Viipuri Library / Alvar Aalto © The Finnish Committee for the Restoration of Viipuri Library and Petri Neuvonen

World Monuments Fund

World Monuments Fund is the leading independent organization devoted to safeguarding the world's most treasured places. ArchDaily and the World Monuments Fund have partnered to support conservation work at Modernist sites, focusing on protecting the past while informing and inspiring the future of architecture around the globe.

Heritage & Conflict: Syria’s Battle to Protect its Past

Heritage & Conflict: Syria’s Battle to Protect its Past

For the inaugural talk in World Monuments Fund Britain's Heritage & Conflict series, we welcome Prof. Maamoun Abdulkarim, Director-General of Antiquities and Museums for Syria, to give the human story behind the global headlines, and James Davis from the Google Cultural Institute, to report on the latest international efforts to scan and document cultural heritage through advancing technology. The evening will be introduced by Lisa Ackerman, Executive Vice President of World Monuments Fund.

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Alvar Aalto's Restored Viipuri Library Wins 2014 Modernism Prize

Alvar Aalto's Restored Viipuri Library Wins 2014 Modernism Prize

The 2014 World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize has been awarded to the Finnish Committee for the restoration of Alvar Aalto’s seminal Viipuri Library in Vyborg, Russia. “Designed by Aalto and constructed between 1927 and 1935 in what was then the Finnish city of Viipuri,” stated WMF in a press release, “the library reflects the emergence of Aalto’s distinctive combination of organic form and materials with the principles of clear functionalist expression that was to become the hallmark of his architecture.”

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WMF partners with Google to Preserve World Heritage Sites

WMF partners with Google to Preserve World Heritage Sites

From the archeological areas of Stonehenge to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Google’s World Wonders Project is dedicated to digitally preserving and virtually sharing the World’s Heritage Sites. Users can explore some of the world’s greatest places through panoramic images, 3D laser scanned models, videos and informative text. Although Google World Wonders is a new and ongoing project, they already have more than 130 sites in 18 countries featured. The project is also an educational resource, allowing students and scholars to use the materials to discover some of the most famous sites on earth. A selection of free educational packages are available to download for classroom use.

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