(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.
focused on converting or replacing asylums once used
to house the ostracized sufferers of the disease "lepers".
Used indigenous architecture and methods of these
places as means to deal with his once daunting
problems.

Baker lived in Kerala with Doctor P.J. Chandy,

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,

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 utilises natural air
movement to cool the
home's interior and
create intricate patterns
of light and shadow

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 to enclose more volume at lower

material cost than straight walls,

Filler slab

Jack Arch

Advantages
20-35% Less materials
Decorative, Economical &
Reduced self-load
Almost maintenance free
25-30% Cost Reduction

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

Funnicular shell

Advantages
Energy saving eco-friendly compressive roof.
Decorative & Economical
Maintenance free

Masonry Arches
Advantages
Traditional spanning sytem.
Highly decorative & economical
Less energy requirement.

In his words, I just think it is plain stupidity to build a brick wall, plaster it all
over and then paint lines on it to make it look like a brick wall. I think it is
equally untruthful to cover it all over with tiles shaped to look like bricks. Or
another variation of untruthfulness is to plaster it and then paint it to look like
marble!

b. Brick Jali
He used this old Kerala technique to create beautiful patterns on the walls, to
play with light and shadow and its effect on ceilings and floors, to minimize
the use of windows thus reduced building cost and so on.
A Baker jali is a brick version of traditional
south Indian patterned wooden grillwork:
Gaps between bricks lead air and
daylight through a wall while diffusing
the glare of direct sunlight.
Some of the center's coolness also comes
from tiny courtyards built around pools
whose evaporation helps fight the heat.

Baker used brick or other solid materials like tiles to create different patterns on
the ceiling to break the monotony of the white plastered ceiling and other
purposes.

d. Patterned parapet
Making different designs in the parapet is another feature of Bakers
architecture.

 Mortar for bricks normally would require cement--another Baker enemy,

because until recently most cement in Kerala had to be imported. Baker instead
likes to use substitutes such as lime. When he was building the Centre for
Development Studies, for instance, he made lime on the spot.
Concrete floors and steps are ordinarily reinforced with steel rods, but Baker
has found that a grid of split local bamboo, carefully lashed together in the right
pattern, does the job just as well--and at less than 5 percent of the cost.

a. Rat trap brick bonding

Laurie Baker incorporated a new type of bonding in his buildings which is called the
Rat trap bonding. It is as strong as the other bonds but uses 25% LESS bricks and
mortar. Thermal insulation is very much better.

According to Bakers word, our floors between stories are usually

reinforced concrete slabs which also eat up large stocks of cement
and steel. It is undoubtedly true that such floors are much more
satisfactory than the old wooden floors, but we seem to ignore all
the many types of slab which have been devised to use less
cement and less steel.
These include various types of filler slabs and incidentally I
usually make good use of burnt clay products such as tiles, bricks
etc., for the filler elements, which take the place of heavy dead
weight concrete. Compared with the normal orthodox reinforced
concrete slabs, some of these tried and tested systems reduce the
cost of the slab by 10,40 and even 50 per cent and of course save
large quantities of the precious cement and steel for more essential
purposes.

d. Other cost reduction techniques

His other cost reduction techniques included frameless doors and

windows (here the brick wall works as the frame for doors or windows),
brick lintels, brick arches etc. The notable thing is that Baker added his
natural sense of aesthetics while he incorporated these cost reduction
techniques rather than the existing so called modern construction
methods.

1981: D.Litt conferred by the Royal University of

Netherlands for outstanding work in the Third
World
1983: Order of the British Empire, MBE
1987: Received the first Indian National Habitat
Award
1988: Received Indian Citizenship
1989: Indian Institute of Architects Outstanding
Architect of the Year
1990: Received the Padma Sri
1990: Great Master Architect of the Year
1992: UNO Habitat Award & UN Roll of Honour
1993: International Union of Architects (IUA)
Award

1993: Sir Robert Matthew Prize for Improvement of

Human Settlements
1994: People of the Year Award
1995: Awarded Doctorate from the University of
Central England
1998: Awarded Doctorate from Sri Venkateshwara
University
2001: Coinpar MR Kurup Endowment Award
2003: Basheer Puraskaram
2003: D.Litt from the Kerala University
2005: Kerala Government Certificate of Appreciation
2006: L-Ramp Award of Excellence
2006: Nominated from the Pritzker Prize

This is Baker's home in Trivandrum.

