User:Ranaroo30/Roger Katan

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-Sates in the early 1960s, he was an active founder of advocacy planning, participative democracy applied to urban planning. As a kinetic artist, he collaborated and exhibited with rising figures of postmodernism. 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 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 (in the Political Science Department) practicing and teaching advocacy planning in Poughkeepsie, NY. 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 a change in society. His talks included Yale, Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, Columbia, etc. Katan obtained American citizenship in 1968.

From 1963 to 1975, Roger Kantan 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. The early sixties saw the emergence of Pop Art and the revival of the kinetic movement, initiated in Europe in the 1930s. Using scap materials like egg cartons, Katan developped 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.

[Missing paragraphs: translation in progress]

Education
Roger Katan attended primary school in Berguent (today's Aïn Bni Mathar), Western Morocco, near the Algerian border, whose population was then about 800.
 * 1943-1949: Secondary education in Meknes and Oujda, Morocco. Aged 17, Katan won the Oujda High School logo competition and decided to study architecture.
 * 1951-1953: Ecole supérieure des Beaux-Arts d'Alger (Algiers School of Fine Arts). Trained for competitive entrance examinations.
 * 1954-1957: Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Katan would travel in France and work for architects to pay for his studies and visit two or three European countries every year.
 * 1959: Licensed architect's degree, Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris.


 * 1957-1960: Military service in Paris during the war in Algeria.
 * Late 1960: Grunsfeld Fellowship for a semester at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a study travel in the United States.


 * 1961-1962: Master's degree in Architecture and Urban Design from the MIT, supervized by Imre Halasz and Lawrence B. Anderson. Katan also spent a semester traveling across the United States, studying works by Frank Lloyd Wright among other.

Architect and Advocate Planner (United States, 1960-1976)
Dore Ashton wrote in her cultural guidebook about New York:
 * "Some of the advocacy planners, such as Roger Katan, insist that the architect can function only if he is prepared to extend himself to activities which were previously considered beyond his realm of competence. Katan's attitude is a long way from the aristocratic distance of a Richardson, whose clients took his word for law, and were always rich. Katan's clients are the community as a whole; they are mostly the very poor in the ghettoes of Harlem, and they share with him the planner's task. . . . By helping them to organize themselves and state their needs coherently, Katan is able to develop plans which make sense. He also recognizes the necessity of learning the intricacies of city bureaucracy, and how to deal with the political aspects of each citizen's existence. Over the years—he has lived in East Harlem for some seven years—Katan has slowly developed a number of alternative plans for rehabilitation and rebuilding in his neighbourhood."


 * 1961: First prize of the Boston waterfront competition. This project was part of his master's degree at MIT. It was shown at the Faneuil Hall. It was originally inspired by Honfleur, Normandy, where each house overlooks the harbor. In the Boston project for 2000 housing units, stepped terraces planted with greenery offered each family a view of the harbor. Families could choose their surface and develop it according to their income.


 * 1962-1964: Works for Louis Kahn in Philadelphia, PA. Introduced by Prof. Lawrence B. Anderson, Katan worked for Louis Kahn's studio for two years and taught architecture and planning at Pratt Institute once a week. Katan occasionally assisted Louis Kahn during his weekly graduate seminars at the University of Pennsylvania.


 * 1964-1976: East Harlem, New York City. Roger Katan left Philadelphia and moved to East Harlem, where he started working on the creation of a community center and housing project for senior citizens. He put his talent in the service of the poorest, got involved in the civil rights movement, the student struggle for greater social responsibility, advocating the active participation of residents.


 * 1964-1968: Brooklyn Bridge and East Harlem Triangle Gateways. Proposal for a system of gateways to connect Manhattan bridges and tunnels. Traffic flows were analyzed for better distribution. New pedestrian and leisure spaces were designed. Specific studies for Brooklyn Bridge and 3 bridges of the East Harlem Triangle were published in the form of 2 brochures (32 and 38 pages respectively), financed by the Kaplan Fund, Inc.


