Critical Appropriation of Tradition: Laurie Baker’s Architectural Practice in Kerala

Dreama Simeng Lin

#930881599

ARTH 330-05 Contemporary South Asian Art

Professor Amanda Dalla Villa Adams

April 18, 2017

“As a member of the William and Mary community, I pledge on my honor not to lie, cheat, or steal, either

in my academic or personal life. I understand that such acts violate the Honor Code and undermine the

community of trust, of which we are all stewards.”

 2

In 1945, the British-born architect Laurence “Laurie” Wilfred Baker (1917–2007), who practiced

in India, arrived in India for an international leprosy mission (Fig. 1).1 In 1948, Baker married the Indian

doctor Elizabeth Jacob, and settled down in Chandag, a remote village in the hills of Kumaon, close to

Pithoragarh in the Himalayas on the borders of Tibet and Nepal.2 During their sixteen-year stay in

Pithoragarh, the Bakers set up a rural hospital, while Baker increased his understanding of local building

crafts.3 In 1963, for various reasons including their children’s education, the Bakers moved to Vagamon

in Kerala, and a few years later settled down in the suburb of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.4 In 1989,

Baker got his Indian citizenship, and one year later, he was awarded Pad Mashri, the fourth-highest-

civilian award in the Republic of India.5 During his life in India, Baker designed and built (not just

supervised) around two thousand buildings.6 This paper uses the Center for Development Studies (CDS),

a center for research in applied economics designed by Baker in 1971 in Ulloor, a suburb of Trivandrum,

Kerala, as a case study to investigate Baker’s critical appropriation of local architectural tradition in terms

of techniques, ethics, and sensations (Fig. 2).

While indigenous building techniques helped Baker deal with the local climate, topography, and

materials, for the Quaker architect, who valued modesty, this pragmatic approach signified honesty.

Moreover, viewing unity with the Creation as detached from a particular time or place, the émigré

architect synthesized and transformed his memories about Britain and India into synchronic spatial

experiences in his work. Baker’s critical appropriation of tradition in technical, ethical, and

1
Elizabeth Baker, The Other Side of Laurie Baker (Kottayam: D.C. Books, 2007), 91. Laurie Baker,
2
Baker, “Baker on ‘Laurie Baker’ Architecture,” 227. Burte, “The Gandhi of Spatial Delight,” 1606.
Baker befriended Doctor P.J. Chandy during his missionary work. P.J. Chandy is the brother of Elizabeth
Jacob Baker. Kumaon, in todays’ Uttarakhand, is connected to the district town of Pithoragarh, fifty
kilometers away only by a walking path.
3
Burte, “The Gandhi of Spatial Delight,” 1606.
4
E. Baker, The Other Side of Laurie Baker, 158. Burte, “The Gandhi of Spatial Delight,” 1607. For the
reasons of the Bakers’ migration to Kerala, see E. Baker.
5
Burte, “The Gandhi of Spatial Delight,” 1607.
6
Ibid., 1607, note 3&4. If one includes buildings designed by Baker and built by Center of Science and
Technology for Rural Development (COSTFORD), the number goes up to ten thousand. While
COSTFORD and individual architects have documented Bakers’ work in Kerala, the documents have not
been published yet.
 3

phenomenological dimensions allowed him to engage tradition yet remained unburdened by its

historicism.7

Technical Innovations

According to Baker, it is by observing indigenous people that he learned to design pragmatic

architecture, which used local materials, in the rural area of Pithoragarh and Kerala.8 He defined

“vernacular architecture” as:

The results of thousands of years of research on how to use only immediately-available,

local materials to make structurally-stable buildings that could cope with the local
climatic conditions, which the local geography and topography, with all the hazards of
nature (whether mineral, vegetable, insect, bird or animal), with the possible hostility of
neighbors, and that could accommodate all the requirements of local religious, social and
cultural patterns of living.9

However, going natural and local did not mean that he copied traditional forms. Indeed, Baker

appropriated indigenous techniques to meet contemporary needs, and then generated innovative forms

such as stepped arches, alternative windows, and brick jali walls (Fig. 2-13). Baker’s technical creativity

is well represented by his design of Center for Development Studies (CDS), a nine-acre complex built in

