HOUSING COURSE OPENS AT SCHOOL OF DESIGN

A new type of architectural training is being inaugurated today in the School of Design with the opening of "Housing," a course listed in the catalogue as Regional Planning 4C and taught by Martin Wagner, assistant professor of Regional Planning.

The course teaches primarily the economic factors involved in planning and considers architecture as a science in providing the facilities of modern life. Housing design in its more technical aspects is the subject of Professor Walter Gropius' course on Architectural Design.

Students will consider Housing practically as well as theoretically, with laboratory projects, investigation of the Housing possibilities of Boston, planned. They will draw up a "balance sheet" of the new houses in the city, balancing supply against the demand for each year.

Practical Problems Stressed

Then the changes in land values of particular sites for the last 100 years will be traced through examination of the records in the city's archives. The direction of these studies is practical, pointing toward estimation of costs for different types of Housing developments on the basis of the heights of buildings and percentage of lot coverage.

Wagner was a leader in German Housing organization before he came here this year, founding the first building society in Berlin. He organized societies in over 100 German cities and at one time had over 25,000 men working under him.