 * Milbank renewal project: A counterproposal by residents against the City's project. Publication of a 20-page brochure presented to the City of New York.


 * 116th Street renewal project: A study financed by the City of New York. Publication of a 40-page brochure presented to the City of New York.


 * East Harlem Summer Festival: Initiated in July 1969, it was held each year for more than 10 years. Funded by the New York City Council for the Arts, the Festival was meant to enhance residents' participation through leisure activities and improve their living environment.


 * Project for a multiservice center in East Harlem: After consultation with representatives of various associations, Katan was contracted by the City of New York for the creation of health, education, and leisure facilities, including offices combining social services.


 * Corsi House: A neighborhood association was funded by the City of New York to develop a community center and 150 units for senior citizens on 116th Street in East Harlem.


 * Wards Island Psychiatric Hospital renewal plan (4000 beds): Katan was contracted by the New York State Office of Mental Health to provide an alternative to a previously abandoned 1000-bed expansion plan. His counterproposal, supported by elected residents, recommended to decentralize Wards Island Psychiatric Hospital and create small extensions in Harlem and East Harlem.

Architecture and Planning Educator (New York, 1964-1975)

 * 1964-1974: Taught architecture and urban planning at Pratt Insitute, City College of New York, and Pratt Graduate School of Tropical Architecture for ten years. In East Harlem he created, with Pratt and City College graduate students, one of the first Community Design Centers, offering free technical assistance to community organizations.


 * 1968-1969: As invited lecturer at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, in the Political Science Department, he offered both a practical and theoretical approach to advocacy planning.


 * 1970-1971: As invited lecturer at Hunter College, New York. Students were asked to carry out a comprehensive socio-economic and physical survey of East Harlem and Ward Island, supervized by community representatives.

French Department of the Environment and Construction (France, 1976-1979)

 * 1976-1979: Based in Aix-en-Provence between missions in Burkina Fasso, Katan was consultant to the French Department of the Environment and Construction (Ministère de l’Environnement et du Cadre de Vie, Direction de la Construction). Based on his own experience in the United States, he studied and developed a methodology for participatory practice. Katan published two books, De quoi se mêlent les urbanistes? (1979), about advocacy planning, and Bâtir ensemble (1988), a methodology of participatory practice.

Consultant in Africa and South America (1976-1998)
[Missing part: translation in progress]

Personal Publications

 * 1960: Projet de coopérative médicale près de Bourg-la-Reine / A Medical Cooperative Located in the Vicinity of Bourg-la-Reine, Seine, France. Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. Translated for MIT's Department of Architecture in June 1961.


 * 1962: "Le Fondamentalisme dans l’œuvre de Louis Kahn" (Fundamentalism in the Work of Louis Kahn), L'Architecture d'aujourd'hui, Dec. 1962-Jan. 1963, pp. 1-40, with Elleda Katan. The article investigates Louis Kahn's conceptions of urban planning and "movement."


 * 1966: "Minimum Standards vs. Minimum Decency," Architectural Record, Jan. 1966, p. 168-9. Corsi House: a community center and 150 housing units for senior citizens.


 * 1966: "The Changing Job to be Done," Architectural Record, July, pp. 235-6. Corsi House (150 senior housing units) and the struggle with the New York Housing Authority.


 * 1966: "Architecture and the Kinetic Movement: The work of Roger Katan," Art Voices, summer issue, pp. 74-81.


 * 1966: "A Kinetic Museum," Architectural Record, Dec., p. 36, in collaboration with Len Lye.


 * 1967: "Prefabrication: Mechanization and Self Expression," Arts Magazine, Sep.-Oct. 1967, p. 22.


