Works of laurie baker

1. WORKS OF LAURIE BAKER
PESENTED BY:RASHI CHUGH
STUDIO 3-B
SSAA

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
Fig1:Laurie Baker
Ref: http://www.hindu.com/mag/
2007/04/15/stories/
2007041500060300.htm

3. • 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.

4. •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.
INITIAL WORK

5. •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

6. 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.
• 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
Fig2:BRICK JALI
Ref:http://www.downtoearth.org.in/cont
ent/my-mentor-laurie-baker

7. •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.
•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

8. LOW COST CONSTRUCTION
Advantages
Energy saving & Eco-Friendly
compressive roofing.
Decorative & Highly Economical
Maintenance free
Filler slabs employ replacing 'un-
productive' concrete by a 'Filler'
material which reduces the weight
of the slab and also the cost by
reducing the amount of concrete
used. Also, since the weight of the
slab is thus reduced, lesser steel
is required for
reinforcement, further reducing
the cost
Fig3:FILLER SLAB
Ref:http://www.lauriebakerbuildingcentr
e.com/
Fig4:JACK ARCH
Ref:http://www.lauriebakerbuildingcentr
e.com/

9. •Advantages
•Energy saving eco-friendly
compressive roof.
•Decorative & Highly
Economical for larges spans.
•Maintenance free
Advantages
•Energy saving eco-friendly
compressive roof.
•Decorative & Economical
•Maintenance free
Funnicular shell
Masonry Dome

10. 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
• Material used from unconventional sources
• Family eats in kitchen
•
• Electricity wiring is not concealed

11. DRAWINGS
GROUND FLOOR
FIRST FLOOR

12. The wall is decorated from
broken pottery, pens, glass
Gables for proper air circulation and
ventilation
Fig5:DECORATIVE WALL
Ref: http://lauriebaker.net/
Fig6:CIRCULATION
Ref: http://lauriebaker.net/

13. MRS NALINI NAYAK`S RESIDENCE
ULLOOR,
TRIVANDRUM (1971)
Requirements:-
• Meeting place.
• working place (training).
• Open spaces.
• Classroom & dormitories.

14. Generous
sprawling ground
floor with three
floor staking of
pentagon
• 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
Fig5: STACKED PENTAGON
Ref: http://lauriebaker.net/

15. • 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

16. Ground floor plan

17. 1st Floor Plan

18. 2nd Floor Plan

19. Built furniture of bricksCommon door for entry and
bathroom

20. Sun light merging
inwards.

21. 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

22. DESIGN STRATEGIES
• Exposed brickwork and structure
• Sloped concrete roof
• Openness in design and individual units offset each
other
• Continuous latticework
• in the exposed walls
Construction

23. • 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
Dealing With Cyclones:

24. • 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
Open Spaces

25. PLAN

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

28. • 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.

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

30. Space used for storage

31. BIBLOGRAPHY
• http://lauriebaker.net/
• Ref:http://www.lauriebakerbuildingcentre.com/
• Ref:http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/my-mentor-laurie-baker
• http://www.hindu.com/mag/
• [Gautam_Bhatia]_Laurie_Baker-_Life,_Works_and_Writ