LAURIE BAKER

INTRODUCTION

Laurence Wilfred Baker

Born: March 2, 1917, Birmingham, England

Education: Graduated from Birmingham

School of Architecture, 1937

Resided in: Trivandrum, Kerala

The Brick Master of 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.

Turning point: While waiting three months in Bombay for a boat back to England in
1844, became influenced by Gandhi. Returned to India for good after a brief spell at
home. In 1948, married Dr. Elizabeth Jacob and lived in Pithoragarh till mid-60s.
Moved to Kerala thereafter.

Works: Pioneered low-cost nature friendly housing in India. Known as the 'brick
master of Kerala' for offering housing solutions to the roofless millions. Some
prominent baker buildings: center for development studies, Thiruvananthapuram;
Chitralekha studio complex, Thiruvananthapuram.

Awards: order of the British empire, Padma Shri, great masters architect of the year,
Uno habitats award & un roll of honor.
LAURIE’S STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE

Laurie’s architectural style emphasized mainly on masonry construction, ensuring

privacy and use of brick jali walls for natural ventilation. Baker’s designs have
traditional sloping roofs and terracotta Mangalore tiles and vents which allow hot air
to escape. The difference in temperature in these buildings from outside is up to 3
degree Celsius. Baker’s construction also cost a lot less due to simpler, traditional
techniques, like the use of rat trap bond for brick walls and using bends in the wall to
increase the strength. He promoted the use of low energy consuming mud walls,
using holes in the wall to get light, simpler windows and a variety of roof construction
approaches. He liked bare brick surfaces.

He believed in the construction of buildings which were in harmony with its

surrounding environment; he rarely cleared the construction area of its green cover.
LAURIE BAKER’S ARCHITECTURAL PRINCIPLES

“I never build for classes of people- high income, middle income or low
income groups, tribals or fishermen. I only build for a Matthew, a
Bhaskaran, a Muneer or a Sankaran.” – Laurie Baker

• Take what you can

deliver • Don’t be a show-off

• Keep it simple • Respect yourself and others

• Know your site well • Cost efficiency for all

• Services play an important • Keep yourself updated

role
• Don’t do what is unnecessary
• Create unique buildings
• Use common sense and have fun
• Explore local materials
and workmen • Be a minimalist

• Save natural resources • Be honest

LAURIE BAKER’S SKETCHES & DRAWINGS

Baker always carried his home-made diary fashioned out of old pieces of paper
from envelopes, marriage invitations, advertisements and other waste paper
wherever he went.

Baker's ability to sketch was one of the main reasons he never needed to
become fluent in Indian languages. Whenever people didn't understand
English he would whip out his diary and scribble together a quick sketch to
explain what he meant.

Baker always advised architecture students to develop the habit of sketching

to document buildings and other things of interest rather than use a camera.
 LAURIE BAKER
LOW COST CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES
LOW COST CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES

•Filler slab : advantages:

• 20-35% less materials

• Decorative, economical & reduced
self-load
• Almost maintenance free
• 25-30% cost reduction

•Jack arch: advantages :

• Energy saving & eco-friendly

compressive roofing.
• Decorative & highly economical
• Maintenance free

•Masonry dome, advantages:

• Energy saving eco-friendly

compressive roof.
• Decorative & highly economical
for larges spans.
• Maintenance free

•Funicular shell, advantages:

• Energy saving eco-friendly

compressive roof.
• Decorative & economical
• Maintenance free

•Masonry arches, advantages:

• Traditional spanning system.

• Highly decorative & economical
• Less energy requirement.
 RAT TRAP BOND

Rat trap bond is a brick masonry method of wall construction, in which bricks are
placed in vertical position instead of conventional horizontal position and thus
creating a cavity (hollow space) within the wall. Architect Laurie baker introduced it
in Kerala in the 1970s and used it extensively for its lower construction cost, reduced
material requirement and better thermal efficiency than conventional masonry wall,
without compromising strength of the wall.

The Rat trap bond is still mainly

unknown in India, though used in
England for the past several hundred
years. It is as strong as the other bonds
but uses 25% LESS bricks and mortar.
Thermal insulation is very much better.
This creates a
‘bonded cavity’.

Bricks are laid on edge, not flat.

The Cavity in the Rat trap bond wall ensures

good insulation from heat and cold.
This can be ruined by a poor mason carelessly
slopping mortar into the cavity while he is
building.
To avoid this
1.Make sure the mortar is not too wet, and
2.Use a 3” wide strip of wood, laid over the
central cavity and place the mortar on both
sided of it.

(No mortar is required on the middle of the

cross brick.)
 FOUNDATIONS

For small houses, Especially for single story ones) there is

no need to build the upper brick walls over the middle of
the foundation wall.

Set the upper wall over the o f the foundat ion walls. It
prevents rain seepage

When digging out the trenches for the foundation walls, do

not scatter the soil all over the place. Keep it altogether in
the middle as it will be needed for infilling in-between the
plinth walls (from ground level to floor level.)

Usually stop at floor level (30 or 40 cm When the soil is strong and hard
above ground level.). there is no need for either to
concrete or the layer of thick
stone work.
ADOBE CONSTRUCTION

Cob
Mix soil with only a little water - pick up as much as you
can in your two hands and make a ‘roll’.

Pressed bricks
A hand operated machine compresses the earth into
hard, smooth, strong bricks (the machine can be
owned by the community or panchayat).

These can be used for even three story houses,

though each story must be protected from rain by
overhanging slabs.

Rammed Earth
With a properly made frame (which can be taken to
pieces) rammed earth makes a very strong wall.

It is essentially good for large, low, solid looking

buildings or it can take the weight of heavy roofing
such as reinforced concrete.

