In the Ridley Scott film Blade Runner, the movie painted a very decrepit picture of the future with Los Angeles a mix of aging, crumbling structures set amongst the glittering new constructions on the year 2020. Ridley himself is quoted as having said that in the future, things get old. But there is a very good reason that things get old in the future - we allow it.

I've just moved into a new apartment here in London, which is located in the famous East End. The apartment itself is located within a redevelopment of an what was originally a match-stick factory. The building has stood for over 120 years and it's likely to stand for another couple of hundred since, as the saying goes, people built things back then that would last. I have no complaints on this front since the building and it's grounds are beautiful and breath-taking - it would be a shame to have it knocked down and the land reused. What am I worried about is our lack for foresight when it comes to what we preserve.

In the 21st century, lots of attention is being paid to the conservation of energy. We are encouraged to fit insulation, install the latest triple glazing, use energy saving light blubs...the list goes on. This is very important. Not just from a more global save the planet perspective, but from an personal economic standpoint in this climate of rising energy costs. But take my apartment - Whilst the outer walls themselves are almost 2 foot thick, the window is the original one installed in the 1880s. This is the single glazed, old-school glass.

To me, this seems counter productive. The outside of the building is listed and that's fine, we must preserve what we can, but leaving old, effectively, environmentally unfriendly windows makes no sense to me at all. The technology exists to build windows that would almost, to the casual eye, look identical, but which would unilize the latest energy saving technology. It must make more sense to simply delist the windows and allow people to upgrade their windows, saving themselves money and the world, oil. I'm beginning to get worried at this very human need to clutch to the past and preserve the past - even at the cost of the future.