Press Release

World Monuments Fund Announces Partnership with the Kyoto Center for Community Collaboration and Provides US $250,000 to Support Restoration of Kyoto’s Machiya Townhouses, Listed on the 2010 World Monuments Watch

World Monuments Fund (WMF), the leading international independent organization dedicated to preserving cultural heritage around the world, announced today that it is partnering with the Kyoto Center for Community Collaboration (KCCC) to help build sustainable stewardship for the Kyoto machiya in the city. In support of this partnership, WMF’s US$250,000 advances the efforts of the local community in Kyoto to preserve machiya, traditional wooden townhouses that date from the Edo period (1603-1867) and served as both residences and workspaces, born out of Kyoto’s growing merchant class and artisan traditions. Now threatened by development and rapidly disappearing, the Kyoto machiya were placed on the 2010 World Monuments Watch, WMF’s biennial list of heritage sites at risk across the globe

Open PDF