As many of you know, I grew up in Spanish Harlem.

My parents still live there, and it's not far from where I live now.

And it's crazy to see just how much the visual landscape of that neighborhood has changed over the years.

Old buildings have been knocked down in favor of shiny, contemporary, low and high rises.

Some local spots have been replaced with new chain restaurants

and trendy small businesses. So walking to my parents' apartment is a trip down memory lane.

I remember the place where you'd get your shoes repaired, the spot where you'd replace the battery

in your watch. And I forget what happened, but they've been gone for years. And the

buildings they were in, gone too. We knock down buildings and construct new ones, assuming that's

the only way to make a buck and move our communities into the future. But what if that's not true?

And what if preserving homes is actually a way to fight the housing crisis and the climate crisis too?

I'm Medupa Akinola. This is Ted Business, a podcast from TED. Our speaker today, architect

Olaf Grovert, is asking a basic question, why are we demolishing homes, especially during a global housing crisis?

He's asking us to look more closely at how real estate speculation functions in our economy and to think of our homes as something more than a commodity.

And after the talk, I'll ask you to think more broadly about the practices of preservation

and renovation.

But first, a quick break.

And now, Olaf Grover takes the TED stage.

So on January 10, Paris Hilton shared a video of her house, destroyed in the LA fire.

Walking through the ruins, heartbroken, she said.

What breaks her heart even more is knowing that this isn't just her story, because so

many people have lost everything. And it's not

...