 * 1967: Pueblos for El Barrio: On the Rejuvenation of an Old Public Housing Site, and Its Integration with the Adjoining Urban Fabric, New York: Nabal Press, Dec. 21. A counterproposal project with the United Residents of Milbank-Frawley Circle-East Harlem Association, a 20-page brochure (500 copies) financed by the Kaplan Fund, Inc. and presented to the City of New York.


 * 1968: "Critical Appraisal and Exhortation—from Two Laymen," with Prof. Reed Whittemore in Oliver Cope (ed.), Man, Mind, and Medicine; The Doctor’s Education: A Chairman’s View of the Swampscott Study on Behavioral Science in Medicine, 23 October-4 November 1966. Philadelphia, PA & Toronto, ON: J. B. Lippincott, 1968, pp. 135-8. 


 * 1968: "Compact Urban Gateway," The Architectural Forum, April, pp. 72-3. A counterproposal and critical apraisal of the City of New York's Lower Manhattan Plan.


 * 1968: "Vox Populi: Many Voices from a Single Community," The Architectural Forum, May, pp. 58-63. On the Milbank-Frawley Circle Renovation Project, East Harlem, New York City.
 * 1968: Progressive Architecture, July issue about megastructures. Magazine cover art: " Roselights for Whiteville [1966-67], a sculpture by architect Roger Katan, is a study of light and motion integrated into a series of 'megafoms' for an abstract cityscape. Photo: Jon Naar."


 * 1968: "Washington's Light-Hearted Park Places", Progressive Architecture, Aug., pp. 144-5.


 * 1968: "ARCH: Black Advocates," Progressive Architecture, Sep., pp. 107-11. About Katan's East Harlem projects and Triboro Bridge Gateway.


 * 1969: Triboro Bridge Gateway, New York: Nabal Press, Feb. A 36-page brochure financed by ARCH. Community's counterporposal for the approaches to the Triboro Bridge linking the three bridges landing in East Harlem.


 * 1969: Brooklym Bridge Gateway, New York: Nabal Press, May. A 40-page brochure (500 copies). A study financed by the Kaplan Fund, Inc., published by the New York Architectural League as a public service. A proposal against the misuse of land and the poor traffic and planning projects at the core of Manhattan's Civic Center.


 * 1969: 116th Street Renewal Plan, New York, juin. A 38-page brochure (500 copies) funded by the New York Borough Improvement Board.  A proposal for the 116th street renewal of the general business, housing, and recreational area, from East River Drive to 5th Ave.


 * 1969: Coney Island, NY, 1970, New York. A 58-page New York City financed social and economic study for Coney Island.


 * 1969: Manhattan State Hospital Evaluation, Phase 1 (124 pages) et Phase 2 (84 pages), New York.


 * 1969: East Harlem Summer Festival, New York. The Festival and 20-page report were financed by the Graham Foundation and the Kaplan Fund, Inc.


 * 1971: "Rénovation de la 116 rue," Roger Katan interviewed by Denis Goldschmidt, L' Architecture d'aujourd'hui, Aug., pp. 82-3.


 * 1972: From World Fairs to Fair Cities 1976, New York. At the invitation of Avant Garde Magazine, this essay describes Katan's vision of the forthcoming 1976 American Revolution Bicentennial celebration. The 16-page brochure was made possible through the Cooperative Foundation, in cooperation with the Kaplan Fund, Inc.


 * 1972: "Planning with People: Advocacy in East Harlem," Forum, vol. XXIII, No.4 (Amsterdam, Pays-Bas), June. 40-page special issue edited by Roger Katan about his work as an advocate planner in East Harlem, with a preface by Françoise Choay.
 * 1976: Rapport de mission sur la création d'une caisse populaire d'épargne et de crédit localisée à Cissin (Ouagadougou), 1st four-month mission, Ouagadougou, UNDP. 1976. UN mission report about a project to improve life conditions in the Cissin neighbourhood of Ouagadougou. The creation of a microcredit bank in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, West Africa.
 * 1977: Rapport de mission sur la création d'une caisse populaire d'épargne et de crédit localisée à Cissin (Ouagadougou) / Creation of a Microcredit Bank in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, West Africa, 2nd mission (Oct. 5, 1976 - Jan. 20, 1977), Ouagadougou, UNDP.