1971 that consisted administrative offices, a computer center, an amphitheater, a library, classrooms,

housing, and other components (Figs. 2, 3, 6-10, 13, 22).10

For the wall of the stairwell at CDS library tower, Baker reshaped the traditional corbel arch into

a stepped arch, where one-quarter of a brick was extended out from the brick below until the span was

bridged (Figs. 3, 4, 5). Unlike round, segmental, or rectangular openings in modern architecture, the

7
Sabir Khan and Mark Cottle, “A Detached Engagement: Tradition and the Poetics of Émigré Practice,”
Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review 12, 1 (2000): 41-42.
8
Baker, “Baker on ‘Laurie Baker’ Architecture,” 226. Laurie Baker, “The Baker Approach: A Rural
House,” http://lauriebaker.net/index.php/work/architectural-writings/the-baker-approach-a-rural-house
(accessed April 17, 2017). Bhatia, Laurie Baker: Life, Work & Writings, 40, 160-182.Venugopal
Maddipati, “Chapter III: The Signification of Pragmatism: Laurie Baker, Gandhi and Architecture,” in
Selfsame Spaces: Gandhi, Architecture And Allusions In Twentieth Century India (PhD dissertation,
University of Minnesota, 2011), 180-182.
9
Baker, “Baker on ‘Laurie Baker’ Architecture,” 226.
10
Bhatia, Laurie Baker: Life, Work & Writings, 40.
 4

stepped arch does not require shuttering or support during construction.11 Also, for the stepped arch, the

lintel carries only the weight of a small triangle of brickwork, whereas the sidewalls of the opening carry

the other entire burden, allowing Baker cover openings up to five meters wide (Fig. 5).12

Likewise, Baker introduced jali, perforated stones or wooden screens or walls widely used in

Indian architecture, in his brick wall construction, to replace expansive windows, its frame, shutter, glass

and metal grill (Figs. 6, 7).13 As a result, the tiny regular openings on the brick walls filter the sunlight

into cool, breeze-filled rooms, while providing privacy and security.14 Also, Baker reduced the labor cost

because the construction of the brick jali wall did not require special materials or skills.15

Moreover, Baker’s adaption of the brick jali wall, showed the trajectories of “going native” and

“becoming modern” as complementary instead of contradictory.16 In 1996, twenty-five years after the

construction of the main buildings of CDS, new premises were required to accommodate a computer at

CDS. For Baker the task was double-edged—while a computer laboratory required electronic

sophistication and strict environmental, it also had to fit harmoniously in old campus. Baker solved this

dilemma with the double-wall design (Figs. 8, 9, 10). While the outer wall of intersecting circles of brick

jalis follows the old campus patterns, the internal wall allowed the insulation necessary for a computer

facility.17 The space between the two walls accommodated offices and storage areas.18

In some cases when a window was compulsory, Baker proposed an alternative window, made by

an one-inch-thick and nine-inch-wide plank of wood with a rounded protrusion at both ends (Fig. 11, 12,

13). These protrusions would fit into two strips of wood. This kind of window also avoided a grill

because it was impossible to climb through the two four-inch openings. In a courtyard at CDS, for a

11
Laurie Baker, Manual of Cost Cuts for Strong Acceptable Housing (Kerala: Center of Science and
Technology for Rural Development (COSTFORD), 1999),
http://lauriebaker.net/images/stories/files/costcutsbaker.pdf (accessed April 17, 2017), 51.
12
Ibid.
13
Ibid., 58. Bhatia, Laurie Baker: Life, Work & Writings, 44.
14
Baker, “Is a Modern Indian Architecture Possible?,” in Laurie Baker: Life, Work & Writings, by
Gautam Bhatia (New Delhi: Raj Press, 1991), 244. Bhatia, in Laurie Baker: Life, Work & Writings, 43.
15
Bhatia, Laurie Baker: Life, Work & Writings, 43.
16
Khan and Cottle, “A Detached Engagement,” 42.
17
Bhatia, Laurie Baker: Life, Work & Writings, 45, 173.
18
Ibid., 173.
 5

larger opening, Baker put two or three “windows” in a row (Fig. 12, 13).19 No research so far has

discussed the origin Baker’s “alternative window.” However, since glass is a modern invention, it seems

unlikely that this type of window was from indigenous architecture. Therefore, in this case, Baker

appropriated the tradition of modern windows to meet the local need to reduce construction cost.

