COST EFFECTIVE AND NATURE

FRIENDLY BUILDING

TECHNIQUES BY LAURIE BAKER!

LAURIE BAKER’S WAY

OF ARCHITECUREREVIEW : 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……

INTRODUCTION

• LAURIE BAKER• PRINCIPLES AND

MOTTO• TECHNIQUES

IN DETAIL• TECHNIQUES• 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 causeOur 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 W. Baker, popularly known as Laurie Baker.

 As the youngest child with two elder brothers 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.

CHILDHOOD…………

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 TOWARDS NATURE

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 Sundays 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’s adventure in architecture started realizing.

Baker has been able to transform the Gandhian philosophy through 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 MASONRY 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 steel is good in tension. Thus RCC slab is a product which resists both compression as well as tensile.

SIMPLY SUPPORTED SLAB CROSS-SECTION.

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 OF FILLER SLAB

BricksTilesCellularConcreteBlocksPotsWaste bottles

FILLER SLABS IN LAURIE’S BUILDINGS………….

LAURIE BAKER BUILDING CENTER, TRIVANDRUM.

COSTFORD, 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 TORSIONAL STRESS IS APPLIED TO THEM.

TYPES OF ARCHES….!!!

CORBEL ARCH FLAT ARCH SEMI-CIRCULAR ARCH SEGMENTAL ARCH

ARCHES IN BUILDINGS

COSTFORD, TRIVANDRUM

THE SALIM ALI CENTRE FOR ORNITHOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY AT ANAIKATTY NEAR COIMBATORE

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, TRIVANDRUM

THE HAMLET, TRIVANDRUM

MANGLORE TILE AS AN INFILL FOR ROOFING!!!!

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.

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 together with horizontal or diagonal battens.

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 , TRIVANDRUM3.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 tables or even beds.

REFERENCES

• http://arch-essays.blogspot.in/2005/01/laurie-baker-living-for-cause.html

• http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-59702003000400012

• http://lauriebaker.net/index.php/life/india-and-gandhiji

THANK YOU !!!

BY SNEGA SEKAR