Laurie Baker (architect)

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Laurie Baker

Laurence Wilfred Laurie Baker (born March 2, 1917 in Birmingham , England - † April 1, 2007 in Thiruvananthapuram , India ) was an award-winning, England-born architect who, through his initiatives for cost-effective and energy-efficient building in conjunction with clever use of space and simple but appealing aesthetic sensibility. Laurie Baker moved to India as a part-time missionary in 1945, where he lived and worked for over 60 years. In 1988 he obtained Indian citizenship and resided in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala . In 1990 the Indian government awarded him the " Padma Shri " order in recognition of his services in the field of architecture.

life and work

Baker was born into a staunch Methodist family. As a teenager, Baker began to wonder what religion meant to him and decided to become a Quaker because it was closer to his personal beliefs. Baker studied architecture in Birmingham and graduated in 1937 at the age of only 20 in a highly troubled political era in Europe.

During the Second World War he volunteered in the Friends' Ambulance Unit (FAU) in China and Burma, founded by individual members of the British Quakers . His initial commitment to India led him to work as an architect for an international and interdenominational mission from 1945 onwards, which was dedicated to the care of lepers. As new drugs to treat the disease came onto the market, his responsibilities became more focused on remodeling and replacing the unacceptable homes that housed the exiled sick. His academic knowledge soon proved useless in terms of the materials and problems he was faced with: termite pollution and the annual monsoons , laterite , cow dung and mud walls were just a few of the keywords. Baker had no choice but to learn from the methods and practices of native Indian architecture. Inspired by his discoveries, which were actually only based on the general knowledge of the local home builders, he began to develop a style that was more oriented towards the existing culture and the needs of those who would eventually use these structures, in a departure from the more modernist wishes its paying clientele.

Architectural style

Indian Coffee House in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala

Through his building practices, encouraged by Mahatma Gandhi , Laurie Baker quickly became known as a designer and builder of low-cost, high-quality houses and structures that were also aesthetically pleasing. Much of his work was devoted to the needs of the middle and lower income groups. His buildings often contain rich, sometimes virtuoso wall constructions that suggest seclusion and conjure up Indian architectural history with Jali brick walls. Jali is a perforated brick wall that uses the natural movement of air to cool the interior of a house and create artful patterns of light and shadow. Baker's designs basically rely on traditional Indian pitched roofs with terracotta - Mangalore roof tiles, which are additionally provided with gables and air holes, which allow hot air to escape. Curved walls are designed to guarantee more volume at a lower cost. Laurie Baker obviously had more fun with the compasses than the ruler while building. Baker was often seen rummaging through large piles of tailings looking for suitable building materials, such as door and window frames. A real godsend was the intricately chiseled entrance to the Chitralekha film studio , which was found in a junk heap.

Baker's architectural method is based on improvisation, in which the original drawings only provide idealistic hints for the final construction. Most of the adjustments and the design selection are made personally by the architect on the spot. Milk bottle compartments near the doorstep, window sills twice as thick as the surface of a bench and a passion for incorporating the natural conditions of a construction site are just a few examples. Only rarely is a topographical line disturbed or a tree uprooted. This also saves construction costs, because working under difficult construction site conditions is sometimes more cost-effective than clearing. He once said that it was a waste of money to level a well-designed construction site.

In resistance to the prevailing high technology, Baker created a cooling system at the Center for Development Studies in Trivandrum in 1971 by placing a tall brick wall near a pond to use air pressure differences to draw cool air through a building. His responsibilities towards the never identical construction site conditions and his faith-based respect for nature made it possible for him to evidently achieve the diversity and color that permeates his work.

Many of Laurie Baker's writings are published and available from the Center for Science and Technology for Rural Development (COSTFORD for short) . COSTFORD continues the construction work in his favor .

Awards

  • 1981: Doctor Of Letters awarded by the Royal University of the Netherlands for outstanding work in the developing world
  • 1983: Order of the British Empire , MBE
  • 1987: Received the first Indian National Habitat award
  • 1989: Indian Institute of Architects: Outstanding Architect of the Year
  • 1990: Awarded the Padma Shri
  • 1990: Great Master Architect of the Year
  • 1992: UNO Habitat Award & UN Honor Roll
  • 1993: Award from the International Union of Architects (IUA)
  • 1993: Sir Robert Matthew Prize for Human Settlement Improvement
  • 1994: People of the Year award
  • 1995: Awarded a doctorate by the University of Central England in Birmingham (now Birmingham City University)
  • 1998: Awarded a doctorate by the Sri Venkateshwara University
  • 2001: Award from the Coinpar MR Kurup Foundation
  • 2003: Basheer Puraskaram
  • 2003: Doctor Of Letters from the University of Kerala
  • 2005: Government of Kerala: Testimony of Appreciation
  • 2006: L-Ramp award for outstanding performance
  • 2006: Nomination for the Pritzker Prize

literature

Web links

Commons : Laurie Baker  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Baker, Laurie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Baker, Laurence Wilfred (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British-Indian architect and designer
DATE OF BIRTH March 2, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Birmingham
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 2007
Place of death Thiruvananthapuram