economic prosperity will mean that alternative uses for the land will begin to tempt developers even as economic liberalisation renders irrelevant antiquated laws about land use the changes are necessary but do we really need another shopping mall to prove this the key to saving these buildings indeed whole neighbourhoods is to find imaginative ways to reuse them on a commercial basis the current conservation strategy wherever it exists is merely to ban all change this is counterproductive as it dooms architecture to steady degeneration and irrelevance a few buildings may be saved by public spending and enthusiastic individuals but citycentres cannot be regenerated by turning them into lifeless museums europe provides several good examples of how old citycentres can be kept vibrant though urban reengineering one way is to pedestrianise whole areas encourage restaurantsbars cafes and support cultural activity in the trafficfree spaces eg covent garden in london this not only allows preservation but generates jobs profits and social interaction another way is to continue using the buildings for their original purpose but steadily update the usage the universities of oxford and cambridge for instance continue to use buildings that are almost 1000 years old contrast their state of preservation with the relatively young walled city in delhi in both cases preservation flows from imaginative usage rather than fossilisation continuous use of buildings is the best antidote for decaythese suggestions and ideas are nothing new to india over the last decade palaces and forts in rajasthan have been reborn as hotels however it is yet to be tried on a largescale in most other indias cities certainly this is not just applicable to the four metropolitan cities but a myriad smaller towns across india from varanasi to panaji money is not likely to be a problem since private entrepreneurs will invest in these projects as long as they have a commercial incentive to do so as happened in the case of the heritage hotels the important thing is to create the incentive framework that will encourage the process of urban restoration we need to act now before this unique window of opportunity is lost and the best way to begin is to have a visible success story in one of the larger cities this can be used to demonstrate the potential success of such a strategy the author is chief economist deutsche bank singapore