COST EFFECTIVE

AND NATURE
FRIENDLY
BUILDING
TECHNIQUES BY
LAURIE BAKER!
LAURIE BAKER’S
WAY
OF ARCHITECURE
REVIE
W:1
 SCHEDULE OF DESSERTATION
REVIEW
BASIC INTRODUCTION OF BAKER’S CONCEPTS.

MUD AND BRICK CONSTRUCTIONS ,CASE STUDIES

SPATIAL PLANNING & INFERENCE WITH A COMPARISION STUDY

 CONTENTS……

INTRODUC ●

●
LAURIE BAKER
PRINCIPLES AND MOTTO

TION TECHNIQUES
●

●
TECHNIQUES
IN DETAIL ●

●
CHARACTERISTICS
INNOVATIONS
 WHO IS LAURIE BAKER?
• LAWRENCE WILLFRED ( MARCH 2, 1917 –APRIL 1,2007 ).
• BRITISH BORN INDIAN ARCHITECT.
• RESIDENCE – THE HAMLET, TRIVANDRUM.
• ONE OF (20)AWARDS – PADMASRI (1990).
• NOMINATED FOR PRITZEKER (2006).
Laurie Baker– Living for a
cause
Our perceived thought that architecture is a
profession that can be practiced only with enough
money, has limited this noble profession to
metropolitan cities.
While doctors, on the other hand, are practicing in
rural areas and have made their profession well
known all over the country, irrespective of the
economical background of the people. Construction
could be a means to achieve fame, records and
grandiosity irrespective of its location, and this has
been proved by the great Indian architect Laurence
 CHILDHOOD………
…with two elder brothers
 As the youngest child
Leonard and Norman and a sister Edna. His
father was the chief accountant with the
Birmingham Gas Distribution Authority. At the
age of 15, he passed out from the Edward
Grammar School in Aston, England; he was an
ordinary student with an adventurous life.

He would accompany his father to visit

cathedrals and other old buildings and then he
would build models and draw pictures of what
he had seen.
The principal of his school persuaded his father to make Laurie Baker opt
for architecture as profession and send him to the Birmingham School of
Architecture. Baker’s adventure continued and while he was doing his
architecture, he went on a cycling tour of Europe with his friends. The
unfolding vistas of nature, landscape, cities, the different life patterns of
people and the differences in the houses from place to place fascinated
him, and that tour proved to be a turning point in his life.
 WHAT MADE MYSELF TO
CONNECT…………

HUMANITY
AND
LOVE
CHINA : As a doctor, nurse, pharmacist
and pathologist.
• He graduated in 1937, and thereafter became an associate of the Royal
Institute of British Architects (RIBA).In 1939, the Japan-China war was at
its peak and Baker went to China to help the wounded as a volunteer with
a group called Quakers, after resigning from RIBA.
• In the 1930-40s leprosy was a much-feared disease. So much so that
lepers were frequently burnt or buried alive for fear of contamination and
spreading of the disease. Naturally, the sisters had not found anyone
willing to go and look after the leper colony. When Laurie heard of the
plight of the lepers he agreed to go until the sisters could find someone
permanent. He dressed their ulcers, gave them medicines when available.
On Sunday’s he was even the parson at their church!
 India and Gandhi ji
•  One day while on a walk through the city he happened to see a board that
said, ‘Mission to Lepers ‘ Baker's interest and curiosity were aroused, The
Mission had been in dire need of an architect.
• Advances in medicine meant leprosy was no longer an untreatable
disease. Instead of the existing asylums and colonies they now needed to
build many new hospitals to treat these leprosy patients. For Laurie, this
was finally a chance to use his architectural skills to help people in need.
Laurie had no second thoughts and true to his word he arrived in India in
1945.
• Through Quaker associates, he was introduced to Gandhi Ji
who at that time was there; Gandhi Ji expressed his concern
over the state of Indian architecture and asserted that much
good could be done in rural India by committed architects.
Gandhi Ji’s philosophy and his charismatic personality
thrilled Baker. 
• For the first three years he travelled all over the country
helping the leprosy mission, and in the process he got
exposed to indigenous architecture and was amazed at the
way in which simple materials could be exploited to produce
buildings with refined aesthetics and lasting qualities. These
formative years laid the foundation of Baker's approach to
architecture.
Baker met and married an Indian medical doctor, Elizabeth
Jacob, and the two of them worked for years in the Himalayas,
building and operating schools and hospitals, working with
lepers and the poor. In 1963, Baker and his wife moved to the
southern state of Kerala, Elizabeth’s homeland, establishing
themselves in the city of Trivandrum in 1970. Working with
local materials and exploring indigenous architectural traditions,
Baker has been able to transform the Gandhian philosophy through
Baker’s adventure in architecture started realizing.
architecture by practicing it for people who actually needed it. His every
project is like a small scale industry within itself, changing lives of
people. Laurie Baker has been committed to not only learning from and
using traditional Indian architectural techniques and technology, but also
building with traditional Indian materials.
 ARCHITECTURAL PRINCIPLES
• COST EFFECTIVENESS
• USE OF LOCALLY AVAILABLE MATERIALS
• RESPECT FOR NATURE
• AVOIDANCE OF ENARGY INTENSIVE MATERIALS
• ELIMINATION OF REDUNDANT DETAILS
• WASTAGE MINIMIZATION
• SPATIAL PLANNING
 LAURIE’S MOTTO

