Rate My Professor Ayako Fukushima

Ayako Fukushima is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Design, Department of Environmental Design, and concurrently in the Graduate School of Design, Department of Design, at Kyushu University, where she joined in 2006 and teaches heritage studies. She holds a Ph.D., a Master of Science in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Design (2004), obtained with a Fulbright Scholarship, and a Master of Arts in Archaeology from Waseda University's Graduate School of Literature (2001). Her early career included serving as a United Nations Volunteer Specialist in the Cultural Sector at the UNESCO Beijing Office from 1999 to 2001, managing cultural heritage conservation and restoration projects in China. From 2004 to 2005, she worked as a researcher in the Digital Archive Lab at CAD Center, focusing on digital archiving of cultural heritage. She provides professional advisory services in heritage value assessment and conservation management planning to international and local institutions. For the 2024-25 academic year, she is a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard-Yenching Institute.

Dr. Fukushima's research specializations encompass the history and theory of heritage conservation, historic preservation, cultural heritage value assessment, and the history of Catholic church architecture, particularly in Japan and Hong Kong. She authored the book 'Building Catholic Churches in Hong Kong: Stories of the Laity and Living Faith' (Kyushu University Press, 2022) and '香港カトリック教会堂の建設 信徒による建設活動の意味' (Kyushu University Press, 2019). Her key publications in the Journal of Architecture and Planning (Transactions of AIJ) include 'A STUDY ON BUILDING PROJECTS OF THE CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF FUKUOKA (PART 3): CONSTRUCTION OF MOJI CHURCH' (90(832), 2025), 'A study on building projects of the Catholic Diocese of Fukuoka: Construction of Madarajima church and Yobuko church' (2023), 'A STUDY ON BUILDING PROJECTS OF THE CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF FUKUOKA (1): ROLES OF THE MISSIONARIES AND MASTER BUILDERS IN CONSTRUCTION OF CHURCHES FROM 1927 TO 1945' (86(790), 2021), and 'BUILDING ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI CHURCH AND SCHOOL IN HONG KONG' (85(768), 2020). Additional works cover church maintenance and post-disaster restoration, such as 'MAINTENANCE OF CATHOLIC MADARAJIMA CHURCH' (2021) and 'MAINTENANCE AND POST-DISASTER RESTORATION OF CATHOLIC TAKAYUBARU CHURCH' (2020). She serves on committees including the Important Cultural Property Imamura Tenshudō Preservation Committee (2024-2034), Goto City Cultural Landscape Development Committee (2023-2025), Kitakyushu City Cultural Property Protection Review Board (2017-2025), and as Expert Member of ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on PRERICO (2023-2026). She has delivered public lectures, such as 'Church Architecture in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries: Hong Kong, Australia and Japan' (2023) and 'From Jesuit Baroque and French Gothic to Japanese Temple Style: The History of Catholic Church Architecture in Japan' (2025, Harvard-Yenching Institute).