THE INDIAN COFFEE HOUSE AT THIRUVANATHAPURAM

ARCHITECTURAL APPRAISAL
CODE - 208

BY
KAVYA MS
REGNO. IV 1165

THE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS, MUMBAI

DECEMBER 2015
Project title The Indian Coffee House at Thiruvanathapuram
Building photograph
(650x450)

Building typology Commercial building

Present use of building Coffee Shop
Address/Location The Indian Coffee House, MLA Hostel
compound, Thampanoor , Kerala
Owner Indian coffee board workers, Co operative
society Ltd, No.4227, PB no.184, Thrissur
Completion year 1958
Architectural Style Neo Vernacular
Architect Ar. Laurie Baker
Contractors
Consultants
Cost of building
Comment
 ABOUT THE ARCHITECT;
LAURENCE WILFRED LAURIE BAKER
(2 March 1917-1 April 2007)

He was a British -born Indian Architect, renowned

for his initiatives in cost-effective, energy- efficient architecture and designs that
maximized space, ventilation and light and maintained uncluttered yet skirting
sensibility. He was a pioneer of sustainable architecture as well as organic
architecture.

Throughout the practice, baker became well known for designing and
building low cost, high quality, beautiful homes with a great portion of his work
suited to built for lower to lower-middle class clients. His buildings tend to emphasis
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 building's interior ,in addition to creating intricate patterns of lights and
shadow. Another significant baker feature is irregular pyramid-like structures of roofs,
with one side left open and tilting to the wind. Curved walls enter Baker architectural
vocabulary as a means to enclose more volume at lower material cost than straight
walls, and for Laurie Baker building more fun with the circle

 MAJOR WORKS
 Centre for development studies(Trivandrum)
 Literacy village (Lucknow)
 Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural history
(Coimbatore)
 DakshinaChithra(Chennai)
 Loyola Chapel &Auditorium (Trivandrum)

 AWARDS
 MBE in 1981
 PADMA SHRI 1992
 The main attraction of this building is it’s unusual design, the entire building
is conceived as a continues spiral ramp ,with a central circular service core and with
dining spaces provided on the outer side. The form of the building is thus
conventional & bears bakers trademark jalis to let in light & ventilation. The building
is well proportioned with 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.

JALIS: Baker widely used jalis in his work. Jali wall is a better substitute for
a window It lets in plenty of subdued light.It also deals with ventilation but prevents
driving rain from entering.The building is secure from animals too.Unlike windows,
simple jalis cost less than the walls they replace.It is clear that the minimum use of
bricks indeed saves the cost and also the amount of mortar used in the construction.
All these factor can red uce the total cost of building.

RAT TRAP BOND: Baker introduced Rat Trap Bond in

Kerala in the 1970s. He used it extensively for lowering the construction cost due to
reduced material requirement. It also provides better thermal efficiency than
conventional masonry wall ,without compromising the strength of wall .In this
construction, bricks are placed in vertical position instead of conventional horizontal
position and thus creating a cavity within the walls. Since the width of wall remains
23 cm, an internal cavity is created . This is where approximately 30% of material is
saved and thus overall construction cost is reduced. Cavity provides effective thermal
and sound insulation .This makes rat trap bond energy and cost efficient building
technology.
LOCATION
 Trivandrum Central is one of the biggest and busiest railway station of
India. Leave behind the bustle of humanity on the move and the first thing that comes
across us on our journey to the city is the funky looking brick red building that look
like a conch shell given the Picasso treatment, the famous Indian Coffee House at
Thambanoor,Thiruvanathapuram.With its unique style this building gives
Thiruvanathapuram another architectural landmark.

The building is situated in the MLA hostel compound. During the

construction of this building, Trivandrum was not a big city, but now the city is
developed. Now a days, we can see that, there is no setback from the road. There is
just a1 feet distance from the road. The building is situated to Northern side of the NH
47 Salem- Kochi- Kanyakumari highway. There are many numbers of small shops
around this building. KSRTC stand is situated on the North East side of the building.
The entrance of the building is from its Southern side.

