THE HAMLET- RESIDENCE OF LAURIE BAKER

• HOW DID LAURIE BAKER SETTLE IN INDIA ?

• WHY IS LAURIE BAKER KNOWN AS ‘THE GANDHI OF ARCHITECTURE’?
• WHAT WERE THE DIFFERENT YET SIMPLE CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES
USED BY LAURIE BAKER THAT IS STILL BEING USED?
• BRITISH BORN INDIAN ARCHITECT
• KNOWN FOR INITIATIVES IN :
COST EFFECTIVE ENERGY EFFICIENT ARCHITECTURE
DESIGNS THAT MAXIMIZE SPACE, VENTILATION & LIGHT
COST EFFECTIVE ENERGY EFFICIENT ARCHITECTURE
• INFLUENCED BY MAHATMA GANDHI AND USING MANY
OF HIS IDEALOLOGIES , HE’S CALLED THE “GANDHI OF
ARCHITECTURE”
• AWARDS: Padma Shri, MBE
• SPOUSE:ELIZABETH BAKER
• CHILDREN: TILAK, VIDYA AND HEIDI
• Born into a staunch Methodist family, the youngest
son of Birmingham Gas Department's chief
accountant, Charles Frederick Baker and Millie
Baker.
• Early schooling at King Edwards Grammar School.
• Elder brothers, Leonard and Norman studied law,
and sister, Edna who was the oldest of them all.
• In his teens Baker began to question what religion
meant to him and decided to become a Quaker
since it was closer to what he believed in.
• Baker studied architecture at Birmingham Institute
of Art and Design Birmingham, and graduated in
1937, aged 20, in a period of political unrest in
Europe
*Quaker- religious society devoted to peaceful
ideals.
During the Second World War, he served in the Friends Ambulance Unit. After a short spell on the
south coast of England and mostly looking after naval casualties he was sent to China as a trained
anesthetist with a surgical team, mainly to cope with civilian casualties in the war between China and
Japan.
However, after a year or two of this war area activity, he found himself having to deal with civilians
suffering from leprosy. He was seconded to a hospital formerly run by an order of German sisters
who were all interned by the Chinese as enemy aliens.
Baker had to spend three months in Bombay waiting for his boat. During this time he stayed with a
Quaker friend, who also happened to be a good friend of the Mahatma. Baker attended many of
Gandhiji's talks and prayer-meetings — which eventually led to a more-than-casual friendship
between them.
This was also the time of the Gandhi-Jinnah talks and the height of the 'Quit India' movement. So
though he felt the need to return to India, to settle and work here, Baker was initially discouraged by
the nationwide animosity to the Raj and to all Westerners. But the Mahatma reassured him that though
the Raj must quit, concerned individuals would always find a welcome place to work with Indians.
After hearing Gandhiji’s talks Baker felt the need to return to India and work there, but was initially
discouraged by the nationwide animosity to the Raj and to all Westerners. But the Mahatma reassured him
that though the Raj must quit, concerned individuals would always find a welcome place to work with Indians.
In fact, Gandhiji showed great interest in the leprosy work in China, and the lives of the ordinary people
there.
"It was also from the influence of Mahatma Gandhi I learnt that the real people you should be building for,
and who are in need, are the 'ordinary' people — those living in villages and in the congested areas of our
cities." Gandhi's idea was that it should be possible to build a home with materials found within a five-
mile radius of a site. This was to have a great influence in his later life.
His initial commitment to India in 1945 had him working as an architect for the World Leprosy Mission.
The organisation wanted a builder-architect-engineer. As new medicines for the treatment of the disease
were becoming more prevalent, Baker's responsibilities were focused on converting or replacing asylums
once used to house the lepers into treatment hospitals.
 Baker found the missionary lifestyle - ostentatious
bungalows, socialite gatherings, too luxurious and instead
decided to stay with the Indian doctor P.J. Chandy and his
family. The sister of his host, Elizabeth Jacob (Baker called
her "Kuni"), worked as a doctor in Hyderabad with the same
leprosy organisation.
The two met when Elizabeth came to Faizabad to perform an
operation on her brother and to take care of the hospital
duties. Baker and Jacob found themselves sharing common
beliefs and decided to marry. However, as there was
considerable resistance from both their families, they
decided to wait. Work and travel allowed them only brief
periods together, and they finally got married in 1948.
• Designing and building low cost , high quality,
beautiful homes.
• Suited to or built for lower middle to lower class
clients.
• Irregular , pyramid-like structures on roofs, with one
side open and tilting into the wind.
• Brick jail walls, a perforated brick screen which
utilizes natural air movement to cool the home's interior
and create intricate patterns of light and shadow.
• His respect for nature made sure that he never really
made designs in which trees were uprooted or cut
down.
• This saves construction cost as well, since working
around difficult site conditions is much more cost-
effective than clear cutting.
• This is Baker’s home in Trivandrum
• This is a remarkable and unique house
built on a plot of land along the slope of
a rocky hill, with limited access to
water
• However Baker’s genius has created a
wonderful home for his family
• Material used from unconventional
sources
• Family eats in kitchen
• Electricity wiring is not concealed
• Steps directly cut in rocks
• Small sitting at entrance for guests
• Wall decorated with broken pottery, pens, glass
• Use of natural light
• Never cut trees
• Inner courtyard-close to nature
• Arches led into a beautiful open room
• Courtyard has many gardens and ponds
• Pitched roof made of Mangalore tiles
• Bakers fondness of arches
 • A traditional Kerala window

• Typical traditional tiling used in

south India mostly in areas
where it is sloped

• Simple windows made from waste wooden

planks and grills made of thrown away metal
pieces
 DEATH AND LEGACY
• The low cost mud homes he designed for the poor followed what was known as the
“baker model” and had been replicated in their tens of thousands throughout the
state.
• Baker became an Indian citizen in 1988, two years later he was given one of India's
highest civilian honor's, the Padma Sree.
• He also won the united nations habitat award in 1992 and the international union of
architects award the following year.
• He continued working past the age of 85, and owned only the family home he
designed in Trivandrum.
• He passed away on April 1st 2007 at 7:30am.