LAURENCE WILFRED BAKER

Presented by:-
VIBHASH AJMERA
 PERSONAL INFORMATION

NAME : LAURANCE WILFRED BAKER

Nationality : British-origin, Indian

Birth date : MARCH 2, 1917

Birth place : Birmingham, England

Date of death : April 1, 2007, aged 90

Place of death : Thiruvananthapuram,

Kerala, India
Laurence Wilfred "Laurie" Baker
was an award-winning English
architect, renowned for his initiatives
in low-cost housing. He CAME 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 Baker's innovative use of
with THE PADMA SHRI, the nation's discarded bottless, creates a
stained glass effect.
fourth highest civilian award, in
recognition of his meritorious service
in the field of architecture.
 Education and missionary work
Baker studied architecture in Birmingham and graduated in
1937, aged 20. His initial commitment to India had him
working as an architect for an international and
interdenominational Mission dedicated to the care of those
suffering from leprosy. Finding his English construction
education to be inadequate for the types of issues and
materials he was faced with: termites and the yearly
monsoon, as well as laterite, cow dung, and mud walls,
respectively, Baker had no choice but to observe and learn
from the methods and practices of the vernacular
architecture.
Inspired by his discoveries he began to turn his style of
architecture towards one that respected the actual culture and
needs of those who would actually use his buildings, rather
than just playing to the more "Modern-istic" tunes of his
paying clients.
 Architectural style
Throughout his practice, Baker
became well known for designing and
building low cost, high quality 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 utilises natural air movement to
cool the home's interior and create
intricate patterns of light and shadow.

JALI WALL at Central for

Development Studies,
Thiruvananthapuram.
 Another significant Baker feature
is irregular, pyramid-like
structures on roofs, with one side
left open and tilting into the wind.
Curved walls enter Baker's
architectural vocabulary as a
means to enclose more volume at
The living room of Dr. Dolas' residence, Bakerlower material cost than straight
playfully uses curved forms. walls. 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.

'The Hamlet', Laurie Baker's home,

built on a steeply sloping and rocky hillside.
In one of the exhibition rooms, there is a chart written in his
own hand listing the many things of wisdom
he discovered through his extremely productive working life as
an architect and a humanist:
• Only accept a reasonable brief
• Discourage extravagance and snobbery
• Always study your site and see potential relating to the soil,
drainage, power, fuel etc.
• You yourself get accurate site details and in-situ facts
• Every building should be unique; no two families are alike, so
why should their habitation be alike?
• Study and know local materials, cost, building techniques and
construction
• Study the energy used in the production of materials and
transport
• Don’t rob national resources; don’t use them extravagantly or
unnecessarily
• Be honest in design, materials, construction, costs and your
own mistakes
•Avoid opulance and showing-off by using currently fashionable
gimmicks
• Get your conscience out of deep-freeze, and use it
• Look closely at your prejudices and question them
• Have faith in your convictions and have the courage to stick to
them

The living room at 'The Hamlet'. An integration of The India coffee house in
new building and salvaged timber from Thiruvananthapuram.
traditional buildings that were being demolished.
 Awards

•In 1987 ,the first Indian National

Habitat Award.
•In 1989, Indian Institute of Architects
Medal for Outstanding Architect of the
year.
•In 1990, Grand Masters Award -
Architect of the year.
•In 1991, Indian Institute of Architects
Medal - Outstanding Architect.
•In 1992, UNO Habitat Award and Roll
of Honour.
•In 1993, International Union of
Architects - World Habitat Award.
•In 1995, University of Central England. Stainwell in Nalini Nayak's
residence in Thiruvananthapuram,
Doctor of the University. Perforated brick walls create
dappled patterns of light.
 WORKS

Centre for Development Studies Ulloor, Trivandrum, 1971

the most important project of baker’s career. The significance
of this assign­ment had less to do with size and budget, than
with the idea of exhibiting a range of concepts applied to
buildings of varying functions, scale and dimensions.
An area of nine acres accommodates administrative offices, a
com­puter centre, an amphi-theatre, a library, classrooms,
housing and other components of an institutional design.