Thiruvanathapuram or Trivandrum is situated in the south west coast of India.

The winter and summer are both quiet alike here with a temperature ranging from 40
*C to 21*C staying constant throughout the year. The city climate that borders
between a tropical monsoon climate. As a result, it does not experience distinct
season. The humidity is high and rises to about 90% during the monsoon
seasons.Thriuvanathapuram is the first city along the path of the southwest monsoon
and gets its first showers in early June. The city get heavy rainfall of around 1700
mm/year. It also gets rain from the receding north-east monsoon which hits the city
by October. The dry seasons set in by December.December,January,Februvary are the
coldest months with 16.4*C and the highest temperature recorded in Summer is
40*C in the months of March, April and May.
 Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
Max Tempt 22 28 32 30 42 41 36 33 33 33 29 26
Min Tempt 7 10 16 22 27 29 27 26 25 19 12 8
Rainfall(cm) 1 .9 1.2 11 20 31 18 17 18.5 21 20 7.5

What we need appreciate is the Bakers master full intervention in a very

small plot in the middle of a busy urban area. The solution to the design program is
bold and unusual, yet, one which successfully integrates all the elements of the
program creating a comfortable and interesting dining experience. Because of the
congested area, there is no space for the landscaping and the parking. The visitors
keep the vehicles beside the road.
 On the inside, Baker has successfully solved the programmatic requirement of
providing eating spaces by creating modules of built- in table and seating ,with
individual tables and two benches placed on every horizontal platform. Thus on the
outer side a putting the external wall jali wall, there are continuous horizontal
platforms incrementally rising in height along with the slope of the spiral. The tables
consist 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 a put back to back, but are at two levels to
accommodate slope. The seats are made in brick work and are finished with black
oxide on top and the backrest. The remarkable thing about these built-in furniture's is
that Baker has designed them so precisely and economically that they are very
comfortable to use , in spite of being so simple. The walls area made of exposed
brickwork which has been painted over-white on inner side and brick red on exterior.
Another feature of the building is that windows were replaced by jalis ,it provides
plenty of light and ventilation in the building ensuring the interiors are nice and
comfortable.

Because of the Jali, there are plenty of lights and ventilation is available in the
building, we can also enjoy the rain, wind etc from the ICH. Bricks also give a
cooling effect in the building. ICH gives a relaxing mind to the students, officers, old
people that they spend a lot of time in ICH regularly.

There is a circular service core in the centre, which consists of 2 concentric

circle. The inner smaller circular core is a narrow vertical shaft open on 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 of a
typical of Baker. Around this circular core area is the service areas, especially the
toilets & hand wash .The kitchen is placed on the ground floor and has a separate
service entrance.
 The coffee shop is running still in this building. The building needs a
painting over it. There is no problems in its structure stability. It also needs a change
for the flooring also, Flooring is structurally stable, but the aesthetic point of view, it
needs a recoating or replacing of flooring.
 The main supply of water for ICH is from the public water tank
.The pure water is available 24 hours a day. For collecting the waste water from
kitchen and wash, there is sewage near the building. A septic tank is provided near the
building to collect the waste from the toilet. The toilets are clean and hygienic all
times.

The building is a green building. It minimize the energy conservation,

1. The jalis help to provide light and ventilation of the building; it also helps to
minimize the use artificial lighting and air conditioning
2. Rat trap bond help to reduce the heat in the building.
3. It give a healthy atmosphere in the side, while the occupants feel comfort
FINDINGS AND OBSERVATIONS:

 It gives a healthy atmosphere to the occupants

 Rat trap bond reduce the inside temperature
 Jalis provide more light and ventilation
 Locally available bricks are used
 Absence of windows reduce the total cost of the building
 Built in furniture's produce more space in the building
 Spiral ramp provides a provision for the physically disabled persons
 No space for parking
 No landscape
 Kitchen is provided in the ground floor, so serving is much difficult
 Steep slope of ramp is a chance for skidding