 * 1978: Rapport de mission sur la création d'une caisse populaire d'épargne et de crédit localisée à Cissin (Ouagadougou) / Creation of a Microcredit Bank in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, West Africa, 3rd mission (Dec. 27, 1977 - March 1, 1978), Ouagadougou, UNDP.


 * 1979: De quoi se mêlent les urbanistes? Le Paradou: Actes Sud (108 pages).
 * 1980: "The Creation of the People's Bank in the Cissin District of Ouagadougou," (English) African Environment, Environment Training Programme, International African Institute, pp. 501-8.
 * 1980: "La création de la caisse populaire du quartier Cissin à Ouagadougou," (French) Environnement africain, Marie Hélène Mottin-Sylla (éd.), Dakar: ENDA, 1980, pp. 511-8.


 * 1982: Che fanno gli urbanisti? Italian translation by Maria and Raffaele Licinio, Bari: Edizioni Dedalo (96 pages).


 * 1982: "Vers une architecture appropriée" (Toward an Appropriate Architecture), Techniques et architecture (Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'architecture de Grenoble), Dec. 1982-Jan. 1983, pp. 67-73. An experience of self-construction in Colombia, South America.


 * 1988: Bâtir ensemble, Paris: Conseil international de la langue française in collaboration with the Institut International d’Architecture Méditerranéen (264 pages).


 * 2014: Building Together: Case Studies in Participatory Planning and Community Building, New York: New Village Press. Updated English version of Bâtir ensemble with additional chapters by Ron Shiffman and a foreword by Dore Ashton.

Publications about His Work

 * 1959: Journal de la SADG, Oct. Project for an international center. SADG (Société des Architectes Diplômés par le Gouvernement) became SFA (Société Française des Architectes) in 1979.


 * 1963: Le Monde, mars, p.4. A review of Roger and Elleda Katan's article about Louis Kahn's work in the United States.


 * 1965: Brian O’Doherty (ed.), Art ’65: Lesser Known and Unknown Painters / Young American Sculpture - East to West (exhibition cat., American Express Pavilion, New York World’s Fair, Apr. 21-Oct. 17), New York: Star Press, p. 114.


 * 1966: Charlotte Willard, "Searcher for Truth," New York Post, May 14, p. 14.


 * 1967: "Coup de poing dans Manhattan," L'Express #835, June, p. 9. About his concept of gates for Manhattan.


 * 1967: L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui, June-July, pp. 62-3. About a medical cooperative and two housing units in Toulouse.


 * 1967: "Le concept de portes pour les centres urbains" (The Concept of Gates in Urban Centers), L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui, June-July, p. 87. About gates for New York City.
 * 1967: Primera plana, No. 210 à 222 (Buenos Aires, Argentina), p. 66.
 * 1967: "Modern Living: The Big Play in Paper, from Giraffes to Gazebos," Life, Nov. 3, pp. 84-5. Photograph of a sculpture p. 84.


 * 1968: El diario, La Prensa de NY, Jan. (Spanish). Renovating a neighborhood in East Harlem. Projects by Roger Katan.


 * 1968: Il confontro, Mar., pp. 38-41 (Italian). Katan's conception of future architectural education.


 * 1968: Dorothy Kalins Wise, "Dialogue with a Neighborhood," New York Magazine, June 17, pp. 28-33.
 * 1969: "Students, the AIA and Dissent: A Preview of Chicago '69?," Inland Architect, Jan., p. 28.


 * 1969: El diario,  La Prensa de NY, Mar., p. 18 (Spanish). About community action.


