LAURIE BAKER

• (March 2, 1917 – April 1, 2007) British-born Indian

architect
• 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
Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala.
• In 1990, the Government of India awarded him with
the Padma Shri in recognition of his meritorious
service in the field of architecture.
• Baker studied architecture in Birmingham and
graduated in 1937, aged 20, in a period of political
unrest for Europe.
• During the Second World War, he served in the
Friends Ambulance Unit in China and Burma.
• worked as an architect for an international and
interdenominational Mission dedicated to the care
of those suffering from leprosy.
LAURIE BAKER

• focused on converting or replacing asylums once used to house the ostracized

sufferers of the disease - "lepers".
• Baker lived in Kerala with Doctor P.J. Chandy.
• He received great encouragement and later married his sister
• while Laurie continued his architectural work and research accommodating
the medical needs of the community through his constructions of various
hospitals and clinics.
• Baker sought to enrich the culture in which he participated by promoting
simplicity and home-grown quality in his buildings.
• His emphasis on cost-conscious construction,
• An ideal that the Mahatma expressed as the only means to revitalize and
liberate an impoverished India
PHILOSOPHY IN PRACTISE

• “ 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

ARCHITECTURAL
pure visual forms.”

PRINCIPLES
• Always study your site , soil, topography, water climate & neighbors (noisy temples,
smelly factories, etc.)
• Every building should be unique no two people, or families etc. are alike, so why
should their homes all be the same?
• See potential services – water, drainage, access, power, fuel, phone, etc. if not possible
or available, what will you do?
• Study & know local materials– their availability, performance, costs, techniques &
CONCEPTS AND STYLE OF
BAKER

• 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 left open and tilting
into the wind .
• Brick jali walls, a perforated brick screen which utilizes natural air movement
to cool the homes interior and create intricate patterns of light and shadow.
• Bakers designs invariably have traditional Indian sloping roofs and terracotta
Mangalore tile shingling with gables and vents allowing rising hot air to escape
curved walls to enclose more volume at lower material cost than straight walls.
• Baker was often seen rummaging through salvage heaps looking for suitable
building materials, door and window frames.
• Initial drawings have only an idealistic link to the final construction, with most
of the accommodations and design choices being made on-site by the architect
himself.
LOW COST CONSTRUCTION
FILLER SLAB
Filler slab is alternate slab construction technology where part
of concrete in bottom of slab is replaced by filler material. The
basic principal is that the concrete in bottom half of RCC slab
is structurally not required as concrete acts as compression
material which is required in top half portion of slab

ADVANTAGES:

• 20-35% Less materials

• Decorative,
• Economical & Reduced
• self-load
• Almost maintenance free
• 25-30% Cost Reduction

JACK RACK
ADVANTAGES:

• Energy saving & EcoFriendly

• compressive roofing.
LOW COST CONSTRUCTION
MASONARY DOME
ADVANTAGES:

•Energy saving eco-friendly compressive roof.

•Decorative & Highly Economical for larges spans.
•Maintenance free

FUNNICULAR SHELL
ADVANTAGES:

•Energy saving eco-friendly compressive roof.

•Decorative & Economical
•Maintenance free

MASONRY ARCHES

ADVANTAGES:
BUILDINGS

• THE HAMLET (HIS RESIDENCE

• FISHERMEN’S VILLAGE
• CENTRE FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES,
ULLOOR
• LOYOLA CHAPEL AND AUDITORIUM, 1971,
SREEKARYAM
• LEPROSY HOMES FOR MISSION TO LEPERS
ACROSS INDIA
• PITHORAGARH HOUSE, SCHOOL AND
HOSPITAL COMPLEX
• ALLAHABAD AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
• LOYOLA WOMEN’S HOSTEL, 1970,
SREEKARYAM
• NEETAS HOUSE
• HUDCO SURESH
 LOW COST CONSTRUCTION
THE HAMLET

