Works of laurie baker

WORKS OF LAURIE BAKER

PESENTED BY:RASHI CHUGH

STUDIO 3-B

SSAA

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 BakerRef: http://www.hindu.com/mag/2007/04/15/stories/2007041500060300.htm

• 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.

•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

•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

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 JALIRef:http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/my-mentor-laurie-baker

•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

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 SLABRef:http://www.lauriebakerbuildingcentre.com/

Fig4:JACK ARCHRef:http://www.lauriebakerbuildingcentre.com/

•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

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

DRAWINGS

GROUND FLOOR

FIRST FLOOR

The wall is decorated from broken pottery, pens, glass

Gables for proper air circulation and ventilation

Fig5:DECORATIVE WALLRef: http://lauriebaker.net/

Fig6:CIRCULATIONRef: http://lauriebaker.net/

MRS NALINI NAYAK`S RESIDENCE ULLOOR,

TRIVANDRUM (1971)

Requirements:-• Meeting place.• working place (training).• Open spaces.• Classroom & dormitories.

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 PENTAGONRef: http://lauriebaker.net/

• 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

Ground floor plan

1st Floor Plan

2nd Floor Plan

Built furniture of bricksCommon door for entry and bathroom

Sun light merging inwards.

FISHERMEN’S VILLAGEPoonthura ,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

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

• 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:

• 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

PLAN

COMPUTER CENTREUlloor, 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 :

• 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.

plan

External lattice

Two storeyed outer wall is stiffened by a series of intersecting circles,

Space used for storage

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