The Computer centre, Centre for

Development Studies, Here Baker
evolved an innovative system of curved
double walls to save on cost and to
conserve the energy that goes into air-
conditioning a building of this scale and
purpose.
Here, at the summit, the library dominates the centre with a
seven-storey tower; the administrative offices and classrooms
are scat­tered in a randomness determined by each one's
position on the slope. However, the buildings remain tightly
connected through corridors that snake upwards to the library
along breezy walkways and landscaped courts.
Building textures, configurations and spanning elements
demonstrate Baker’s easy manipulation of brick, all of which were
made close to the site and fired with locally-available coconut palm
wood. All surfaces, whether inside or out, in the dormitory or
classroom, are exposed to patterns showing varying honding
techniques and jali work. Openings are arched, corbelled or
spanned with brick lintels. Wall thicknesses change on different
floors, depending on the loading and requirement.
 Loyola Chapel and Auditorium
Sreekarayam, 1971

The Loyola complex contains a high

school and a post-graduate complex,
both sharing a common chapel and an
auditorium. It was here that Baker's
skills of cost-reduction met their
greatest challenge, as it required a
seating capacity of one thousand. In
order to increase the lateral strength
of the high brick wall, without the
introduction of any steel or concrete,
Baker devised a wide cavity double-
wall with cross-bracing brick.
 Both the walls were pierced
with a continuous floor-to-roof
pattern of jails, so that the
chapel was adequately,
though somewhat
mysteriously, lit-and
Windowless cavity wall ventilated. Despite its tall
proportions, the acoustics of
the hall were remarkable-the
exposed surfaces and the
open patterns of brickwork
controlling the
reverberations.
 The total covered area of
the chapel and auditorium
and the gallery is
approximately 930 square
meters. 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.
Plan of Loyola Chapel 1. Chapel nave
2. Sanctuary
3. Narthex
4. Sacristy
5. Chapel
6. Terrace
7. Auditorium
8. Stage
9. Green room
10. Toilet
 Loyola Chapel and Auditorium: Estimate of Cost
Rate Quantity Figure Say
Excavation and refilling cu.ft. 0.06 16,000 960 1,000
Concrete foundations 1:4:8 cu.ft. 1.20 1,900 2,280 2,500
DPC:CM 1:3 crude oil 5% wt c. sq.ft. 0.30 560 168 200
RR masonry in 1:5 cm cu.ft. 0.95 3,360 3,192 3,300
first class bricks in 1:5 cm cu.ft. 1.80 16,100 28,980 29,000
4.5" brick in 1:4 cm sq.ft. 0.75 1,250 938 1,000
ditto query extra sq.ft. 0.75 1,600 1,200 1,500
flooring 4"1:4:8 plus c.finish sq.ft. 0.65 6,840 4,480 4,500
slab floor c. finish 500
0.5" cm plaster sq.ft. 0.22 11,860 2,609 3,000
3 coat whitewashing sq.ft. 0.03 11,860 355 500
I Supercem 3 coats (2 and primer) sq.ft. 0.30 11,860 3,560 4,000
RCframe cu.ft. 11.00 8,500 8,500
RCslabs cu.ft. 8.00 2,560 20,480 20,500
Doors 5,000
Windows 500
Chapel ceiling 10,000
Auditorium ceiling '" 7,500
Roof weathering 3" jelly tiles etc. sq.ft. 1.50 1,150 1,725 2,000
AC roofing sq.ft. 1.50 6,050 9,075 9,000
Steel trusses cu.wt. 115. 25,000
Sanitation and drains 2,500
Electrical installation 10,000
3% contingencies 4,425 4,500
Furniture for chapel 18,000

Total Rs 1,70,000
House for Dr A. Vaidyanathan
Kumarapuram, Trivandrum, 1972
It is the one of the Baker's more successful circular houses. In
the Vaidyanathan house, the rooms are arranged in a wide arc
facing the sea. The plan orients outwards in a double semicircle
which incorporates all the major spaces of the house on the
upper floor: living, dining and bedroom, with the semicircle
ending in a study at one end and a car port in the other. A
staircase at the entrance travels down to the lower floor that is
built against the retaining wall of the hill and houses two
additional bedrooms and a study. However, the brick walls of
these rooms are separated from the inner stone retaining wall by
a small air space, setting up an effective termite and moisture
barrier.
A significant architectural
feature of the
Vaidyanathan House is an
open-to-sky circular court,
completing the inner wall
of the house in a pattern of
staggered brick and
becoming the home of an
ancient mango tree.
Surprisingly, the entrance
door is located on the side
at the meeting point of the
house and court wall-and
not on an axial approach as
may be expected.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
•LAURIE BAKER Life, Work & Writings
By G.Bhatia

WEBLIOGRAPHY
• Www.Wikipedia.Com
THANK YOU…….