HISTORY III

L.J SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE NAME:-MIHIR PATIL

HISTORY III
L.J UNIVERSITY , AHMEDABAD SEM –VI DIV-A
CONCEPTS AND STYLE OF BAKER
• 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 utilizes natural air movement to cool the home's interior and create intricate
patterns of light and shadow.
• 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.
• Baker was often seen rummaging through salvage heaps looking for suitable building materials, door and window
frames. Baker's architectural method is of improvisation. Initial drawings have only an idealistic link to the final
construction, with most of the accommodations and design choices being made on-site by the architect himself.
•  ‘Low cost' or `cost reduction' is not only concerning economy. Most modern building materials are manufactured
articles (like burnt bricks or steel or glass or cement). Their respective costs are one important consideration but
just as important is the question of how much energy (or fuel) was used in their manufacture.
• The use of local materials is an example of economy because there are no transport costs. These styles show that
people have discovered that there is a right way and a wrong way of putting materials together so that they are
strong and durable. A wall, for example, is not necessarily stronger because it is thicker. The bonding together of a
few stones is much stronger than the heaping together of a lot of stones.
 COST EFFECTIVE TECHNIQUES
Filler slab
• 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.
• Advantages
1. 20-35% Less materials Decorative,
2. Economical & Reduced self-load
3. Almost maintenance free 25-30% Cost Reduction
Jack Arch
• Advantages
1. Energy saving & Eco-Friendly
2. compressive roofing.
3. Decorative & Highly Economical
4. Maintenance free
Arches
• The arch is significant because it provides a structure which eliminates
tensile stresses in spanning an open space.
• All the forces are resolved into compressive stresses.
• 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 torsional stress is applied to them.
Domes
• A dome can be thought of as an arch which has been rotated around its
central vertical axis. Thus domes, like arches, have a great deal of
structural strength when properly built and can span large open spaces
without interior supports.
Rat Trap Bond
• Rat trap bond brick masonry is an alternative to normal English bond
masonry walls by which 15% of cost can be reduced without
compromising the quality, strength and appearances.
Masonry Arches
• Advantages
1. Traditional spanning system.
2. Highly decorative & economical
3. Less energy requirement.
Masonry Dome
• Advantages
1. Energy saving eco-friendly compressive roof.
2. Decorative & Highly Economical for larges spans.
3. Maintenance free
Funicular shell
• Advantages
1. Energy saving eco-friendly compressive roof.
2. Decorative & Economical
3. Maintenance free
 LOYOLA CHAPEL TRIVUNDRUM, KERALA, INDIA

• Loyola Chapel and Auditorium

Sreekarayam, 1971.
• The Loyola complex contains a high
school and a post-graduate complex,
both sharing a common chapel and an
auditorium. It was here that Baker's
skills of cost-reduction met their
greatest challenge, as it required a
seating capacity of one thousand.
• In order to increase the lateral
strength of the high brick wall,
without the introduction of any steel
or concrete, Baker devised a wide
cavity double-wall with cross- bracing
brick.
• The total covered area of the chapel and auditorium and the
gallery is approximately 930 square meters. The cost in
1970-71, including the furniture and appurtenances, lighting
and sanitation was kept within the original gift sum of 1.75
lakh rupees.
 •  Both the walls were pierced with a
continuous floor-to-roof pattern of
jails, so that the chapel was
adequately, though somewhat
mysteriously, lit-and ventilated.
• Despite its tall proportions, the
acoustics of the hall were remarkable-
the exposed surfaces and the open
patterns of brickwork controlling the
reverberations.

BALCONY

SEATING

STAGE
 SANCTUARY

CHAPEL ENTRY