CONSERVING THE BUILT CULTURAL HERITAGE - Essay Example

The paper will focus mainly on the framework and processes that the UK government has put in place to guard listed buildings against undue or unwelcome modification or destruction. Of life, Octavio has stated that each view of the world that vanishes, and each culture that vanishes reduces the possibility of life (American Express, nd). If the wise words of Octavio Paz are anything to go by, then culture and its heritages deserve to be conserved with all strength and mind. While culture defines a people’s lifestyle, cultural heritage forms the basis upon which individuals, communities and nationalities are identified.

National or cultural heritage may be defined as the inheritance of attributes beyond touch and physical artefacts of a social set up or of a people that are from previous generations inherited and for the good of future generations, maintained by the current generation. The above fact stated, it is worth noting that cultural heritage for one generation may not qualify as a heritage for another generation. In other words, while one generation will value one heritage, the next may reject it only to be revived by the generation that succeeds the second generation.

While there are numerous - almost countless – physical cultural heritages that a generation may identify with and consider to be worth preserving for future generations, the most common ones include artefacts, monuments historic places and buildings among other items. Smaller items like works of art and cultural masterpieces are often collected and stored in art galleries and museums as noted by Tanselle (1998). In most cases however, the items that are always considered to be valuable by a society are often conserved for future generations.

Whether natural or man created, cultural heritage often plays a great role in drawing people from various parts of the world in form of tourists and visitors (Lowenthal,