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Roger G. Katan is a French-American architect, planner, sculptor, and activist born in Berguent (today's Aïn Bni Mathar), Eastern Morocco, on January 5, 1931. Based in the United States in the early 1960s, he was an active founder of ''advocacy planning'', participatory democracy applied to urban planning. As a kinetic artist, he collaborated and exhibited with rising figures of postmodern art. After 1975, Katan became involved in humanitarian relief and continued to encourage participatory practices and self-management. His method favors traditional, sustainable agriculture and construction. In 1999 he moved to Sauve, southern France, where he resumed work on kinetic sculpture〔See (Roger Katan: Kinetics (Website) ).〕 and publications. == Biography == After graduating from Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Katan won a scholarship to MIT in 1960, where he earned a master's degree in Architecture and Urban Design (1961). From 1961 to 1963, he worked for Louis Kahn in Philadelphia. From 1964 to 1975, he lived and worked in New York City. Based in East Harlem, he taught architecture and urban planning at Pratt Institute, City College of New York, and Pratt Graduate School of Tropical Architecture for ten years, with one year spent at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY (in the Political Science Department), practicing and teaching advocacy planning. He created, with Pratt and City College graduate students, one of the first Community Design Centers, offering free technical assistance to community organizations. He supported the Civil Rights Movement and the students' claim for social responsibility. In 1964, Katan was already prescribing participation and putting his talent as an architect in the service of the poorest when Paul Davidoff tossed the phrase ''advocacy planning''. Concurrently, Katan's publications and conferences helped spread the word throughout the United-States, Europe, and beyond. He was invited by student organizations calling for social change. His talks included Yale, Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, Columbia, etc. Katan obtained American citizenship in 1968. From 1963 to 1975, Roger Katan was also involved in the art world. As a kinetic sculptor, he exchanged views and exhibited with artists such as Allan Kaprow, Roy lichtenstein, and Robert Smithson.〔"R. Smithson, A. Kaprow & R. Katan: What is a Museum?," Oct. 19, 1966 in ''Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt papers, 1905-1987'', Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC: http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/robert-smithson-and-nancy-holt-papers-7105/more〕 The early sixties saw the emergence of Pop Art and the revival of the kinetic movement, initiated in Europe in the 1930s. Using scrap materials like egg cartons, Katan developed structures evoking abstract cities. "Eternized" by a resin bath, his materials captured and reflected natural and artificial light. His sculptures became models of imaginary cities and villages, some of which resemble the artist's birthplace in Morocco. From 1975 to 1999, he was actively involved in humanitarian relief and development as a consultant, mostly in Africa and Latin America, on behalf of the United Nations, the European Union, the World Bank, and the French Technical Cooperation. Faithful to his principles, the advocate planner kept privileging the interests of the people and encouraging self-management. His intervention programs included resettlement, microcredit, education, etc. In both agriculture and construction, Katan has always encouraged traditional methods as well as local, sustainable materials. Hired by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Katan monitored the creation of a local microcredit network in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, West Africa, in 1976-78. The network has now grown to become a national organization, (Réseau National des Caisses Populaires du Burkina ). He supervised a displacement program in Mali in 1978 and the creation of a National Construction Standards Institute (appropriate technology) in Bamako in 1979. After 1980, he was hired on short-term contracts by the European Union, the United Nations, and various NGOs for missions in Central and South America. Katan helped individuals restore their traditions through small self-managed productive projects. In 1980, he advised the Dutch Technical Cooperation in Colombia to rethink rural education and in 1984 Katan built the first New Rural School (Escuela Nueva) for the Colombian government. Over 15,000 rural schools based on this model now exist throughout Latin America. In 1981 photographs and plans of an adobe house designed by Katan for a displacement in Mali were shown at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The "Architectures de terre" (Earth Architectures)〔See (Roger Katan: Handmade Houses (Website) ).〕 exhibition was curated by Jean Dethier. Katan has published two books in French, ''De quoi se mêlent les urbanistes?'' (Actes Sud, 1979), about advocacy planning, and ''Bâtir ensemble'' (CILF, 1988), a methodology for participatory practice. ''De quoi se mêlent les urbanistes?'' was translated into Italian. ''Construire ensemble'' received a grant from the Graham Foundation in late 2009 for its English translation and update. ''Building Together'' was released in the U.S. by New Village Press in 2014, with two new chapters by Ronald Shiffman, founder of the Pratt Center for Community Development in 1963 and pioneer of advocacy planning.〔New Village Press, New York (publisher): http://www.newvillagepress.net/book/?GCOI=97660100841460〕 In 1999 Roger Katan moved to Sauve, southern France, where he helped his current wife Julie, a ceramic artist, and Aline Crumb, a comic strip artist, launch their art gallery, (Galerie Vidourle-Prix ). There Katan has exhibited his early kinetic works together with his latest sculptures.〔 His new works use state-of-the-art technology, including plastics, LED, and wireless devices.〔See François Charcellay, « Roger Katan retrouve à Sauve le soleil de son Maroc natal », ''Midi Libre'', 18 août 2012, p. 3.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Roger Katan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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