cheaper than new construction and etc. So it is say that Conservation of Heritage Building earns businesses like Bringing vacant and underused buildings back to productive life creates business opportunities and adds to the local tax base. Because they offer diverse space and a wide range of rents, historic buildings are especially well-suited to new businesses and small retailers. Not only that heritage tourism is a growth industry too, Historic places provide the authentic experience that heritage tourists seek. Unlike tourist attractions that must be built new, historic places are unique tourism assets that already exist in most communities. As an added benefit, the promotion of historic places as tourist attractions helps local residents develop a greater understanding and appreciation of their own culture and heritage.

Heritage Conservation Earns Jobs as well because heritage conservation supports the development of a skilled, well-paid workforce in the building trades and traditional crafts. It also creates demand for professional services in areas such as architecture and engineering. Compared to new construction, the labour component of a building rehabiliation is a larger proportion of total project cost. Because it is more labour-intensive, rehabilitation creates more jobs per dollar invested than new construction. So it creates more local employment than does new construction, uses less energy than new construction, creates less waste then new construction and ethe enhancement of existing neighbourhoods and infrastructure and opposes decay, urban sprawl and increased infrastructure costs. Heritage investment is also a good investment. The rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of a heritage building not only preserves cultural values, it can be a profitable investment. Reusing portions of the existing building, lower site preparation expenses and access to existing service hookups all help to reduce construction costs for rehabilitation projects. Even where rehabilitation costs more than new construction, it can still produce a higher rate of return. Central locations, interesting architecture and high-quality materials will often lead to higher rents and occupancy rates for heritage buildings. (English Heritage 2002; Shipley et al 2006). In some jurisdictions, tax incentives make investments in rehabilitation even more attractive. Not only has that conserving heritage building proven to be an energy saver. The energy required to erect a new building is roughly equivalent to the energy required to operate it for 40 years. Demolishing an average-size house constructed in 1935 and replacing it with a new house in 1975 requires the energy equivalent to more than 1,600 gallons of gasoline.

Heritage is not about Creating museums or locking-up buildings in time. The best Examples of heritage conservation are Those that enable the building to be Enjoyed and loved.

(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/conservation (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/heritageworks/heritage-works-2013.pdf (n.d.). Retrieved from http://allmalaysia.info/tag/heritage-building/