In conclusion, while colonial discourse often views modernity and tradition in opposition, for

Baker tradition was to be tested and modified. Tradition did not contradict modernity, which itself is

another tradition.20 Indeed, the pragmatic architect appropriated both indigenous and modern techniques

in his work to reduce construction cost and material waste. In this way, he created a new technical

tradition, which might be learned from or modified in the future for other architects. This creation of

tradition through continuous technical appropriation is well articulated in the architect’s words, “We are

fairly convinced that creation was not just a Big Bang, but is a continuing creation of which we are a

part.”21

Pragmatism as Signifier of Honesty

If only we didn’t level sites, and eliminate trees but instead plan to go around them, then
we wouldn’t get the long monotonous row to begin with…
Most materials have their own special characteristics and if used honestly and
simply they contribute to the ‘looks’ of building merely from their color, their texture and
the patterns formed by joining them together. There is no need to cover them over with
costly finishes. Let a brick wall look like a brick wall and a stonewall look like a
stonewall. Concrete should look like concrete and not be plastered or painted to look like
marble.22

19
Baker, Manual of Cost Cuts, 58.
20
Saurabh Tewari, “Laurie Baker: A Model for Sustainable Architectural Design” (paper presented at
Cumulus Mumbai 2015: “In A Planet of Our Own,” Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, December
3-5, 2015), http://goo.gl/hYq1Ow (accessed April 17, 2017).
21
Laurie Baker, “On What Being a Quaker Means,”
http://www.lauriebaker.net/index.php/personal/values-beliefs/on-what-being-a-quaker-means (accessed
April 17, 2017).
22
Laurie Baker, “Does Building Cot-Reduction Mean Sacrifice of Quality?” (paper presented at a
symposium on “Cost-Reduction techniques in Building Construction,” sponsored by the Department of
Technical Education, March 1975). Bhatia, Laurie Baker: Life, Work & Writings, 40.
 6

The technical creativity of Baker’s work depended on, and strengthened, his ethical concerns as

well as his Quaker beliefs, which impelled him to fight against poverty, minimize consumption, and

engage with society through writing.23 The Center of Science and Technology for Rural Development

(COSTFORD) in Kerala produced manuals illustrated by Baker, which delineate what to do and not in

building industry (Figs. 4, 5, 11, 12, 14).24 The international oil crisis of 1973 had not yet happened when

Baker committed himself to lowering energy and material consumption. 25 Indeed, it was Baker’s Quaker

beliefs, which started at his youth and were reaffirmed by his meeting with Mahatma Gandhi, rather than

utilitarianism26, that convinced him to build pragmatically. Indeed, for Baker the pragmatic approach,

beyond its cost and energy efficiency, signifies honesty.

During his whole life, Baker’s Quaker beliefs guided him through significant decisions. Baker

graduated from Birmingham Institute of Art and Design in 1937 at the age of twenty. During World War

II, as a Quaker, un-violent passivist, he joined the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU) in 1942. During his

three-year travel with FAU in western China and Myanmar, he coped with injured soldiers in the Sino-

Japanese War as well as leprosy patients in the civilian population.27 In 1945, Baker returned to England

because of his deteriorated health. On his way back, Baker stayed in Mumbai for three months to wait for

the ship. His Quaker friends took him to a meeting with Mahatma Gandhi, who encouraged Baker to

return to India.28 In his writings, Baker marked this meeting of significance—“One of the things that

Mahatma Gandhi had said, that impressed me, and has influenced my thinking more than anything else,

was that the ideal house in the ideal village will be built of materials which are all found within a five-

mile radius of the house.”29 A few months later, Baker returned to India as a missionary architect for

23
Burte, “The Gandhi of Spatial Delight,” 1608.
24
Ibid.
25
Ibid.
26
There are plenty of articles on utilitarianism. For example, see Peter Singer for environmental ethics
and his cost-benefit analysis.
27
Burte, “The Gandhi of Spatial Delight,” 1607.
28
Baker, “Baker on ‘Laurie Baker’ Architecture,” 223. Burte, “The Gandhi of Spatial Delight,”1606.
29
Laurie Baker, “Building Technology in Pithoragarh,” in Laurie Baker: Life, Work & Writings, by
Gautam Bhatia (New Delhi: Raj Press, 1991), 234. Baker also mentioned this meeting in other writings,
such as “The Question of Taking Appropriate Building Technology to Pithoragarh.”
 7

leprosy hospitals. It seemed to him that the housing needs of millions of Indians outweighed those of the