LOW COSTRY A HABIT AND

A WAY OF LIFE , BY REUSING
EVERYTHING , FROM BRICK
TO GLASS BOTTLES, AS
BUILDING MATERIALS.
 WHAT HE SAYS…….
• “ I DON’T THINK I’VE EVER BEEN INSPIRED BY WHAT OTHER
ARCHITECTS HAVE DONE BUT MORE BY WHAT ORDINARY
CRAFTSMEN HAVE CREATED.”
• “COST-EFFECTIVE HOUSES ARE NOT JUSTT 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.
• “THE PRACTICE OF AN ARCHITECT CANNOT BE DIVORCED
FROM THAT OF A BUILDER.”
 BAKER’S GREAT SORROW…

ABOUT INDIAN GOVERNMENT

POLICY MAKERS WAS THAT
“ THEY HAVEN’T THE FAITH IN
THEIR OWN MATERIALS.”
 HIS POPULAR CONSTRUCTION
TECHNIQUES
• USE OF RAT TRAP BOND
• FILLER SLABS
• ARCHES
• TERRACOTTA ROOFING
• FRAMELESS DOORS AND WINDOWS
MORE INNOVATIVE METHODS HE
ADOPTED….
• DIFFERENT BONDING TECHNIQUES FOR
BRICKS.
• PERFORATED BRICK WALLS.S
• USE OF DISCARDED BOTTLES , INSET IN WALL.
• USE OF BRICKS INSPITE OF LINTELS
• CURVED WALLS
• RUBBLE MASONRY
THESE MEHODS AND TECHNIQUES LED TO
CHARACTERISTIC ELEMENTS OF BAKER'S
STYLE.
• JALIS
• TRADITIONAL ROOFS
• STEPPED ARCHES,
• OVERHANGING EAVES
• SKYLIGHTS
• BUILT-IN FURNITURES
 POPULAR
TECHNIQUES
 WHAT IS RAT TRAP BOND?
This double-wall technique uses bricks on edge with a cross brick between
each and produces a 9-inch thick wall with an insulating air cavity in
between.
HOW A COMPLETED MASONR
LOOKS...
COMPLETED RAT TRAP BOND
MASONRY –THE MANGO HOUSE
•  Surprisingly, this technique reduces the
number of bricks required by 25%, thereby
reducing material used, including mortar
(1:8 mix), and overall cost.

• Rat-trap technique is equal to the strength of

a solid 9-inch wall in either Flemish or
English bond.
 WHAT IS A FILLER SLAB ????

Lightweight, inexpensive
materials such as low-grade
Mangalore tiles, bricks, coconut
shells, glass bottles, etc. are used
as filler materials in filler slabs to
replace the redundant concrete in
tension zones.
 WHY FILLER SLABS???
The reason why, concrete and
steel are used together to
construct RCC slab, is in their
individual properties as separate
building materials and their
individual limitation. Concrete is
good in taking compression and
SIMPLY SUPPORTED SLAB CROSS-
steel is good in tension. Thus SECTION.
RCC slab is a product which
resists both compression as well
 The fig. indicates the neutral axis and also tension concrete in the bottom fibres of the slab
which is in tension but the top fibres will be in compression. 

Tension in a slab is on the bottom fibre and compression on the

top fiber. that means if we want to optimise the structure we can
remove concrete from the tension zone where it is not much
needed. that’s the key behind filler slab construction.
FILLER MATERIALS ADVANTAGES O
FILLER SLAB
Bricks
Tiles
Cellular
Concrete
Blocks
Pots
Waste bottles
 FILLER SLABS IN LAURIE’S
BUILDINGS………….

LAURIE BAKER BUILDING

COSTFORD, TRIVANDRUM
CENTER,
TRIVANDRUM.
 ARCHES ………
• THE ARCH IS SIGNIFICANT BECAUSE IT
PROVIDES A STRUCTURE WHICH ELIMINATES
TENSILE STRESS IN SPANNING AN OPEN SPACE.
• THIS IS USEFUL BECAUSE SEVERAL OF THE
AVAILABLE BUILDING MATERIALS SUCH AS
STONE, CAST IRON AND CONCRETE CAN
STRONGLY RESIST COMPRESSION BUT ARE
VERY WEAK WHEN TENSION, SHEAR OR
 TYPES OF ARCHES….!!!