This is remarkable and unique house built on a
plot of land along the slope of a rocky hill, with
limited access to water:
However Baker's genius has created a
wonderful home for his family

Material used from unconventional sources

Family eats in kitchen

Electricity wiring is not concealed

GROUND FLOOR

FIRST FLOOR

STEPS LEADING UP TO
FRONT DOOR

A VIEW FROM THE OPPOSITE

SIDE

STEPS DIRECTLY CUT IN ROCK

ENTRANCE HAS SMALL SITTING

AREA FOR GUESTS

THE WALL IS DECORATED

FROM BROKEN POTTERY,
PENS, GLASS

A CALLING BELL FOR VISITORS TO ANNOUNCE

THEIR PRESENCE

A MORNING AT HEMLET

USE OF NATURAL LIGHT

USE OF NATURAL LIGHT

ARCHES LED INTO A BEAUTIFUL

OPEN ROOM

Pitched roof made of

manglore tiles

Louvered window typical of

bakers type

WATER TANK
FOR STORING
RAIN
HARVESTED
WATER

Requirements:
Meeting place.

working place (training).

Open spaces.

Classroom & dormitories.

The main house is formed by a simple threefloor stacking of the pentagon on nine-inchthick brick walls
internally each floor divides into the bedroom,
bath and landing
The additional segment on the ground, forming
the living/dining and kitchen, is structured with
bays of half-brick thickness, alternating wall and
wall and door

Ground floor plan

1st Floor Plan

2nd Floor Plan

 Built
furniture of
bricks

st
1

floor bedroom entrance.

Common door for entry and

bathroom

Sun light merging

inwards.

2nd floor bedroom.

CHALLENGES:

Severity of environment in which the tribal's live.

Limitation of resources
Conventional architects stayed away from these
projects
Dealing with large insular groups, with set ideas and
traditions.
Dealing with cyclones
Area of each unit : 25 sqm

Construction

Exposed brickwork and structure

Sloped concrete roof
Openness in design and individual units offset
each other
Continuous latticework in the exposed walls

Dealing With Cyclones:

Low sloped roofs and courts serve as wind catchers

Open walls function to dispel it

Long row of housing replaced by even staggering

Fronting courts catch the breeze and also get view of

sea

Open Spaces

Little private rectangle of land in between

houses for drying nets , kids play,

Provides sleeping lofts within and adequate

space outside for mending nets and cleaning
and drying fish

PLAN

Challenges :
Solution of Computer Centre Design
Problems
Fitting in naturally and
harmoniously with the elevations
of the twenty five year old
institution

elevation

 Using principle of lattice wall planning, breezeways and

built of natural brick and stone keeping in consideration
the electronic sophistication
He proposed a double walled building with an outer
surface of intersecting circles of brick jalis
Internal shell fulfilled the constraints and controls
necessary for a computer laboratory.
Space between the two walls accommodated the
secondary requirements for offices and storage areas.

plan

External lattice

Two storeyed outer wall is stiffened by a series of intersecting circles,

Space used for storage

The Characteristic Elements Of Baker's Style.

While the jalis, the traditional roofs, the stepped arches, the overhanging eaves and
the skylights etc., are some of the well-known elements that characterize Baker's style, it
is his high regard for nature that makes him unique.
In any project, Baker is particularly sensitive to the existing contours and the other
elements present on the site. Before planning anything; the location of each tree is taken
into consideration. Even the levels in his design are not artificially created but are made
to follow existing contours or steep slopes on the site.
Baker strongly believes in the optimum use of the locally available materials, which
are appropriate to the existing climatic conditions. The local materials like brick, tile,
lime, palm thatch, stone, granite and laterite thus replace the conventional steel and
glass of modern architecture. These materials suit the hot, wet and humid climate of
Kerala and also encourage minimal use of non-renewable resources. Also the smallscale industries required for the manufacturing, cutting, polishing, and other various
treatment of these materials help in increasing the employment amongst the poor
localities.
Concrete is rarely used; most often in a folded slab design. The waste and discarded
tiles are used as fillers, thereby making the roof light and inexpensive. Baker also
innovated different bonding techniques for brick, which allowed him to build of halfbrick thickness. To add rigidity, many a times these walls were designed in a stepped or
curved
form.

Glass windows, frames and sills are replaced by traditional jalis. One can easily
recognize Baker's structures by the presence of jalis on them. The jali used in Baker's
structure, is a perforated screen made of bricks. The bricks are placed in a peculiar
fashion so as to produce tiny regular openings in the walls. These jalis can be designed
in various patterns as desired. This jali catches light and air and diffuses glare; while
allowing for privacy and security; thus acting as a window and a ventilator both at the
same time. It encourages airflow, yet the construction of this form of ventilation requires
neither special materials nor special skills.
The spanned openings in a brick wall are made economical by using 'stepped' or
'corbelled' arch. In this technique the bricks on each course are cantilevered out a few
inches beyond the course below, until the required span is reached. In case of a
rectangular opening reinforced brickwork is used which capitalizes on the composite
action of the lintel with the masonry above.

Where contemporary architects seek to impose control on nature by shutting it out with
the advantage of artificial ventilation and temperature control system; Baker does
exactly the opposite. Being sensitive to nature; he skillfully manipulates the natural
elements to gain thermal comfort. In the canteen of Center of Development Studies; the
high latticed brick walls and a pond are used to draw air across it's surface and cool the
building - a cooling system achieved in a vernacular way.