BAKER’S RESIDENCE-Thiruvananthapurram,kerala
• An architect’s personality is reflected in the way he design his own house.
• Baker’s own residence is called ‘The Hamlet’. It has been built in
Thiruvananthapuram, built on a steeply sloping and rocky hillside that hardly
had any vegetation when Baker started constructing.
• Baker has truly adopted his motto to “make low-costery a habit and a way of
life” by reusing everything, from brick to glass bottles, as building materials.
• First he built a single room hut of timber, which consists of the library of
 LOW
THE COST CONSTRUCTION
HAMLET
• The site was highly contoured and rocky, but
baker did not disturb even a single rock or a
tree, so it is popularly named as “RIGHT IN
THE ROCKS”.
• The hamlet’ has been built on a steeply
contoured site, but the incursion of structures
on the site is not felt.
• Baker has managed to confine this building
to an area that is easily accessible& yet
secluded by the heavy foliage. a rocky hill,
with limited access to water

• The journey to Bakers home is like from a concrete

jungle of Trivandrum to the freshness & shade of
the suburbs.
• This is remarkable and unique house built on a
plot of land along the slope of
 THE HAMLET

DRAWINGS OF HAMLET

INITIAL DESIGN OF HAMLET

• First he built a single room hut of

timber,
• which consists
Library of medical books
Bed room,
Living room ,
Drawing room
Study.
• Later some alterations took place.
 THE HAMLET

ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES
THE HAMLET
 THE HAMLET
DETAILS

This NIECERIE was built for

baker’s four nieces

The Dog House And The round-

Even the dog has a well shaped NIECERIE
placed jali to let the
morning light filter in
Baker was very fond of beautiful carvings which
were usually lost when old traditional Kerala
houses were destroyed to make ‘modern’ ones
 THE HAMLET
DOG HOUSE
 THE HAMLET

LIVING ROOM
THE HAMLET
 THE HAMLET
OTHER FEATURES
THE HAMLET
THE HAMLET
THE HAMLET
 THE HAMLET
USE OF NATURAL LIGHT
THE HAMLET
 THE HAMLET

• Using corbelling instead of a lintel

above the frame, this reduces the cost
of the R.C.C lintel.
• Using less number of bricks to make a
wall of same thickness and providing
cavities in between for insulation.

• He used jalis which had many

advantages, such as ventilation,
enough light, less material
required.
• Reducing the unnecessary cost of a
window with a shutter.
• Using ‘jali’ in his walls for proper
cross ventilation, enough sun light
etc
 THE HAMLET

• The upturned, horned roofs of buildings as found in Kerala are

the direct result of the people of those places, they knew that
hot air rises & allowed it to travel upwards from the low eaves
to the openings at the ends of the high ridge.

• They understood and applied principles of insulation; then

roofing materials formed hollow cellular protective layers.

• Laurie Baker used material from other demolished structures.

Wood planks from an old boat jetty. He even used old bottles in
a structure, which gives a different effect.

• Baker creates a variety of textures and patterns by simple

manipulation of the way in which bricks are placed in the wall.
 THE LOYOLA CHAPEL AND
AUDITORIUM
• Located at Sreekarayam ,
1971.
• A common chapel and an
auditorium for high school
and a post-graduate complex
in The Loyola Complex.
•  It required a seating capacity
of 1000.
• The total covered area of the
chapel and auditorium and
the gallery is 930 square
meters approximately.
• The cost in 1970-71, including
the furniture and
appurtenances, lighting and
sanitation was kept within the
original gift sum of 1.75 lakh
rupees.
 THE LOYOLA CHAPEL AND
AUDITORIUM
• Wide cavity double-wall
with cross-bracing brick -
to increase the lateral
strength of the high brick
wall, without the
introduction of any steel
or concrete.
• Continuous floor-to-roof
pattern of jails – provided
good lighting and
ventilation in the chapel.
• Acoustics – Well
maintained with the help
of exposed brick surfaces
and open patterns of jali
which reduces
reverberations.
THE LOYOLA CHAPEL AND
AUDITORIUM
THANK YOU