CORBEL ARCH FLAT ARCH SEMI-CIRCULAR ARCH SEGMENTAL ARCH

 ARCHES IN BUILDINGS

THE SALIM ALI CENTRE FOR

ORNITHOLOGY AND
COSTFORD, NATURAL HISTORY AT
TRIVANDRUM ANAIKATTY NEAR
 MANGLORE TILES FOR ROOFING
• Mangalore tiles (also Mangalorean tiles) are a type of tiles native to the
city of Mangalore, India.
• These red tiles, prepared from hard laterite clay, are in great demand
throughout Indi
• These were the only tiles to be recommended for government buildings in
India during the British regime.
• They are a popular form of roofing and are preferred over concrete due to
their good quality.
• They provide excellent ventilation especially during summer
and aesthetically as well. 
•  Some of them are especially made to be placed over kitchen
and bathroom for the smoke to escape. Over a period of time,
these tiles become dark to black from constant exposure
to soot and smoke.
•  They are unique and are made or available in different size and
shapes depending on the users need.
MANGLORE TILES IN BAKER’S
BUILDINGS….

NIRMITI KENDRA, THE HAMLET,

TRIVANDRUM TRIVANDRUM
 These tiles are not only eco-
friendly but also cheap, durable
and costs only one third that of
cement. Some of the buildings
which are 100 yrs. old still have
tile roofing. These tiles are suited
for regions experiencing heavy
rainfall as water drains easily and
fast.
MANGLORE TILE AS AN INFILL FOR
ROOFING!!!!
 TERRACOTTA FLOORING
• Flooring is often of terracotta tiles or colour oxides. The bed is
made out of broken brickbats (this saves wastage of brick), over
which a 3” mortar layer is laid and tiles are placed over it.
•  Various patterns and designs are worked out, dependent upon
shape, size of tiles, span of flooring, and clients’ personal taste.
• These tiles require little maintenance and are cheap. Also the
patterns of tiles are visually attractive. Most commonly, tile
shapes include square, rectangular, hexagonal, triangular or can
be customized. Also, electrical cables can be run through these
floors.
HOUSE OF MR. VIJAYAN, VADAVALLI, COIMBATORE.
(FORMER DIRECTOR OF SALIM ALI CENTRE FOR
ORNITHOLOGY
AND NATURAL HISTORY)
 FRAMELESS DOORS AND
WINDOWS
• Door and window frames are not actually required.
They are responsible for almost half the cost of timber
used. Avoiding frames considerably reduces the cost of
timber.
• Door planks are screwed together with strap iron hinges
to form doors, and this can be carried by holdfast
fittings carried into the wall. The simplest and most
cost-effective door can be made of vertical planks held
 The simplest frameless
window consists of a vertical
plank (9” wide) set into two
holes, one at the top and one
at the bottom. This forms a
simple pivotal window. Wide
span windows can be
partially framed and fixed to
walls or can have rows of
pivotal planks.
CHARACTERISTIC ELEMENTS
 JALIS

INDIAN COFFE HOUSE,

TRIVANDRUM.
1.CECNTER
FOR
DEVELOPMENT
STUDIES.
2.IISE ,
TRIVANDRU
M
3.LAYOLA
WOMEN’S
HOSTEL,
TRIVANDRUM.
 TRADITIONAL ROOFS

• A SIGNIFICANT BAKER FEATURE IS

IRREGULAR, PYRAMID-LIKE STRUCTURES ON
ROOFS, WITH ONE SIDE LEFT OPEN AND
TILTING INTO THE WIND.
• BAKER'S DESIGNS INVARIABLY HAVE
TRADITIONAL INDIAN SLOPING ROOFS WITH
GABLES AND VENTS ALLOWING RISING HOT
AIR TO ESCAPE.
THE HAMLET, TRIVANDRUM
STEPPED ARCHES
OVERHANGING EAVES
 SKYLIGHTS

Mr. Vijayan
BUILT-IN FURNITURES

Much of the
furniture used by
COSTFORD is
built-in. These are
either of brick or
rubble masonry
raised above floor
level. Raised rubble
masonry with
finished surface can
act as sitting or
 REFERENCES
• http://arch-essays.blogspot.in/2005/01/laurie-baker-living-for-cause.html
• http://
www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-5970200300040
0012
• http://lauriebaker.net/index.php/life/india-and-gandhiji
THANK YOU !!!

BY SNEGA SEKAR