LAURIE BAKER

NAME : LAURENCE WILFRED BAKER

BORN : 2ND MARCH 1917
DIED : 1ST APRIL 2007
EDUCATION : BIRMINGHAM INSTITUTE OF ART AND
DESIGN
RESIDED IN : TRIVANDRUM, KERALA.

Laurie baker was an award-winning british-born indian architect, renowned for his initiatives in
cost-effective energy-efficient architecture and for his unique space utilization and simple but
beautiful aesthetic sensibility. In time he made a name for himself both in sustainable
architecture as well as in organic architecture.

He went to india in 1945 in part as a missionary and since then lived and worked in india for over
50 years. He obtained indian citizenship in 1989 and resided in trivandrum, kerala, since 1970,
where he later set up an organization called COSTFORD (centre of science and technology for
rural development).

➢ Baker found his english construction education to be inadequate for the types of issues
and materials he has faced with termites and the early monsoon as well as laterite cow
dung and mud walls

➢ Baker had no choice but to observe and learn from the methods and practices of
the vernacular architecture.

➢ He soon learned that the indigenous architecture and methods of these places were in
fact the only viable means to deal with his once daunting problems.

➢ Inspired by his discoveries he began to turn his style of architecture towards one that
respected the actual culture and needs of those who would actually use his buildings,
rather than just playing to the more "modernistic" tunes of his paying clients.

INFLUENCES
➢ One of his influences has been Mahatma Gandhi, for him proper development can be
done if raw material is brought from a place in a range of 5-10 kms.

➢ He criticized the works of Le Corbusier, his structures were characterless. Laurie Baker’s
architecture was a contemporary version of the vernacular.

➢ Another inspiration for him has been ordinary men.

o THE DIRECT & HONEST USE OF LOCAL MATERIALS CREATED ITS OWN EXPRESSION OF
STRUCTURAL NECESSITY, OF UNECONOMICAL RESTRAINT.CONFRONTED WITH BUILDING
MATERIALS LIKE ROCK, MUD, LATERITE & COW DUNG, BAKER’S ARCHITECTURAL PRACTISE IN
THE HIMALAYAS WAS ANYTHING BUT CONVENTIONAL.

o ACCORDING TO HIM, THE HIMALAYAN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE WAS A PERFECT EXAMPLE

OF VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE – SIMPLE, EFFICIENT & INEXPENSIVE. IT ALSO DEALT WITH
INCIDENTAL DIFFICULT PROBLEMS OF HOW TO BUILD ON STEEPLY SLOPPING SITE.

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 o THE RIGOROUS QUAKER UPBRINGING, WITH ITS EMPHASIS ON SIMPLICITY & AUSTERITY, ITS
REJECTION OF ALL ORNAMENT & LUXURY AS SINFUL SELF-INDULGENCE, WAS REINFORCED
BY THE THEORY OF MODERNISM THAT WERE CURRENT DURING HIS ARCHITECTURAL
TRAINING.

o IN DESIGNING OBJECTS FINELY CONSTRUCTED & COMPLETE IN THEMSELVES, THERE IS A

REFLECTION OF BAKER’S INTENSELY REALISED FAITH, HIS UNUSAL SET OF PRINCIPLES IMBIBED
FROM THE LAWS & CUSTOMS OF HIS RELIGIOUS SECT.

A MAN WITHOUT BORDERS

The main characteristics of Baker architecture is that “small is not only beautiful but is
often essential and even more important

than large structures”

AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS

 1938 Associate of the Royal Institute of British

Architects.

 1970 Fellow of Indian Institute of Architects

 1983 Member of British Empire.

 1987 First Indian National Habitat Award

 1989 I.I.A. Medal for Outstanding Architect of the Year

 1990 Great Masters Architect of the Year.

Padma Shree

 1992 U.N.O. Habitats Award

U.N. Roll of Honor

 1993 International Union of Architects (I.U.A.) Award

 1994 People of the Year Award

I.I.A. Babu Rao Maitre Gold Medal

 1995 Doctorate of University of Central England.

 2003 Basheer Puraskaram.

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PHILOSOPHY IN PRACTICE

 “ A site is ideal only in the undisturbed natural state and a building must renew and
reinforce the original site conditions in order to be accommodated”

 “ the architecture should merge with the surrounding landscape, rather than standing
out. It should not be in competition with the nature, but in harmony with it”

 “ the architecture at a place should be responsive to the climate, context and the
available resources – it should be for the people, their needs and hopes, irrespective of
trend or style".

 “ The outer form alone is meaningless, it has to be complemented or overshadowed by

the inner contents since, the spatial experience of an inhabitant is more important than
pure visual forms” .

DESIGN PRINCIPLES

• Exposed brick work.

• Irregular pyramid like structures -roofs, Sloping roofs with gables.

