DESIGN COGNITION AND THINKING

WORKS OF LAURIE
BAKER

PRESENTED BY
ANTARIKSH GHENGARE
LAURIE BAKER
• British-born Indian Architect, studied architecture in Birmingham ,UK

• He went to India in 1945 in part as a missionary and

since then lived and worked in India for over 50 years

• "It was also from the influence of Mahatma Gandhi I learnt that
the real people you should be building for, and who are in need, are
the 'ordinary' people — those living in villages and in the congested areas
of our cities."

• Gandhi's idea was that it should be possible to build a home

with materials found within a five-mile radius of a site. This was to have
a great influence in his later life

• Baker found his English construction education to be inadequate for the

types of issues and materials he was faced with: termites and the
yearly monsoon, as well as laterite , cow dung , and mud walls,
respectively, Baker had no choice but to observe and learn from the
methods and practices of vernacular architecture . He soon learned
that the indigenous architecture and methods of these places were in
fact the only viable means to deal with local problems
LAURIE BAKER’s STYLE
• Sustainable Architecture

• Low Cost

• CRITICAL REGIONALISM

• Built for lower middle to lower class clients.

LAURIE BAKER’s WORK

• The Hamlet

• CSI Christ Church, Trivandrum

• Centre for Development Studies (Trivandrum)

• Indian Coffee House , Trivandrum

FEATURES IN LAURIE BAKER’s WORK

• 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.

• Irregular, pyramid-like structures on roofs, with one side left open and
tilting into the wind.

• 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

• Site and Climate Responsive Design , rarely a topography line marred or a tree
uprooted. Rain water harvesting .

• Filler slabs, furniture made in bricks, Rat trap Bond

• Use of Recycled Material for Aesthetics, windows grills , Doors and wherever
possible. Wooden window and doors

• Use of Day lighting and Natural Ventilation

THE HAMLET
• Centre for Development Studies (Trivandrum)
• Indian Coffee House , Trivandrum
• CSI Christ Church, Trivandrum