An architect of British origin, Baker was a widely admired (but imperfectly appreciated) icon of alternative practices of modernity in Indian life, and also gifted with a great sense of humour. Was the departure on 1 April — that had us scrambling for confirmation after the first SMS—his little parting joke?
For over four decades, Laurie Baker has been known for his pioneering practice of cost-effective architecture in Kerala. Famous as the builder of affordable homes for the poor, Baker was (is it already ‘was’?) also a unique creative artist whose originality, technical control and unique sense of whimsy married low-cost construction and high architectural quality. His greatest contribution was in demonstrating that cost-effective and ecologically-sustainable construction does not automatically imply shoddy building techniques and reduced creative freedom. Baker showed, in fact, that sustainable technologies, when adopted with care and creativity, could lead to a unique architectural expression, one capable of moving both the expert and the layman alike.
Born into a Quaker family in Birmingham in 1917, Laurence W. Baker trained as an architect in the same city, and travelled to China as a volunteer in the ambulance service during World War II. On the way back to England in 1945, he passed through India. A chance encounter with Mahatma Gandhi in Mumbai, while he waited for a steamer home, convinced him that his expertise was needed in India. He returned to India within a few months, where he met Elizabeth Jacob, a doctor, whom he married in 1948. For the next 15 years, they lived in a remote village in the hills of Pithoragarh in Uttar Pradesh and ran a hospital. It was only after the couple returned to Elizabeth’s home state Kerala, and specifically to Thiruvananthapuram, in the late 1960s that Baker began a full-fledged practice as an architect. His reputation, thus, is built entirely upon work that he did after his 50th birthday!
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