• Utilizing natural air movement to cool

• Use of arches.

• Cost effective techniques for bldg. construction.

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1.Centre For Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.
The design of CDS demonstrates how Baker is able to transfer vernacular architecture to suit the
requirements of a modern academic institution.

The building of this center also incorporates all the elemental characteristics of Baker’s style-

the jali’s, the traditional roofs, the stepped arches, the over-hanging eaves and the skylights.

The Centre for Development Studies consists of a group of buildings located on a hillock on the
outskirts of Trivandrum.

An area of 9 acres accommodates administrative offices, computer centre, amphitheatre,

library, classrooms, housings and other components of an institutional design.

Main features:

• The design is in response to its sloping contoured site and seems to grow out of it.

• Baker simply moulds his walls around the trees so as not to disturb it.

• He designed the buildings at the Centre to practically cool them.

• He renders JALIS, a perforated wooden screen found in traditional Indian architecture, in

brick; The open grillwork allows cool breezes to waft into the interior while filtering harsh,
direct sunlight.

• Some buildings include a series of small courtyards containing shallow pools in the
center, whose evaporation helps cool the air.

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 • In evaluating the campus for the Centre, Baker planned roads along the lower, while
footpaths were routed along naturally occurring elevated areas; following the natural
topography helps to limit erosion and despoilment of the environment.

• Brick walls were left un-plastered and brick corbelling was used rather than more
expensive concrete lintels.

• With his mastery over his medium, Baker creates a variety of textures and patterns by
simple manipulation of the way in which bricks are placed in the wall. Each structure
curling in waves, semicircles and arcs

• The architecture of this academic complex was conceived as a demonstration of

economically responsible building practices.

• The teaching block, the largest of the buildings, occupies the highest point.

• Its circular, brick-textured library tower is the core structure providing a visual focus.

• A special staircase provides access to the different library floors.

• Areas for administration and teaching radiate out from the library.

• The Library dominates the centre with seven storey tower, the administrative offices and
classrooms are scattered in a randomness determined by each ones position on the
slope. However, the building remain tightly connected through corridors that snakes
upwards to the library along breezy walkways and landscape courts.

• The administrative offices and classrooms are scattered in randomness determined by its
position on the slope.

• However the buildings remains tightly connected through corridors that snake upward till
the library along breezy walkways and landscaped courtyards.

• Wall thicknesses change on different floors based on loading and requirement.

• Staff housing of varying densities are located near the entrance gate.

COMPUTER CENTRE
• The 2-storied high computer block with a double-walled building with an outer surface
of intersecting circles of brick jails which followed the design of the main academic
block, while the internal shell fulfilled the constraints and controls necessary for a
computer laboratory, the space between the 2 walls accommodates the secondary
requirements for offices and storage areas.

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MEN’S HOSTEL
• Student hostel is set apart from this central complex across an informal amphitheatre
fashioned from excess building material, and made by merely consolidating the
contours.

• 8 rooms in a single file opening onto a verandah and 4-stacked floors give a formidable
linear space to the plan.

• Each room is entered simply down a rare corridor built into the shade walls.

• This inordinately regimented organization is offset by playfulness of the circulation and

the entrance block – both of which move away from an excessive rectilinearity into the
magical realm of curve walls, circular staircase and deep set wall niches.

WOMEN’S HOSTEL
• The rooms, like those of the men’s hostel, have the rigid layout of differentiated
rectangular, opening into the privacy of a forest behind the building.

• The wall forming the circulation to the room is curved not merely for structural stiffness
but the curves are made as to incorporate the interactive hostel life.

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2. St. John Cathedral, THiruvalla
• The design of this regional cathedral is away from the massive Baroque prototype of
church architecture.
• With its circular plan and tent –like wooden roof, this Kerala cathedral is a response to
the modern Vatican; an attempt to design an indigenous church type.
• The structure is built of local materials.
• Stone piers are the main load – bearing elements.
• Non–load-bearing brick infill, as intricate grill work, allows air and light to filter into the
hall.
• The interior experience is inspiring, moody and reminiscent of soaring Gothic spaces.

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 CONCLUSION
In conclusion if we look at the life of laurie baker , we could realize that he was a person who
was concerned about sustainable means of architecture. His devotion and his inspiration
towards his works is awe inspiring.

The building techniques baker has evolved to suit specific problems of his poor clients in kerala
is not a formula applicable to all similar situations & yet from its stems an entire ideology of
architetcural practice – a pattern that is revolutionary in its simplicity & its contradiction of the
accepted norms of architetcure in contemporary india.

if we look into laurie bakers life we could easily find that he was a person who likes to lead a
simple and serene life, and from his works we can see that he is trying to make architecture
resonate to the tune o nature, which makes us all inspired and speechless...

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