LAURIE BAKER“I HAVE MY OWN PRINCIPLES WHICH I AM UNWILLING TO ABANDON. I DISLIKE FALSEHOOD & DECEIT. A BUILDING SHOULD BE TRUTHFUL.”

Laurence Wilfred Baker

• Laurence Wilfred "Laurie" Baker (2 March 1917 – 1 April 2007) was a British-bornIndian architect.

• Graduated from Birmingham School of Architecture, 1937.

• Cost-effective energy-efficient architecture.

• Unique space utilisation & simple but aesthetic sensibility.

• Simple designs with local materials.

• Approach to sustainable & organic architecture.

• "Gandhi of architecture".

ARCHITECTURAL

CHARACTERISTICS

• Low cost, high quality.• Bare brick masonry construction.• Brick jali walls inviting a natural air flow to cool interiors, & creating intricatepatterns of light &shadow.

• Irregular, pyramid-like structures on roofs, with one side left open & tilting intowind.

• Traditional Indian sloping roofs & terracotta Mangalore tile shinglingwith gables & vents allowing rising hot air to escape.

• Curved walls as a means to enclose more volume at lower material cost thanstraight & to provide ready-made shelves.

• Use of local materials eliminates transport costs.• Use of low energy consuming mud walls, using holes in the wall to get light.• Using overlaid brick over doorways, incorporating places to sit into the structure,simpler windows.

RAT TRAP

BOND

An alternative to normalEnglish bond masonrywalls by which 15% of costcan be reduced withoutcompromising the quality,strength and appearances.

FILLER

SLABS

Employ replacing unproductiveconcrete by a 'Filler' materialwhich reduces weight & cost ofslab by reducing amount ofconcrete used. Also, since weightof slab is thus reduced, lessersteel is required forreinforcement, further reducingcost.

ARCHES

• Provide a structure whicheliminates tensile stressesin spanning an open space.

• All forces are resolved intocompressive stresses.

• Several of availablebuilding materials such asstone, cast iron & concretecan strongly resistcompression but are veryweak when tension, shearor torsional stress isapplied to them.

DOMES

• An arch which hasbeen rotated aroundits central verticalaxis.

• Have a great deal ofstructural strengthwhen properly built& can span largeopen spaces withoutinterior supports.

Brick

jali

• Perforated brickscreen for light &ventilation & forinterplay of light &shadows.

• Contribute in costreduction bylowering number ofbricks used.

LAURIE BAKER CENTRE FOR HABITAT

STUDIES

• Located in the Nooliyode Village in VilappilsalaPanchayat, 12 kms away from the centre ofThiruvananthapuram city.

• Campus Area: 3.34 acre (1.35 hectares)• An undulating piece of land dense with trees and otherflora and fauna.

• Five buildings that represent the last set of buildingspersonally designed & built by Laurie Baker:

o an officeo a kitchen with a dining hallo a dormitory to house 16 persons with a lecture hallo a guest house to house seven personso a tower that houses a rain water harvesting tank & a

view tower where discussion sessions can be held.• Built on stone quarry.• No foundations used.

LAURIE BAKER CENTRE FOR

HABITAT STUDIES

LBC OFFICE

LAURIE BAKER CENTRE FOR

HABITAT STUDIES

LBC Dormitory LBC Cafeteria

BRICK JALI WALLS

BRICK JALI WALLS

RAIN WATER HARVESTING SYSTEM

RAIN WATER HARVESTING SYSTEM

OTHER DETAILS

Other details

Other details

Other details

The Indian Coffee House,

Trivandrum

The Indian Coffee House,

Trivandrum

The Indian Coffee House,

Trivandrum

The Indian Coffee House,

Trivandrum

• Conceived as a continuous gentle spiral ramp, with a central circular service core& with dining spaces provided on the outer side.

• Energy-efficient.

• Only jalis for ventilation & to let in light.

• Well proportioned, a cylindrical brick-red spiral continuing for a couple of floors &then terminating in a smaller cylindrical volume on top, giving a veryunsymmetrical balance to whole structure.

• Central circular service consisting of 2 concentric circles.

• Inner smaller circular core is a narrow vertical shaft, for ventilation to centralareas, open on the top, with openings at different levels.

• Walls made of exposed brickwork painted over – white on inner side & brick-redon exterior.

• Built-in furniture: Table consists of a concrete slab fixed to wall & with a semi-circular taper on one side, resting on a small brick arch which serves as legs.

• Absolutely no use of plasters, paints and other embellishments.

• Brick jali- integral to Baker’s vocabulary.

• Use of wooden jail.

• Overlapping brick joinery details.

• Cool interiors.

• Bare structural members.

• Simple spaces in organic forms.

• Negative spaces turned intelligently into useful ones by incorporating storage orseating.

• Low cost construction without compromising with architectural essence tospaces.

• Energy efficient.

CONCLUSION

THANK YOU!!!