British, and India’s chance of getting help was far lesser.30

For the Quaker architect, Gandhi’s idea of “the ideal village,” beyond its pragmatic wisdom, had

a moral symbolism. According to Quakerism, there is a form that allows man to experience direct unity

with the Creator at any time, in any place, and under any circumstances.31 Showy religious surroundings

and appurtenances, which could deceive human eyes, would be pointless in front of the Creator.32

Accordingly, the search for union with the Eternal proscribed indulgence as a pretentious façade.33 The

architect, therefore, deliberately practiced this anti-façadeism in his architecture of any type, to signify his

Quaker beliefs in proper humility and honesty.34 The result is an architecture that followed the natural

topography without covering construction materials.

“It’s a waste of money to level a well-molded site.”35 According to Baker’s son Tilak Baker, in

1971, instead of studying a two-dimensional plan representation of the CDS site at his office in

Nalanchira, the Trivandrum suburb, Baker visited and surveyed the site, and marked young trees and old

trees at the place.36 Baker sought to build at the sloping site and avoided cutting young trees.37 Neither a

contour was disturbed, nor a plant was removed to create monumental axes and relationships.38 Baker’s

tendency to follow the site’s topography and plantation echoed proper humility before nature promoted by

Quakerism—“each one of us is, in comparison with the whole, infinitely small.”39 Also, for Baker leaving

the materials bare symbolized honesty. In the COSTFORD manual, Baker suggests that while most

30
Baker, “Baker on ‘Laurie Baker’ Architecture,” 223.
31
Ibid., 229.
32
Ibid.
33
Ibid.
34
Ibid.
35
Bhatia, Laurie Baker: Life, Work & Writings, 41.
36
Ibid., 40-41. Maddipati, “Chapter III: The Signification of Pragmatism,” 180. Interview by Maddipati
with Tilak Baker, the son of Baker (Trivandrum, India, November 28, 2006).
37
Maddipati, “Chapter III: The Signification of Pragmatism,” 180. Interview by Maddipati with Tilak
Baker, the son of Baker (Trivandrum, India, November 28, 2006).
38
Bhatia, Laurie Baker: Life, Work & Writings, 41, 164.
39
Baker, “On What Being a Quaker Means.” For how preservation of nature, besides its cost-benefit
analysis, is related to proper humility, see Thomas E. Hill, “Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving
Natural Environments,” Environmental Ethics 5, 3 (1983): 211-224.
 8

modern buildings used mortar after unplastered wall construction for a smooth finish, it cost less to do the

pointing in the process (Fig. 14).40 Also, since Baker believed that it was impossible to feign in front of

the Creator, it might be inappropriate to disguise materials.

On the other hand, Baker’s pragmatism prevented him from blindly following orthodox doctrines.

While on a rocky terrain the rock itself became the buildings’ foundations, for footing in other places,

Baker used a mixture of lime, sand, and cement, thereby reducing the usage of cement, that production

required an “energy-intensive” process subsidized by the state.41 Also, in later years of his life, Baker

turned away from brick construction because of changing situations—“In those days bricks were

plentiful, well burnt and reasonably inexpensive. Unfortunately, in Kerala, bricks are fired with wood,

which led to forest destruction, so I gave preference to fuel-free materials, like stone laterite and mud.”

While many twentieth-century modern architects viewed order and functions as the “ends,” for

Baker they were “means” to create an honest form that would unite him with the Creation.42 The “means”

required consideration of topography, respect for natural materials, and deliberate craftsmanship without

sticking to a particular method. For Baker the “ends” never justified the “means,” as shown in his

sarcastic cartoon Fighting for Non Violence (Fig. 15). Accordingly, the final smooth finish of the brick

would not “justify” the perfunctory building process. Baker’s Quaker beliefs and his pragmatism were so

deeply intertwined that he decried discrepancy between religious beliefs and expressions of beliefs in

some of his clients, finding himself unable to design for them.43

Space as Experience

In 2006, during a phone interview with Venugopal Maddipati, who stayed in a guesthouse

designed by Baker at CDS, the architect was reluctant to talk about his work—“My work is out there for

