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Ashutosh MukherjeeRidhi Kanwar

1917 -2007

Laurie Baker, an Indian architect of British origin, passed away last Sunday at the age of ninety at home in Thiruvananthapuram. The conscience keeper of Indian architecture, and a widely admired (but imperfectly appreciated) icon of alternative practices of modernity in Indian life, also had a great sense of humour. Was the departure on April 1- that had us scrambling for confirmation after the first sms- his little parting joke then?For over four decades, Baker has been known for his pioneering practice of cost-effective architecture in Kerala. Famous as the builder of affordable homes for the poor, Baker was (is it already ‘was’?) also a unique creative artist whose originality, technical control and a unique sense of whimsy made low cost yield high architectural quality for everyone .

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His greatest contribution was showing that cost-effective and ecologically sustainable construction does not automatically imply shoddy building and reduced creative freedom.Baker showed, in fact, that sustainable technologies when adopted with care and creativity, could lead to a unique architectural expression, one that moved the expert and the layman alike.Baker’s life and practice were often marked by strategic inversions of conventions in the pursuit of foundational ideals. His method of practice was the very opposite of the statutory model in India which followed the British system. Thus, while Indian architects around him followed the British way of designing and directing operations from their drawing boards as ‘consultants’ far removed from the bustle of the site, Baker organized his work as a designer-builder in the manner of the traditional Indian master craftsman. He never maintained a regular office or a battalion of assistants, often sketched on waste paper, and designed largely on site. Unlike most practicing architects, he knew the trades well enough to train his workers himself and be open enough to learn from them at the same time. Every project was thus design-built with teams of craftsmen he had himself trained. This hands-on approach made it possible for him to pursue cost-effectiveness in design, otherwise impossible in the normal professional mode.

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ARCHITECTURAL STYLEThroughout his practice, Baker became well known for designing and building low cost, high quality, beautiful homes, with a great portion of his work suited to or built for lower-middle to lower class clients. His buildings tend to emphasize prolific - at times virtuosic - masonry construction, instilling privacy and evoking history with brick jali walls, a perforated brick screen which invites a natural air flow to cool the buildings' interior, in addition tocreating intricate patterns of light and shadow.

Another significant Baker feature is irregular, pyramid-like structures on roofs, with one side left open and tilting into the wind. Baker's designs invariably have traditional Indian sloping roofs and terracotta Mangalore tile shingling with gables and vents allowing rising hot air to escape. Curved walls enter Baker's architectural vocabulary as a means to enclose more volume at lower material cost than straight walls, and for Laurie, "building [became] more fun with the circle." A testament to his frugality, Baker was often seen rummaging through salvage heaps looking for suitable building materials, door and window frames, sometimes hitting a stroke of luck as evidenced by the intricately carved entry to the Chitralekha Film Studio (Aakulam, Trivandrum, 1974–76): a capricious architectural element found in a junk heap.

The Indian Coffee House in Thiruvananthapuram

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ARCHITECTURAL STYLE

Baker's architectural method is one of improvisation, in which 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. Compartments for milk bottles near the doorstep, windowsills that double as bench surfaces, and a heavy emphasis on taking cues from the natural condition of the site are just some examples. His Quaker-instilled respect for nature lead him to let the idiosyncrasies of a site inform his architectural improvisations, rarely is a topography line marred or a tree uprooted. This saves construction cost as well, since working around difficult site conditions is much more cost-effective than clear-cutting. ("I think it's a waste of money to level a well-moulded site") Resistant to "high-technology" that addresses building environment issues by ignoring natural environment, at the Centre for Development Studies (Trivandrum, 1971) Baker created a cooling system by placing a high, latticed, brick wall near a pond that uses air pressure differences to draw cool air through the building. Various features of his work such as using recycled material, natural environment control and frugality of design may be seen as sustainable architecture or green building with its emphasis on sustainability. His responsiveness to never-identical site conditions quite obviously allowed for the variegation that permeates his work.

