New Official Wants Changes In Program on Urban Design

Richard I. Krauss '57, the new assistant director of the Urban Design Program at the Graduate School of Design, does not plan to sit still in office.

In his new position, Krauss said he plans to continue developing an "adequate vocabulary" for designers, to promote the use of formalism to express human values and to create a more flexible code for designers.

"Design issues get slighted because a good vocabulary does not exist for communicating design issues," Krauss said

Krauss said he is trying to express human values in his own design work. His plan for a French town emphasizes the individual unit rather than large scale development.

Krauss said yesterday that although the standard form rules of the plastic arts should concern the designer, the driving force should be the human purpose of the structure-"how man relates to man."

Krauss also said he hoped to make the administration behind the design codes more flexible. He said that these codes should reflect citizen input as well as the designer's and should serve as guidelines to help the designer, not restrain him.

"They should be responsive to ongoing needs and design insights," he added.

After receiving his undergradu degree in anthropology from Harvard, Krauss became a principal of the Cambridge-based architectural firm. Arrowstreet, Inc., and president of its affiliate, the Environmental Design Group.