40
Baker, Manual of Cost Cuts, 49
41
Bhatia, Laurie Baker: Life, Work & Writings, 43. Burte, “The Gandhi of Spatial Delight,” 1608.
42
Burte, “The Gandhi of Spatial Delight,” 1608.
43
Baker, “Baker on ‘Laurie Baker’ Architecture,” 228-229.
 9

you to see. There really is nothing that I have to say about it… it is all out there.”44 Unlike Le Corbusier,

known as well for his hesitancy to talk about his architecture, Baker did not view his architecture as an

autonomous geometrical ideality that stood for its own sake.45 Most of Bakers’ buildings, particularly his

Coffee Houses near the Trivandrum Central Railway Station, do not follow any ideal geometry (Fig.

16).46 Instead, by saying “it is all out there,” Baker understood his work as a space to be experienced,

explicitly by clients and implicitly by the architect, rather than geometry to be expressed.

In his writings, Baker appealed to, what he called, a “client-based” building—“Remember that

the CLIENT is the beneficiary—not a Government Department etc!”47 Also, instead of viewing his

architecture as a finished artwork that bears “Baker” signature, Baker took into consideration the future

personal need to modify the structure at the first place of the design. The stepped arch discussed

previously, besides its cost efficiency, had another advantage—if the client wanted to open a door or a

window later, the wall would not fall apart.48

However, the fact that Baker wanted to create a space for his clients did not suggest that he had

only his clients in mind when he designed the space. Conversely, it seemed unlikely that during the design

process, Baker knew how his clients would experience the space. He must have had an imaginary space in

mind, or at least an imaginary sensation of space. While not explicated by the architect, the spatial

experience created by him echoed his spatial remembrance, as in the case of “Coventry Cathedral

effect.”49

Elizabeth Baker described a scene in Hamlet, the house Baker built for himself: “In the evenings

we enjoy watching the sunset through another set of windows which are really openings in the brick wall

filled with colored bottles-beautiful blue, red and green. This for Laurie, gives the ‘Coventry Cathedral

44
Maddipati, “Chapter III: The Signification of Pragmatism,” 170.
45
Ibid., 179.
46
Ibid., 180.
47
Baker, “Baker on ‘Laurie Baker’ Architecture,” 228.
48
Laurie Baker, “Laurie Baker’s Cost-Reduction Manual,” appendix 2 to Laurie Baker: Life, Work,
Writings, by Gautam Bhatia (New Delhi: Raj Press, 1991), 291.
49
Maddipati, “Chapter III: The Signification of Pragmatism,” 191.
 10

effect.’” (Fig. 17)50 This “Coventry Cathedral effect” also appeared at the house Baker built for

Lieutenant Colonel John Jacob in Kulasekhanam, Trivandrum, in 1988 (Fig. 18, 19).51 It is likely that

Baker, born in Birmingham, a thirty-minute drive from Coventry, had visited, or at least had heard about,

St. Michael’s Church, the old Coventry Cathedral, before it was destroyed by air bombs in 1940 (Fig.

20).52 As Maddipati has argued, Baker probably kept himself updated about the contemporary

architectural world in Britain, since the exterior wall of the new Coventry Cathedral, built in 1962,

remarkably resembles one of the walls of the CDS (Fig. 21, 22).53

However, these similarities do not suggest Baker was “a person who sought to view his new

world of Kerala through a screen of his own remembrances of another world,” at least not merely through

his British roots.54 The brick jali wall in CSD recalls the wooden lattice at Padmanabhapuram Palace built

in the seventeenth century in Kerala, which, according to Tilak Baker, had profoundly affected his father

regarding the paly of light (Figs. 23, 24).55 “Coventry Cathedral effect,” therefore, implied a sensory

experience rather than an individual identification or a sense of belonging to a particular place. It seemed

that Baker would have appreciated red, blue, and green reflections on the floor of Padmanabhapuram

Palace as much as colorful mosaics in the Coventry Cathedral, not for these elements’ “Indianess” or

“Britishness,” but for their manipulations of light and shadow that arouse meditative serenity (Fig. 25,

26).

