Laurie Baker - Architect

1. “I have my own
principles, which I am
unwilling to abandon. I
dislike falsehood and
deceit. A building should
be truthful.” - Laurie
Baker. (1917-2007)

3. Born Laurence Wilfred Baker
in Birmingham in 1917
Trained at the Birmingham
School of Architecture 1937.
Through Quaker friends, he met
Mahatma Gandhi, who sent him to
see the city's concrete slums and
asked the young architect to think
about better ways of housing India's
poor.
Inspired by Gandhi's
challenge, Baker went
home to England and
promptly returned to
India .

4. ‘Bricks to me are
like faces.’ All of them
are made of burnt
mud, but they vary
slightly in shape and
colour.
I think these small variations give
tremendous character to a wall
made of thousands of bricks, so I
never dream of covering such a
unique and characterful creation
with plaster, which is mainly dull
and characterless.”
Quotes I like the contrast of textures
of brick, of stone, of
concrete, of wood.

5. Quotes People in most
countries of the
world are accusing
their architects of
failing to produce a
modern form of their
own previously
distinctive
architectural styles!

6. Quotes “I don't think I've
ever been inspired
by what other
architects have
done but more by
what ordinary
craftsmen have
created. “

7. Architectural
Principles
•Cost-effectiveness
•Use of locally available
materials
•Respect for nature
•Avoidance of energy-intensive
materials
• Wastage minimization to
create low-cost, beautiful, high
quality buildings
which long pre-empted modern
concepts such as eco-friendliness and
sustainable architecture.

8. "Cost-effective
houses are not just
for the poor, they
are for everyone.”
The equation that a cost-
effective house is a house for
the poor, implying a bad
looking house, can definitely
be proved wrong.
This entire
classification is
wrong."

9. “The practice of an
architect cannot be
divorced from that
of a builder. “
Architecture as a craft means
its theory and its practice are
indivisible.

10. Construction techniques
•Use of Rat Trap
Bond
•Filler Slab
•Arches
•Corbelling
•Terracotta
Roofing

11. Baker also innovated
different bonding
techniques for brick,
which allowed him to
build of half- brick
thickness.
To add rigidity,
many a times these
walls were designed
in a stepped or
curved form.

18. Stairwell in Nalini
Nayak's residence in
Thiruvananthapuram,
Perforated brick
walls
create dappled
patterns
of light.

19. Baker's innovative
use of discarded
bottles, inset in
the wall
At Col. Jacob's residence in
Thiruvananthapuram,
creates a stained
glass effect.

20. Laurie Baker has not
turned his back on the
modern world; the homes
and offices he has built have
running water, electricity, and
sometimes garages.
But in his embrace of
brick, mud, bamboo, and much
more, Baker has done what
tragically few people in any
field in the Third World
have done, which is to be
intelligently selective
about what they take

21. In an era of superstar
architects designing
museums more famous than
the artwork they
display and skyscrapers as
testaments to corporate
power,
Baker’s philosophy is a
welcome change.
“My feeling is that you’re not trying
to put up a monument which will be
remembered as ‘Laurie Baker’s
Building,’ but Mohan Singh’s
house where he can live happily with
his family.”- Baker.

22. Baker's great sorrow
about Indian
government
policymakers
M YOPI A was that
"They haven't the
faith in their own
materials.“
And I would add
“within themselves
also.”