 * 1970: Avant Garde Magazine, June, p. 34. An preview of Katan's From World Fairs to Fair Cities 1976 (New York, 1972), see above.


 * 1970: Lotus, pp. 79-83 and 360-362 (Italian). A yearly journal about architecture and city planning. Various project for East Harlem, including the Brooklyn Bridge Gateway (see Brooklym Bridge Gateway, Nabal Press, 1969).


 * 1971: "The Harlem of their Dream," Manhattan East, Aug., pp. 1 and 8. About the East Harlem Summer Festival.


 * 1971: L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui, Sep., pp. 82-5. An interview and 3 projects for East Harlem.


 * 1971: L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui, Nov., p. 32 and 37-8. Two projects for East Harlem.


 * 1972: Dore Ashton, New York: Architecture, Sculpture, Painting (World Cultural Guides series), London: Thames and Hudson, pp. 202-3 et 206.
 * 1973: "Operare dall'esterno... 'il planning with people'," Parametro, July, pp. 22-5.


 * 1980: "Utilisation de matériaux traditionnels: La maison de Sélingué" (Using Traditional Materials: A House in Selingue), Habitat News, vol. 2, No. 2, United Nations Centre for Human Settlements, p. 34.
 * 1981: Jean Dethier (ed.), Des architectures de terre, ou, L'avenir d'une tradition millénaire (exhibition cat., Oct. 28, 1981 - Feb. 1, 1982), Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, Centre de création industrielle, p. 173-4.
 * 1981: "Three questions for the Designer," Suomen Kuvahleti (Finlande), 14 août. An interview with 3 designers: K. Vajas (India), Yuri Solovjev (Soviet Institute of Design), and Roger Katan (France/US).
 * 1982: Afrique-Asie No. 256-270, p. 51-2.


 * 1982: Richard Plunz, Habiter New York: la forme institutionnalisée de l'habitat new-yorkais, 1850-1950, Bruxelles: Pierre Mardaga Editeur, p. 230.


 * 1983: L’Express, partie 1 (No. 1643-1654), pp. 82-3.
 * 1983: Yves Montenay, Le Socialisme contre le Tiers-Monde, Paris: Albin Michel, p. 154.


 * 1983: Dan Bernfeld, Un nouvel enjeu, la participation: aspects du mouvement participatif en Afrique, en Asie, aux États-Unis d'Amérique et en Europe, Paris: Unesco, p. 63-4.


 * 1984: Alfred Mondjanagni, La Participation populaire au développement en Afrique noire / People's Participation in Development in Black Africa (bilingual), Paris: Editions Karthala, p. 13 and 19.
 * 1986: Kaisa Broner, New York face à son patrimoine, Bruxelles: Pierre Mardaga Editeur, p. 37.


 * 1994: Serge Theunynck, Économie de l'habitat et de la construction au Sahel, vol. 2, Paris: L’Harmattan, p. 454-5.
 * 1995: Robert A.M. Stern, Thomas Mellins & David Fishman, New York 1960: Architecture and Urbanism between the Second World War and the Bicentennial, New York: The Monacelli Press, pp. 889 and 1301.


 * 2001: Yvette Marin, Les Utopies de la ville (Les Cahiers du CREHU #10), Besançon: Presses Universitaires franc-comtoises, p. 434.


 * 2005: Jean-Louis Violeau, Les Architectes et mai 68, Paris: Éditions Recherches, p. 220 et 226.

Conferences

 * 1964-1974: Roger Katan was frequently invited by American universities and student associations to deliver conferences under the auspices of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and the National Park Service.


 * Took part in a seminar organized by the New York State Department of Health.


 * 1966: Seminar on behavioral science organized by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.


 * 1967: Key speaker at the National Institute of Architectural Education (today's Van Alen Institute) seminar about "The Student and His Future development," New York Hilton, May 15. Katan spoke about the advantages of student exchange programs and community organizations.