As discussed earlier, as a Quaker, Baker searched for an architectural form that “allow[ed] Man

to experience direct unity with the Creator at any time, in any place, and under any circumstances.”56

With the term “form,” the architect described a space to be experienced rather than an ideal geometry to

50
E. Baker, The Other Side of Laurie Baker, 7.
51
Bhatia, Laurie Baker: Life, Work & Writings, 148-151. Maddipati, “Chapter III: The Signification of
Pragmatism,” 87. No source so far has mentioned the background of Lt. Col. John Jacob. During my
research, I find only one possible match. See http://saintgits.org/main/sie/Aboutus/coo.asp (accessed
April 16, 2017).
52
Maddipati, “Chapter III: The Signification of Pragmatism,” 87.
53
Ibid., 88.
54
Ibid., 89.
55
Ibid., 88. Interview by Maddipati with Tilak Baker, the son of Baker (Trivandrum, India, November 28,
2006).
56
Baker, “Baker on ‘Laurie Baker’ Architecture,” 229.
 11

be calculated. In both the CSD and Jacob’s residence, whether conscious or not, Baker reproduced,

somewhat synthetically, his reminiscences about both his birthplace and host place, without particular

geographical or temporal references. It was probably the ambiguity of this creative process that made the

architect unwilling to talk about his work. As Baker indicated, “The understanding is there, felt and

understood in silence, if words are spoken, the spell is broken and spoiled.”57

Conclusion and Further Discussions

As suggested by Baker, rather than having discovered indigenous architecture in India, which is

always there and is being more or less practiced by millions of people, he learned from these local

techniques.58 After a long career of experimentations, he internalized these indigenous building skills in

his own architectural practice as he incorporated traditional and modern materials.59 Baker’s innovative

appropriation of indigenous skills and materials depended upon, and strengthened his Quaker beliefs. For

him, cost-efficient construction and respect for natural topography symbolized honesty and proper

humility before the Creator. Gandhi’s pragmatism, according to which one builds with local materials,

was reaffirmed by his Quaker beliefs.

Furthermore, Baker’s appropriation of indigenous architecture, besides its technical and ethical

dimensions, was also a phenomenological investigation.60 The space he created echoed both his

reminiscences about British and Indian architectural elements while distilling these place-bounded and

diachronic memories into synchronic plays of light. By removing geographical and temporal boundaries

from his spatial remembrance, the architect captured an imaginary space, which he described as

“Coventry Cathedral effect,” which could be experienced at any place and at any time. It was this sense of

57
Baker. “On What Being a Quaker Means.”
58
Baker, “Baker on ‘Laurie Baker’ Architecture,” 223.
59
Baker, “Baker on ‘Laurie Baker’ Architecture,” 224-226. Baker describes the challenges he
encountered during the early period of his work in India. His qualification of Associate of the Royal
Institute of British Architects does not tell him how to deal with problems such as termites, bed bugs, and
the monsoon, as well as indigenous materials such as mud walls, huge cracks, and even cow-dung. It was
at this crossroad of his career and life that he became increasingly fascinated about the indigenous
architecture.
60
Burte, “The Gandhi of Spatial Delight,” 1607-1608.
 12

detachment from a certain place and time that allowed Baker to engage tradition, in terms of techniques,

ethics, and sensations, yet remain unburdened by its historical weight.

Although the author by no means intends to devalue Baker’s work, this detachment also has its

limits. According to Elizabeth Baker, despite his Indianization and admiration for India, its people, and

architecture, Baker kept many British habits.61 Having lived in Kerala for more than forty years, Baker

spoke little Malayalam, the language spoken in Kerala.62 It was Baker’s ability to draw that helped him

communicate with workers or merchants.63 Despite her love for her husband, Elizabeth Baker admited

that not speaking Malayalam greatly prevented Baker from understanding the local history, philosophy,

and way of thinking.64 For Elizabeth Baker, Baker was hesitant to speak the local language because the

people in Kerala laughed, though kindly, whenever Baker spoke the local language. However, the reason

might also lie in Baker’s detachment from places, which allowed him to approach tradition critically and

synchronically but prevented him from appreciating its entire dimensions, some of which are situated in

history.

