A Pictorial Biography – Laurie Baker
Laurie Baker Born on March 2nd, 1917, and brought up in Birmingham, England, Laurence Wilfred Baker, or Laurie Baker as he is better known, belonged to a staunch Methodist family.
Baker’s interest in architecture and buildings started at a very early age. When he was 17, he went on a cycling tour of Europe to be fascinated by the landscapes and cities. The differences in the life patterns of people and in the houses from country to country left an indelible impression on his mind. By the time he returned from his tour, he was already thinking of a career in architecture.
Graduation After his matriculation, Laurie Baker joined the Birmingham School of Architecture and became an Associate Member of the Royal Institute of Architects (ARIBA) in 1938. However, he had the privilege of working as an architect in England for a very short time as the Second World War broke out in 1939.
Friends Ambulance Unit During the war, Baker enlisted in the Friends Ambulance Unit (F.A.U) who engaged themselves in non-combatant services by lending a helping hand in the war zones. He took training in anesthesia, surgical nursing and midwifery.
China During the war between China and Japan, the Chinese government asked the F.A.U to send medical aid . Baker was a part of the surgical unit serving the war victims.
Gandhian influence Baker then went to Burma and in the midst of bitter fighting, was involved in tending to severely wounded victims and later, the lepers. Due to the hardships that he had to endure, his health took a turn for the worse and so he was sent back to England to recuperate. On his way back to England, Baker had to wait in Bombay for 3 months for a ship. He had a chance encounter with Mahatma Gandhiji. He was immediately attracted and touched by Gandhiji’s teachings of nonviolence and love.
Gandhiji encouraged Baker to come back and explained to him that the rural parts of India needed homes and that the ideal houses in the ideal villages should be built of materials found within its 5-mile radius.
Elizabeth Baker Baker came back to India in 1945 to contribute in ‘The Mission to Lepers’. He stayed with his friend Dr. Chandy. The host’s sister, Elizabeth Jacob who was also a doctor met Baker during his stay with her brother.
Baker worked towards transforming old asylums into hospitals and she worked towards treating the lepers. Both were firmly committed to their cause. One day when they were sitting on a jagged rock, Baker asked Elizabeth to marry him. There was no hesitation from her side as from the beginning of their acquittance she was sure they had to be together. They got married in 1948.
The Himalayan era Baker and Elizabeth went on a honeymoon in Chandag and stayed there for the next 16 years. People came for treatment from everywhere when they heard about the new doctor. They set up a hospital in a small disused ‘teashop’. Later they also set up another hospital in an unused house in a small village called Chera.
When asked, what he, as an architect, did in the hospital, his answer was invariably this -”She’s the doctor and I am the rest of the staff”
The vernacular way Living in the Himalayas, Kerala and the various other places his mission took him, Baker realized his knowledge on construction from England was not much helpful when it came to building in adverse climatic conditions and different terrains in India. He learnt a lot about construction, using the local materials and craft from the local people themselves and about accommodating the local social pattern of living. He built schools, hospitals and community buildings, all of which ran on a self-supporting basis. This was the beginning of what was to develop into the unique Baker style of architecture.
Kerala The Bakers left the Himalayas in 1963 and moved to a similar hill area in central Kerala. They settled in Vakamon, inhabited by tribal people and continued to build schools and leprosy treatment centers.
Several years later, while on a holiday at Trivandrum, they got involved with leprosy work in the southern city and just stayed on.
The Hamlet When the Bakers moved to Trivandrum, they bought half an acre of land to build an abode for themselves. Standing on top of the hill, looking out across the rooftops to the valley below, the Hamlet, name given to the Baker home, is like an architectural museum - a record of the past 20 years of the history of building in Kerala.
The changing roofs, their structure and texture, the doors and windows, embody the change in materials and technology that has occurred over the years.
Body of work Four decades of Laurie Baker’s architectural practice have produced a quantity and range of buildings. Much of his earlier work in the Pithoragarh district remains undocumented. It is only after he moved to Trivandrum, in 1963, that Baker had anything like a conventional practice.
He worked on projects ranging from private residences, churches, institutions to housing projects and over 1000 projects existed in Trivandrum alone. Cost reduction and vernacular building methods were the two important ideas that manifested themselves in every project.
Quotes I never build for classes of people, HIG [high-income group], MIG, LIG, tribal people, fishermen and so on. But I will build only for a Matthew, a Bhaskaran, a Muneer, or a Sankaran.
My observation is that vernacular architecture almost always has good answers to all our problems. In every district, wherever you go, the people themselves take an active part in making their houses. Now, for whatever reasons, they have lost their skills, and need to look outside for help.
I believe that Gandhiji is the only leader in our country who has talk consistently with common-sense about the building needs of our country. One of the thing he said that impressed me and has influenced my thinking more than anything else was that the ideal houses in the ideal village will be built materials which are all found within a five-mile radius of the house.
I have never doubted that in a country like ours any of us has any right to squander or waste, or use unnecessarily money, materials or energy
I don't think I've ever been inspired by what other architects have done but more by what ordinary craftsmen have created.
The legacy Through out his practice, Baker became well known for designing and building low cost, high quality, beautiful homes. His life and work towards humanity and in the architectural field is an effective demonstration of his own strength, his own interpretation of tradition and technology. Baker had no interest in awards and fame. Citizenship of India was the only award he actively pursued in his life.
Baker passed away on 1st April 2007 at his home, ‘The Hamlet’ in Trivandrum. The rightness of his architecture and the harmonious balance between his life and work comes from the way his spirit percolates all activities. It is this spirit that continues to inspire everyone.
The published book A series of illustrations were created for an exhibition conducted to celebrate architect Laurie Baker's birth centenary. These illustrations captured the essence of Laurie Baker's life journey.
They were made for the children of the ‘New English School’ in Pune, India. This series was printed as a book exclusively for the students at this school. The book is printed in Marathi, the local language of Pune.