French architect and activist Roland Castro dies aged 82
Architect and left-wing activist Roland Castro has died aged 82.
The French architect made his name through his design plans predicated on raising the standard of living for working class neighbourhoods and his involvement in the May 1968 Paris student protests, AFP reported.
“Architecture, the suburbs, the causes have never been lacking: Everything has been a pretext for settling this debt,” he once said.
His ambition took him to the Paris Beaux-Arts architecture school in 1958 and joined the Union of Communist Students. Ever committed to his intellectual integrity, he was expelled from the union in 1965 for criticising Stalinism. In response, he embraced Maoism, as was popular in French communist circles at the time.
He became a leading figure in the anti-capitalism protests that erupted throughout France during May 1968 bringing the country to a standstill.
Castro became an architect and in 1983, and co-founded ‘Banlieues 89’ with his urbanist friend Michel Cantal-Dupart.