ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the issues and tensions around housing and heritage. A house is primarily a place in which a succession of people will make their homes, and in doing so they will naturally want to be able to modify the physical structure in line with changing needs and preferences. However, this can be challenged by those who argue that the architect or designer has some ownership of the design and therefore some right to the protection of its integrity. There is also the question of responsibility to future generations: the durability of houses makes them rather like land, and so there is an argument that each generation has a responsibility to hand on the housing stock in at least as good a condition as it found it. This implies not just maintenance but also improvement, modernization and possible sub-division and extension of existing dwellings.