Nowadays, while both the Indian government and architects value Baker’s appropriation of

indigenous architectural elements, the institutionalization of Baker’s approach remains uncertain. One

challenge lies in Baker’s working process as a designer-constructor-contractor in one person. Baker

gathered a group of masons and carpenters to work directly with him. This kind of workshop avoided the

vested interest within the building industry, where artisans, paid a percentage of construction cost, seem

unlikely willing to reduce it.65 The Vijayan and Madhavan, two masons who started working with Baker

almost from the beginning of his work in Trivandrum, continued to work with Baker until his death and

61
E. Baker, The Other Side of Laurie Baker, 159. Accoring to Elizabeth Baker, Baker never forgot “thank
you” and “you first,” as well as his morning bed tea.
62
Ibid., 158.
63
Ibid., 158-159. Elizabeth Baker gives an anecdote about how Laurie used drawing to ask for butter in
Greece!
64
E. Baker, 155.
65
Baker, “Baker on ‘Laurie Baker’ Architecture,” 231. Previously, in their spare time, older girls split the
coconut palm leaf and plaited the fronds together to form a beautiful thatch that had extremely good
insulation values. Nowadays, since almost all girls go to school and more and more of them to college,
villages had neither free labor nor interest in the annual re-thatching. For this reason Baker had to build
his own construction team.
 13

called Baker “Bakerji” or “Daddy.”66 Would one be able to replicate this very personalized working

relationship when institutionalizing Baker’s approach? Will institutionalization still be able to keep

Baker’s critical pragmatism, avoiding transforming the tradition into either solely a regionally identifiable

symbol, or reproductions based merely on cost-reduction analysis? Neither able nor dare to answer these

questions, the author provides them for future discussions.

66
Bhatia, Laurie Baker: Life, Work & Writings, 160.
 14

Fig. 1. Laurie Baker. Daily News & Analysis, http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/interview-celebrated-

architect-laurie-baker-s-grandson-tells-his-life-story-in-a-compelling-biopic-2119759 (accessed April 11,
2017).

Fig. 2. Laurie Baker, The Center for Development Studies (CDS). Photograph by
Seema K.K.. Lauriebaker.net, http://lauriebaker.net/index.php/photos-and-videos/pictures-of-buildings
(accessed April 11, 2017).
 15

Fig. 3. Laurie Baker, Library Tower Stairwell at CDS. Photographed by Addison Godel. 2011, Digital
Image. Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorcasino/6026703795/ (accessed April 17, 2016).
Fig. 4, 5. Laurie Baker, The Stepped Arch. Reproduced from Laurie Baker, Manual of Cost Cuts for
Strong Acceptable Housing (Kerala: Center of Science and Technology for Rural Development
(COSTFORD), 1999), 50, http://lauriebaker.net/images/stories/files/costcutsbaker.pdf (accessed April 17,
2017).

Fig. 6. Laurie Baker, Interior of Men’s Hostel at CDS. Photograph by Seema K.K.. Lauriebaker.net,
http://lauriebaker.net/index.php/photos-and-videos/pictures-of-buildings (accessed April 11, 2017).
Fig. 7. Laurie Baker, Ladies Hostel at CDS. Photograph by Venugopal Maddipati. Reproduced from
Maddipati, “Chapter III: The Signification of Pragmatism: Laurie Baker, Gandhi and Architecture,” in
Selfsame Spaces: Gandhi, Architecture And Allusions In Twentieth Century India (PhD dissertation,
University of Minnesota, 2011), Fig. 3.4.
 16

Fig. 8, 9, 10. Ground Floor Plan & Double Wall of Upper Lobby, Computer Center at CDS. Reproduced
from Gautam Bhatia, Laurie Baker: Life, Work & Writings (New Delhi: Raj Press, 1991), 172-3.

Fig. 11, 12. Laurie Baker, Window. Reproduced from Baker, Manual of Cost Cuts for Strong Acceptable
Housing, 58.
Fig. 13. Laurie Baker, Little Janky Courtyard with Pool at CDS. Photograph by Addison Godel. 2011,
Digital Image. Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorcasino/6026701299 (accessed April 17,
2016).
 17

Fig. 14. Laurie Baker, Pointing. Reproduced from Baker, Manual of Cost Cuts for Strong Acceptable
Housing, 49.