Wattle and Daub

This system of using mud for house building is more usual
in India's eastern states.
It is mainly used in bamboo growing areas.
It is particularly good and ‘safe’ in areas prone to earth
tremors. It is also adaptable to any shape of building.
 BRICK JALI

‘Jali’ - formerly pierced stone panels – is one of India's oldest methods of letting into
a building filtered light and ventilation but maintaining privacy and security.

BRICK JALI can function in the same way – either as panels or as a complete load
bearing wall.

There is the old “honey comb” pattern of ‘jali’

brick work.

The holes can be extended vertically.

Or there can be alternating sections of one row

of holes followed by 2 or 3 rows of holes, then
the single hole row again
– And so on.

Once these patterns have been used – a good

mason can devise and enjoy doing many
patterns.
ARCHES

Arches can be of different shapes and sizes and are

much less costly than R.C. Lintels.

But while constructing them, some sort of frame work

or support is necessary.

In one building there may be arches of different sizes so

make the frame for the smallest – and add a row or two
of dry bricks
(No mortar) for the larger arches.

CORBEL ARCH

The usual round and segmental arches need

shuttering or support during construction.

The corbel arch needs no support and is

extremely simple and easy to make.

One quarter of a brick is extended out from

the brick below it. The writer successfully
used such ‘arches’ over openings up to 5
meters wide.
FILLER SLAB

In the orthodox reinforced concrete slab

the dead weight of its concrete is
heavy. This weight can be lessened by
putting light weight material between
the steel rods.
The simplest ‘filler’ is to use two
grade Mangalore tiles. These have
no structural strength value – they are
mere ‘fillers’.
Using them saves about 30% dead
weight of the ‘slab’ – so less steel is
needed – so much steel, sand, cement
metal and cost is saved.

(Variable rod size

according to span)
DOOR/WINDOW

Doors do not have to have frames, panels, etc. A few planks can be fixed
together with strap hinges to form a strong door.

A little bit of cutting can give a small pattern.

The cost will be much less than half the cost of a normal door.

A WINDOW with a frame and a shutter, with

glass, and perhaps a metal grill, is very costly.

A simple 1” thick, 9” wide plank of wood, with

a rounded protrusion at both ends, will fit into
2 strips of wood (30 or 35 cm long, 8 cm wide)
and you have a ‘window’!

Even when it is open, no one can climb through

the two 4 inch openings, so no grill is required.
If a larger window is needed, put 2 or 3 in a
row.
 INDIAN COFFEE HOUSE
TRIVANDRUM, KERALA

One of the prominent landmarks in the Thampanoor area of

Trivandrum, where both the railway station as well as the bus
terminal are located, is the Indian coffee house designed by Laurie
baker.
The entire building is conceived as a continuous spiral ramp, with a central
circular service core and with dining spaces provided on the outer side. The form
of the building is thus unconventional & bears baker’s trademark Jaalis to let in
light & ventilation. The building is well proportioned, a cylindrical brick-red spiral
continuing for a couple of floors and then terminating in a smaller cylindrical
volume on top, giving a very unsymmetrical balance to the whole structure.
FEATURES

• The material palette is again typical baker.

• The walls are made of exposed brickwork which has been painted over – white on
the inner side & brick-red on the exterior.
• There are no windows – Jaalis serve to bring in plenty of light & ventilation,
ensuring that the interiors are nice & comfortable.
• There is a circular service core in the center, which consists of 2 concentric circles.
The inner smaller circular core is a narrow vertical shaft open on the top, with
openings at different levels.
• The table and the seats are built-in.

• The table consists of a concrete slab fixed to the wall & with a semicircular taper
on one side. This slab is resting on a small brick arch which serves as the legs.

• The seats are again interestingly designed and accommodate 2 people

comfortably on either side. The seats of adjacent tables are abutting back to back,
but are at 2 different levels to accommodate the slope.

• The seats are again made in brickwork and are finished with block-oxide on top
and the backrest. The remarkable thing about these built-in furniture's is that
Baker has designed them so very precisely ergonomically that they are very
comfortable to use, in spite of being so simple.
 Construction Technique

• Rat trap bond is used as the

construction in this building.

• Rat trap- is a cavity wall construction

with added advantage of thermal
comfort.

• It is an alternative to normal English

bond masonry walls by which 15% of
cost can be reduced without
compromising the quality, appearance
and strength.

Problems

Now although the building is unique in design, there are a few functional
issues. Due to the placement of the kitchen on the ground level, it becomes
difficult for the serving staff as they have to continuously climb up and down
the ramp to place the orders & then to serve the people sitting on the upper
levels. Thus, they in fact ask the customers to occupy the lower seating first
before going up the spiral. Also, the slope of the ramp is a bit steep, which
contributes to a slippery slope which sometimes results in a few falls.

Yet, one cannot deny the ingenuity of Baker to come up with such a design
solution in such an urban context, creating a memorable building.
• There is a circular service core in the center, which consists of 2 concentric
circles. The inner smaller circular core is a narrow vertical shaft open on the top,
with openings at different levels.

• This shaft provides ventilation to the central areas and works on the principle of
stack effect, a very simple but effective solution that is so typical of baker.

• Around this circular core are the service areas, especially the toilets &
handwash. The kitchen is placed on the ground floor and has a separate service
entrance.

• Since buildings are not totally sealed, the Stack effect will cause air infiltration.

• During the heating season, the warmer indoor air rises up through the
building and escapes at the top either through open windows, ventilation
openings, or unintentional holes in ceilings, like ceiling fans and recessed lights.

• The rising warm air reduces the pressure in the base of the building, drawing
cold air in through either open doors, windows, or other openings and leakage.

• During the cooling season, the stack effect is reversed, but is typically
weaker due to lower temperature differences.