The Pervious Buildings, Mangoes and Laurie Baker
- Asmie
- Jan 1, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 30, 2020
The last day of 2019 and it started with getting to know amazing works on sustainable designs done by a British architect, Laurie Baker. We left the hotel this morning for the Laurie Baker Center for Habitat Studies where Ar. P B Sajan introduced us to Baker’s life in India and his works unique to the place.
The Laurie Baker Center locates its buildings in Vilappilsala, Thiruvananthapuram. The building premise was organic, and we walked through stone paved walkways to reach the room which was arranged for our lectures. The building we entered had dorm rooms in the ground floor and a classroom with interesting terraces on the first. The footprint was not typical at all, neither were the walls nor roof. This unique building broke monotony in a very playful way; with ramps and stairs, lattice holes in walls, blurred indoor and outdoor spaces, curved rooflines and organic curves used throughout spaces. The whole space was inviting with cool air breezing through the holes in the brick walls (which they called jaali ) and acted as an oasis in the hot morning.
Baker believed that ‘hands-on experience’ on fieldwork for designers was crucial before being involved in supervision and that was how he trained Sajan. Sajan told us about how Baker was encouraged by Mahatma Gandhi to stay in India and to develop a sustainable design suitable to the place. Baker reintroduced the technology used in old churches of England to India when he worked as an architect for Mission to Lepers. He was awarded with honorary Indian citizenship and a gold medal by Royal Institute of Architects. He was also nominated for the Pritzker Award on the year he passed away. St. John’s Cathedral which has a unique climate responsive design was one of the major contributions of Baker to Kerala’s architectural beauties. Another major work of the architect in Kerala was the slum renovation projects in the city of Trivandrum. Center of Science and Technology for Rural Development (COSTFORD), which was founded by Baker along with three of his friends has contributed to build more than 25,000 houses for Economically Weaker Section, more than 2,000 for tribal groups and more than 3,000 for Lower Income Group. Although it was a pathway with lots of hurdles, COSTFORD, which worked on providing sustainable low-cost buildings to people, was able to be recognized as accredited firm for governmental works.
After listening to the inspiring story of Laurie Baker, we took a lecture from Dr. K P Kannan, who is a leading economist in India. He told us about the second generation problems that Kerala is facing at the time despite being a progressive state when compared to other states of the country. There are issues like unemployment, low industrialization and more regenerative health problems. But nonetheless, Kerala has been moving forward with much needed positive changes in women empowerment and decentralized governance.
We went to visit Center for Development Studies at Prashanth Nagar. The buildings were designed by Laurie Baker and feature styles and structural patterns similar to LBC with lattice walls, gable windows, mangoor tiles and beautiful landscapes. After the visit I came back to my room to find my roommate Tuna. She had finally arrived after a sequence of flight delays because of Delhi weather. We went to a beach hotel near Kovalam beach where I met the sea for the first time – a perfect start to the new year.
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