1. Laurence Wilfred LAURIE BAKER
PRESENTED BY:
MANISH SINGH
SWATI SAXENA

2. LIFE HISTORY
(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.

3. 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.[1]

4. CONTRIBUTION TO INDIA
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.

5. Initial work Baker lived in Kerala with Doctor P.J. Chandy,
He received great encouragement and later married his sister
while Laurie continued his architectural work and research accommodating the medical needs of the community through his constructions of various hospitals and clinics.

6. 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,
An ideal that the Mahatma expressed as the only means to revitalize and liberate an impoverished India

7. PRINCIPLES FOLLOWED BY BAKER THROUGHOUT HIS LIFE

8. Architectural style
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.

9. 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

10. 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,

11. Baker was often seen rummaging through salvage heaps looking for suitable building materials, door and window frames.
Baker's architectural method is of improvisation.
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

12. His respect for nature led 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

13. 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
. His responsiveness to never-identical site conditions quite obviously allowed for the variegation that permeates his work.

14. LOW COST CONSTRUCTION Filler slab Jack Arch Advantages
20-35% Less materials
Decorative, Economical & Reduced self-load
Almost maintenance free
25-30% Cost Reduction
Filler slab
Advantages
Energy saving & Eco-Friendly compressive roofing.
Decorative & Highly Economical
Maintenance free
Jack Arch

15. LOW COST CONSTRUCTION Masonry Dome Funnicular shell
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

16. Low cost constructions
Masonry Arches
Advantages
Traditional spanning sytem.
Highly decorative & economical
Less energy requirement.

17. Awards
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

18. 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

19. Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
The Hamlet
his residence
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

20. The Hamlet 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

21. Material used from unconventional sources
Family eats in kitchen
Electricity wiring is not concealed

22. Drawings
GROUND FLOOR
FIRST FLOOR

23. STEPS LEADING UP TO FRONT DOOR

24. A VIEW FROM THE OPPOSITE SIDE

25. STEPS DIRECTLY CUT IN ROCK

26. ENTRANCE HAS SMALL SITTING AREA FOR GUESTS

27. THE WALL IS DECORATED FROM BROKEN POTTERY, PENS, GLASS

28. A CALLING BELL FOR VISITORS TO ANNOUNCE THEIR PRESENCE

29. A MORNING AT HEMLET

32. USE OF NATURAL LIGHT

33. USE OF NATURAL LIGHT

34. INNER COURTYARD …CLOSE TO NATURE

35. NEVER CUT TREES INSTEAD ADAPTED HIS DESIGN ACCORDINGLY

36. ARCHES LED INTO A BEAUTIFUL OPEN ROOM

37. COURTYARD HAS MANY GARDENS AND PONDS
Pitched roof made of manglore tiles

38. BAKER’S FONDNESS OF ARCHES

39. SIMPLE YET BEAUTIFUL WINDOWS

40. GABLES FOR PROPER AIR CIRCULATION AND VENTILATION

41. GRILL MADE OF BITS AND PIECES

42. CONICAL STRUCTURE USED…

43. COST EFFECTIVE BAKER’S WINDOW
Louvered window typical of baker’s type

44. STAINED GLASS EFFECT

45. WATER TANK FOR STORING RAIN HARVESTED WATER

46. Mrs Nalini Nayak`s residence (A Social Worker) Ulloor, Trivandrum (1971)
Requirements:-
Meeting place.
working place (training).
Open spaces.
Classroom & dormitories.

47. External Views Generous sprawling ground floor with three floor staking of pentagon

48. The main house is formed by a simple three-floor stacking of the pentagon on nine-inch-thick 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

49. Ground floor plan

50. 1st Floor Plan

51. 2nd Floor Plan

52. The Entrance

53. View of entrance from living room
Built furniture of bricks

54. 1st floor bedroom entrance.
Common door for entry and bathroom

55. Jali walls
Sun light merging inwards.

56. Jali window.
2nd floor bedroom.

57. FISHERMEN’S VILLAGE Poonthura ,Trivandrum(1974-75)
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

58. Design strategies Exposed brickwork and structure Sloped concrete roof
Construction
Exposed brickwork and structure
Sloped concrete roof
Openness in design and individual units offset each other
Continuous latticework
in the exposed walls

59. Low sloped roofs and courts serve as wind catchers
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

60. 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

61. PLAN

63. COMPUTER CENTRE Ulloor, Trivandrum (1971)
Challenges :
Solution of Computer Centre Design Problems
Fitting in naturally and harmoniously with the elevations of the twenty five year old institution
elevation

64. 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.

65. plan
External lattice
Two storeyed outer wall is stiffened by a series of intersecting circles,

66. Space used for storage