79) A clear understanding of the nature and importance of history and heritage is necessary before any other planning steps are taken.
80) Heritage by its very nature is diverse. Our lives all tell different stories. We are all unique individuals. It is incorrect to seek for planning uniformity in relation to Heritage Precincts. Planning diversity and complexity are necessary foundations for any Heritage Precinct.
81) This diversity and complexity sit uneasily with any centralising of power and control. When communities or individuals seek for their own solutions, which will give form to their own culture, they move outside the comfort zone of those who seek to have power over others. Planning tends to restrict when it should set people free.
82) The greatest dilemma facing the built environment in our time is globalised uniformity. Buildings look like other buildings. Cities look like other cities. Placelessness has become a socially destructive force. People do not know who they are or where they are. Anger, resentment and alienation are the inevitable results. We recognise road rage, but building rage is a much more significant problem.
83) Sustainable architecture belongs in place. It responds to climate and landscape, embracing the natural world. The least possible amount of building is appropriate for our time. The meltdown of the planet itself is much more important than the meltdown of an economic system which creates credit to make destruction possible.
84) The cult of the object is but one aspect of a materialist, consumer society. Form without substance. The objects may be very beautiful and the craftsmanship may be superb but they do not carry forward a culture and a tradition.
85) In our materialistic world buildings become frozen in time. We are surrounded by dead buildings slowly deteriorating until they are demolished. They are defined as having a life only to support an economic system of rates and revenues to sustain a power structure. The rating base has become a substitute for wairua. In contrast living buildings are constantly enriched by accumulating the patina of life.
86) In a Heritage Precinct some buildings are falling apart and some are coming together. The planning process lets the old grow old gracefully, and restrains the energy of the young without compromising their enthusiasm.
Precincts are unique, diverse and complex.