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Baker’s must also rank among the ‘freest’ of architectural imaginations in contemporary Indian architecture. His India Coffee House, a small building for an inexpensive restaurant outside the main bus stand at Thiruvananthapuram , shows how free he was from pre-conceived ideas as well as from any fear of the apparent strangeness of his own solutions. Here the dining area is a curving ramp that rises about two floors and winds tightly about a functional service core housing the pantry and stores. Built-in seats and tables hug the curving outer jali wall, whose perforations throw a playful pattern of light on the spiraling floor while lending a tapestry-like feel to the wall when viewed from outside.It was in one of the last houses that he built in his usual hands-on manner, however, that I came to appreciate to the fullest, the sheer poetry, quirkiness and humanity of his architectural imagination. The house for Suresh and Neerada is built around a mango shaped open courtyard. A continuous filler slab roof spirals up from the lowest level to the highest in a continuous sweep. There is not a single straight line in the plan. The living room has a little window seat with a rare luxury - an almost traditional wooden 3 window seat with a trellis. The living space curves deeper into the house and the glowing darkness at the other end is leavened by a dramatically lit nook to one side. And at the centre of it all, the long rising, curving wall has what looks like a large scatter of stained glass, but is actually a multi-coloured pattern of recycled bottles built into the brickwork . The experiential richness of that space has not dimmed in my memory for seven years.

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List of Architectural WorkInstitutions and Buildings

Leprosy homes for Mission to Lepers across IndiaPithoragarh house, school and hospital complex

Nepal HospitalAllahabad Agricultural University

Lucknow Psychiatric Centre, Noor ManzilLiteracy Village, Lucknow

Centre for Social Studies, SuratAhmedbad & Baroda – factories

Jyothi Pumps, BarodaChildren’s Village, 1965, Kulashekaram, Tamil Nadu

Mitraniketan, VagamonHorst Kowski orphanages and homes across India (other than

Childrens Village Nagercoil)Houses for the Archbishop of Trivandrum

Tourist Resort near MuttamLoyola Women’s Hostel, 1970, Sreekaryam

Loyola Chapel and Auditorium, 1971, SreekaryamCentre for Development Studies (CDS), 1971, Ulloor

St John’s Cathedral, 1973, ThiruvellaNalanda State Institute of Languages, 1973, Nandankode

Chitralekha Film Studio, 1975, AakulamPallikoodam (Corpus Christi), 1972, Kottayam

Fishermen’s Village, 1974, PoonthuraMitraniketan, Vellanad

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List of Architectural WorkTourist Centre, 1980, Ponmudi

The Indian Coffee House, at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, IndiaChapel for Sacred Hearts Centre, at Monroe Island, Quilon

Navjeevodayam, ThiruvallaNirmithi Kendra, 1987, Aakulam

CSI Church expansion wingParuthipara Church

Salim Ali Centre, Anakatti, CoimbatoreThe Hall near Jawahar Nagar

AHADS (Attapadi Hill Area Development Society)Latur Eathquake buildings

Jilla Panchayat Office, Thevally, KollamKanyakumari Boat-building Yard

Nrityagram, BangaloreDakshina Chitra, Chennai, 1996

Building Centre at Anna University, MadrasSome buildings in Kishkinta, Madras

Sewa, VillapilshaalaInternational Blind Children’s School

Chengalchoola Slum Dwelling Units, TrivandrumNava Yatra, Villapilshaala, Trivandrum

Karimadom Colony, Trivandrum

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The Hamlet

The true personality of an architect is reflected in the way he designs his own house. The design of his house is the manifestation of his character, principles and architectural beliefsBaker's house in a quiet

niche in Kerala's capital city represents a captivating fusion of nature and home. The feeling of being away from nature always brings a certain melancholy to the city-dweller. The fact that nature and home have become two separate entities brings so much pain that one can barely think of anything else. In Baker's creations one can always see a great respect for nature.

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Centre for development studies

A low entrance of the perforated wall cut into the centre and directs the visitor up into a lobby lit by a skylight

He designed on the principle of open lattice wall planning, breezeways and built of natural brick and stone.Baker introduced a double walled building with an outer surface intersecting circles of brick jalis which followed the design of the main academic block.

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Loyola women’s hostelThis was his first institutional project in Trivandrum.For baker it was necessary that the “prison like feeling” should not exist.He avoided single room for girls, and preferred the safety and comfort of a cottage.

He identified with the needs of the occupants and accordingly gives a character to a particular space.

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CREDNTIALS• LAURIBAKER.NET

• ARCHITECTURE+DESIGN MAGAZINE

ISSUE NO. AUG 2007

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurie_Baker

Lauri Baker 1917 -2007