Laurie Baker was fondly called “The architect of the poor.” The British born architect came to India in the 40s as the chief architect of Mission to Lepers. He settled in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivendram, Trichy are other names), Kerala, India after having spent his initial career as an architect in Himalayan region.
The Hamlet—House of renowned architect Laurie Baker. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
He built hundreds of houses for the rich and the poor but no one of two was alike. Influenced by Gandhian ideals, he wanted to build houses with locally available material with minimum cost. His buildings are cost-effective, yet practically strong and beautiful to look at. If we go by the saying, “Houses are built to live in but not to look on,” we could now admit that he has achieved the two. In fact, he built homes but not houses. He always talked to clients and built homes for them. In his own words, “A house has to be designed as a home for a particular group of people to live together as a family in their own inimitable style and if this planning and designing for them is done well it is highly unlikely that the outside of the building will be ostentatious or showy.”
Bare Minimums in a Baker’s Design
He believed that it was always fun to use circles or curves instead of square or rectangles in designing buildings. One of the most important points of his observation is that there are no straight lines in nature. So, he experimented with several designs in curves, circles and other shapes instead of squares or rectangles. His philosophy of construction has been popularly known as “Baker’s Architecture.” It speaks volumes about him.
His cost effective construction methods made the Kerala government to set up its own
initiative COSTFORD, a voluntary organization to provide technological assistance for rural development. It beggars description to write about this legendary figure who lived amongst us to show how homes can be built because it is vast and varied. He combined aesthetics and engineering in a unique way suitable to India. The homes he built need are naturally cool in summers and warm in winters. The following sites are sources to know more about him, his ideals, his religion and everything about him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurie_Baker
http://www.lauriebakerbuildingcentre.com/
Gautam Bhatia, a delhi based architect wrote a book, Laurie Baker: Life, works And Writings (Penguin), which would give you a clear idea of what Baker stood for.
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