Laurie Baker

March 2, 1917(Birmingham) april 1, 2007(thiruvananthapuram)

He is known for his cost-effective energy efficient architecture and

for his unique space utilisation and simple but aesthetic sensibility.

He moved to India in 1945 and has worked in India for over forty
years.

His work ranges from fishermens villages to institutional complexes

and from low-cost mud-housing schemes to low-cost cathedrals.

Laurie baker draws creative substance from the environment in

which he works, absorbing vernacular patterns of construction and
individual styles of living to such a degree that he is able to give his
clients the comfort and ease of homes and institutions that are
firmly rooted in the soil upon which they stand.

Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, he sought to incorporate simple

designs with local materials and achieved fame with his approach to
sustainable architecture as well as in organic architecture. He has
been called the "Gandhi of architecture".

He founded an organization called COSTFORD (Centre of Science and

Technology for Rural Development) to spread awareness in low-cost
housing.

Centre for development studies.

Centre for development studies is located at Ulloor, Trivandrum.

This is bakers most important project of his career.

The significance of this project had less to do with size and budget,
than with the idea of exhibiting a range of concepts applied to
buildings of varying functions, scale and dimensions.

It covers an area of 9 acres. The site of the proposed institute was

very rocky but Baker cleverly incorporates the level changes in the
circulation of the buildings, both horizontally and vertically.

It accommodates administrative offices, a computer centre, an

amphi-theatre, a library, classrooms, housing, and other components
of an institutional design.

He not only made it a cost-effective complex but also provided a

setting with an image consistent with its development-conscious
goals.

The site rises in a difficult gradient of rocky soil up to the crest of a

hill, overlooking paddy fields.

At the summit, the library dominates the centre with a seven-storey

tower.

The administrative offices and classrooms are scattered in a

randomness determined by each ones position on the slope.

However, the buildings remain tightly connected through corridors

that snake upwards to the library along breezy walkways and
landscaped courts.

A four-storey student hostel is set apart from this central complex

across an informal amphi-theatre fashioned from excess building
material and made by merely consolidating the contours.

Further down is a students canteen and a girls hostel.

At the far end, near the entrance gate, are located varying densities
of staff housing.

Building textures, configurations and spanning elements

demonstrate bakers easy manipulation of brick, all of which were
made close to the site and fired with locally available coconut palm
wood.

All surfaces, whether inside or out, in the dormitory or classroom,

are exposed to patterns showing varying bonding techniques and jali
work.

The library tower is a circular tower with an external jaali wall which
encloses a circular staircase in the centre. The staircase winds
around a circular shaft which runs from the bottom level all the way
till the top. Baker has used this shaft to provide forced ventilation
inside the spaces. There are small openings in this shaft at each
floor level. The air is forced through these openings and escapes
through the open top of the shaft, maintaining a good flow all
around. This shaft is based on the simple principle of Stack effect.
The perforated jaali wall on the external side allows plenty of
diffused natural light inside and creates a beautiful ambience for
reading.

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.

Paying close attention to the existing site as he began to design the

project, Baker left as many coconut paThe plinths of the buildings
are all of exposed random rubble granite, the white contrasting with
the red of the brick. Baker has used lime mortar for his walls,
making the lime in the site itself by burning sea shells (from the
beach a few miles away) and grinding it. The flooring is in red oxide
which imparts a cool comfortable base to walk on while
complementing the earthy materials of the walls and the roof. There
are external pavements in concrete, inset with granite aggregates in
the shape of flowers and leafs. Baker often gave freedom to the
masons and the workers to experiment and play and bring out their
creativity.

Openings are arched, corbelled or spanned with brick lintels.

Walls are stepped, curved or folded for added strength; wall

thicknesses change on different floors, depending on the loading
and requirement.

Heights are deliberately kept low and much below the tree line.

Land is rarely exploited to create man made geometries or

monumental axes and relationships.

St. Johns Cathedral

St. Johns Cathedral is located at Tiruvella.

It was constructed during 1973-1974.

Bakers cathedral reinforces the idea of recreating the centrallyplanned church in a vernacular idiom.

He constructed the cathedral out of bamboo.

It is a circular plan of 120 ft diameter.

It combines the internal organization of a greek cross with an

external appearance of a hindu temple.

The plan is centralised, the altar is highlighted with light to make it

glow and it is higher than the rest of the congregation. The church is
oriented East - West, diffused light enters the building from the side
jalis as well as the from the skylights. The skylights could be
interpreted as a version of the rose window. The proportions and
height of the interiors are grand. What these proportions also
achieve in terms of acoustic quality is they generate an echo, which

again has mystic connotations. Stained glass has been alluded to

with the jalis and the vertical element is present in the form of the
roof. The cross has been taken to the apex of the conical roof.

The drum and the steeply pitched roof of the circle are not contained
within a confining ambulatory or court, but are set squarely in the
centre of a walled compound.

The outer walls are built entirely of locally-available granite and

brick. Jackwood is used in the trusses that span the walls and rise to
a central skylight.

The roof, pitched steeply, is covered with the traditional terracotta

fish-tile

Bakers architectural features

Low cost, high quality, beautiful structures.

Masonry construction, instilling privacy and evoking history with

brick jali walls, playing with light and shade and giving a unidirectional vision.

Irregular, pyramid-like structures on roofs, with one side left open

and tilting into the wind.

Indian sloping roofs and terracotta Mangalore tile shingling-light and

inexpensive.

Mostly curved walls- rat trap bond used.

Concrete rarely used.

Low energy consuming mud walls.

No redundant details.

Planning of space lesser walls, multiple uses of space, short spans

of roof, agglomeration of building services, flexibility in growth.

Local building material bricks, tiles, lime, surkhi, timber, thatch,

stone, palm, mud.

Bricks and jalis play of light and shade, unidirectional vision.

Unplastered walls.

Lintels and arches.