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    Laurie Baker Works and Ideas

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    Cebo Dharu
    Laurie Baker was a renowned British-Indian architect known for his cost-effective and energy efficient designs that blended vernacular Indian architecture with Western technology. He emphasized using local materials and low-cost construction techniques to create beautiful buildings that respected the environment. Some notable features of his designs included brick jali screens, irregular roof structures, sloping roofs with tiles, and curved walls. Baker completed many projects in Kerala, including low-income housing, campus designs, and his own home in Trivandrum. He is renowned for improvising designs based on each unique site and reusing salvaged materials.

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    Laurie Baker Works and Ideas

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    Cebo Dharu
    111 views14 pages
    Laurie Baker was a renowned British-Indian architect known for his cost-effective and energy efficient designs that blended vernacular Indian architecture with Western technology. He emphasized using local materials and low-cost construction techniques to create beautiful buildings that respected the environment. Some notable features of his designs included brick jali screens, irregular roof structures, sloping roofs with tiles, and curved walls. Baker completed many projects in Kerala, including low-income housing, campus designs, and his own home in Trivandrum. He is renowned for improvising designs based on each unique site and reusing salvaged materials.

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    Laurie Baker

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    Laurie Baker was a renowned British-Indian architect known for his cost-effective and energy efficient designs that blended vernacular Indian architecture with Western technology. He emphasized using local materials and low-cost construction techniques to create beautiful buildings that respected the environment. Some notable features of his designs included brick jali screens, irregular roof structures, sloping roofs with tiles, and curved walls. Baker completed many projects in Kerala, including low-income housing, campus designs, and his own home in Trivandrum. He is renowned for improvising designs based on each unique site and reusing salvaged materials.

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    111 views14 pages

    Laurie Baker Works and Ideas

    Uploaded by

    Cebo Dharu
    Laurie Baker was a renowned British-Indian architect known for his cost-effective and energy efficient designs that blended vernacular Indian architecture with Western technology. He emphasized using local materials and low-cost construction techniques to create beautiful buildings that respected the environment. Some notable features of his designs included brick jali screens, irregular roof structures, sloping roofs with tiles, and curved walls. Baker completed many projects in Kerala, including low-income housing, campus designs, and his own home in Trivandrum. He is renowned for improvising designs based on each unique site and reusing salvaged materials.

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    LAURIE BAKER 

    WORKS AND IDEAS


     "Laurie" Baker (2 March 1917 – 1 April 2007) was an award-
    winning British-born Indian architect, renowned for his initiatives
    in cost-effective energy-efficient architecture and for his unique
    space utilization and simple but beautiful aesthetic sensibility.

     Using simple local materials, Baker has been inspired to blend


    the best elements of Indian vernacular architecture with Western
    technology to create buildings that live lightly on the land while
    respecting and reflecting their immediate environment.

     In time he made a name for himself both in Sustainable


    architecture as well as in Organic architecture.
    IDEAS OF BAKER
     Baker sought to enrich the culture in which he participated by
    promoting simplicity and home-grown quality in his buildings.

     Seeing so many people living in poverty in the region and


    throughout India served also to amplify his emphasis on cost-
    conscious construction, one that encouraged local participation
    in development and craftsmanship,

     He later set up an organization called COSTFORD (Centre of


    Science and Technology for Rural Development), for
    spreading awareness for low cost housing.
     Eventually, he was drawn back to work in India
    as more and more people began commissioning
    work from him in the area.

     Throughout 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.
    ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
     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 to
    creating 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.
     Baker also 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.
    BAKER’S WORK
     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, which
    was designed by Laurie Baker
    was another one example to
    emphasize his own 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
     The Hamlet at
    Nalanchira in
    Trivandrum, which was
    home to Baker and his
    wife since 1970.

     The house, which resides


    on a hill top, was
    constructed by Baker.
     The campus for the research
    institute, Centre for
    Development Studies, is one
    of Laurie Baker’s best campus
    designs, located in a residential
    area on the northern outskirts
    of Thiruvananthapuram.

     The 10 acre campus stretching


    across a heavily wooded site
    houses the Library, Computer
    centre, Auditorium, hostels,
    guesthouses and residential
    units for the staff. 
     The design is a response to the sloping
    contoured site and seems to grow out of
    it.
     There is hardly a straight line with each
    structure curling in waves, semicircles
    and arcs.
     Baker pays careful attention to the
    contours on the site and also the
    location of trees.
     The forms of the buildings also follow
    the site with curved walls and building
    forms along the contour.
     Often, when trees are obstructing the
    building, Baker simply moulds his walls
    around the trees so as not to disturb it.
    OTHER WORKS
     Literacy Village  Dakshina Chitra
    ,Lucknow (Chennai),
      Salim Ali Centre for  Chengalchoola Slum
    Ornithology and dwelling units
    Natural (Trivandrum),
    History(SACON)  Nirmithi Kendra
    (Coimbatore), (Aakulam), Tourist
     Attapadi Hill Area Centre
    Development Society
    (Attapadi),
    ARCHITECTURAL WRITING

     Lime

     Mud

     On Being an Architect

     A Rural House

     Appropriate Technology
    Thank u

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