 * 1967-1978: Conferences and seminars on advocacy planning in American universities, such as University of Michigan, UC Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Princeton, University of Nebraska, University of North Dakota, University of Syracuse, Carnegie Mellon University, etc., and European universities, including Delft and Amsterdam universities in The Netherlands, Vincennes, Aix-en-Provence, Ecole nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France, etc.


 * Since 1979: Katan occasionally delivers conference papers and lectures including:
 * 1981: "International Design Conference," Finlandia Hall, Helsinki, Finland, Aug. Katan was one of 4 key speakers. The conference was attended by 1500 people.


 * 1992: "Case Studies from Developing Communities," with Michael Cohen. A conference organized by the Municipal Art Society of New York on July 21.

Kinetic Art
From 1963 to 1975, Roger Katan's works were shown in museums and galleries, including Finch College Museum of Art in New York, and various art festivals.

Wayne Anderson, the MIT Art historian and critic, wrote about his work:
 * "Roger Katan's recent studies in kinstic illumination expand his architectural interests into a form which projects itself upon its surroundings. . . . Following a logical sequence from fantasy to reality, his studies of repetitive, machine-made, ubiquitous objects, made into painted structures excited by active colored lights, strive to create phenomena of form and color that are commensurate with the spontaneous and intricate manner in which human senses react. The ultimate place of Mr. Katan's art is with architecture, particularly the architecture of night."

[Missing paragraph: translation in progress]

Selected Exhibitions

 * 1963: Osgood Gallery, New York. Collages and mecanographs.


 * 1964: Print Club, Philadelphia, PA. Mecanographs (blueprints).


 * 1965: "Art ’65," New York World's Fair, American Express Pavillon, Apr. 21 avril through Oct. 17. Kinetic constructions. A group show featuring 40 other sculptors such as Peter Hutchinson, Robert Ryman, Robert Smithson, etc.


 * 1965: "The Visual Aesthetic of the Architect," solo exhibition, New School for Social Research, New York, June 1 to 30.


 * 1966: Pratt Institute School of Architecture, Brooklyn, New York. Mecanographs and kinetic structures.


 * 1966: "Light-Motion Environments," solo exhibition, The New School Associates, New York, May 2 through July 31.


 * 1967: "Lights in Orbit," Howard Wise Gallery (kinetic art gallery), New York, Feb. 4 through Mar. 4. Renamed "Light/Motion/Space," the show traveled to the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (Apr. 8 through May 21), the Milwaukee Art Center (June 24 throughJuly 30), and the Waddell Gallery, New York (for race equality). See Howard Wise and Robert M. Murdoch (eds.), Light/Motion/Space (exhibition cat.), with an essay by Willoughby Sharp, Minneapolis, MN: Walkert Art Center, 1967, 36 pages.


 * 1967: "The Visionaries," East Hampton Gallery, 22 W 56th St, New York, March 21 through Apr. 8. A group exhibition of kinetic works.


 * 1967: "Art Today," New York State Fair, Syracuse, NY, Aug. 29 août to Sep.4. A group show organized in cooperation with the New York State Council of the Arts. The 24 selected artists included Joseph Albers, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Ben Cunningham, Jim Dine, Eva Hesse, Red Grooms, Joseph Levy, Roy Lichtenstein, Marisol, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, George Segal, Andy Warhol, and Tom Wesselman.


 * 1973: Syracuse Museum, New York. A group exhibition of kinetic works.


 * 1974: Howard Wise Kinetic Arts Gallery, New York. 8 invited artists including Alexander Calder, Jean Tinguely, Len Lye, Louis Nevelson, Gerald Auster. Each of them showed one work. Katan showed Roselights for Whiteville, used for the cover of Progressive Architecture, July 1968.


 * 1975: "Architectures and Sculpture," School of Visual Arts, New York. A solo exhibition of kinetic works and architectural projects.


 * Since 1999: Katan regularly exhibits his kinetic works in France.