Fig. 15. Laurie Baker, Fight for Non-Violence. Sketch. Lauriebaker.net,

http://lauriebaker.net/personal/artwork/cartoons.html (accessed April 11, 2017).
 18

Fig. 16. Laurie Baker, Coffee House near the Trivandrum Central Railway Station. Photograph by
Addison Godel. 2011, Digital Image. Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorcasino/6014752807
(accessed April 17, 2016).

Fig. 17. Laurie Baker, Details at Hamlet. Lauriebaker.net, http://lauriebaker.net/index.php/photos-and-

videos/walkthrough-of-the-hamlet/hamlet-photo-set-5-detail-photos (accessed April 18, 2017).
Fig. 18. Laurie Baker, Innovative Use of Discarded Bottless, Inset in
the Wall at Lt. Col. Jacob's Residence in Thiruvananthapuram. Reproduced from Maddipati, “Chapter
III: The Signification of Pragmatism,” Fig. 3.2.
Fig. 19. Laurie Baker, Lt. Col. Jacob’s House. Lauriebaker.net, http://lauriebaker.net/work/work/pictures-
of-buildings.html (accessed April 18, 2017).
 19

Fig. 20. St. Michael’s Church (Old Coventry Cathedral).

https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/st-mikes-ruins.php (accessed April 17, 2017).

Fig. 21. New Conventry Cathedral, 1962. https://anonw.com/2009/08/09/the-destroyed-and-the-new

(accessed April 17, 2017).
Fig. 22. Laurie Baker, Brick Jali Wall at CDS.
https://thiruvananthapuramupdates.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/laurie-bakers-unique-masterpieces-at-
thiruvananthapuram (accessed April 17, 2017).
 20

Fig. 23. Padmanabhapuram Palace Interior. Photograph by Merlin Pgs. Digital Image, 2014.
http://www.pixoto.com/awards/5071799787192320 (accessed April 17, 2017).

Fig. 24. The Spice Bed for Maharaja, the Padmanabhapuram Palace.
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=141207&page=56 (accessed April 17, 2017).
Fig. 25. Interior of Coventry Cathedral. http://www.visitcoventryandwarwickshire.co.uk/content/explore-
1000-years-history-coventry-cathedral (accessed April 17, 2017).
 21

Bibliography

Baker, Elizabeth. The Other Side of Laurie Baker. Kottayam: D.C. Books, 2007.

Baker, Laurie. “Does Building Cot-Reduction Mean Sacrifice of Quality?” Paper presented at a
symposium on “Cost-Reduction techniques in Building Construction,” sponsored by the
Department of Technical Education, March 1975.

---. “Laurie Baker’s Cost-Reduction Manual.” Appendix 2 to Laurie Baker: Life, Work, Writings, by
Gautam Bhatia, 277-300. New Delhi: Raj Press, 1991.

---. Manual of Cost Cuts for Strong Acceptable Housing. Kerala: Center of Science and Technology for
Rural Development (COSTFORD), 1999.
http://lauriebaker.net/images/stories/files/costcutsbaker.pdf (accessed April 17, 2017).

---. “On What Being a Quaker Means.” http://www.lauriebaker.net/index.php/personal/values-beliefs/on-

what-being-a-quaker-means (accessed April 17, 2017).

Bhatia, Gautam. Laurie Baker: Life, Work & Writings. New Delhi: Raj Press, 1991.

Burte, Himanshu. “The Gandhi of Spatial Delight.” Economic and Political Weekly 42, 18 (2007): 1606-
1609.

Hill, Thomas E.. “Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments.” Environmental
Ethics 5, 3 (1983): 211-224.

Khan, Sabir, and Mark Cottle. “A Detached Engagement: Tradition and the Poetics of Émigré Practice.”
Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review 12, 1 (2000): 41-42.

Maddipati, Venugopal. “Chapter III: The Signification of Pragmatism: Laurie Baker, Gandhi and
Architecture.” In Selfsame Spaces: Gandhi, Architecture And Allusions In Twentieth Century
India, 83-121. PhD dissertation, University of Minnesota, 2011.

Tewari, Saurabh. “Laurie Baker: A Model for Sustainable Architectural Design.” Paper presented at
Cumulus Mumbai: “In A Planet of Our Own,” Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai,
December 3-5, 2015. http://goo.gl/hYq1Ow (accessed April 17, 2017).